Honesty and Yosef and His Brothers

The second commentary from yesterday is an unusual one regarding Yosef’s revealing himself to his brothers.

When Yehuda made his big speech to Yosef, and told him how he personally guaranteed the safe return of Binyamin, Yosef was not moved. When he continued and told Yosef about the special attachment between Binyamin and Yakov, (ונפשו קשורה בנפשו) Yosef had heard enough.

When the the Torah said, ולא יכול יוסף להתאפק, that Yosef could no longer hold back, it meant the following:

Yosef said, “I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?” In essence, he was saying to Yehuda to stop with the hypocrisy and drama.

If you cared so much about your father, you never would have sold me in the first place! This was the real rebuke. Own up to your sin and show real remorse, and then we can move on and make amends. Flowery speeches won’t do it. Honesty and sincere Teshuva will pave the way to heal and start fresh.

Another take on probably the most emotion packed Parsha in the Torah.