Maintaining Self Esteem

The question that is asked every year about the story of Yosef and his brothers, is why Yakov was not notified earlier that Yosef was still alive. It took nine years until he was reunited with his beloved son.

A traditional answer that is given is that for some mystical reason, it was important that Yosef see his dreams fulfilled. This is difficult to understand.

Rabbi Twerski suggests that this delay was necessary in order to preserve the self esteem of the brothers. Had Yakov been told immediately about Yosef’s appointment, the brothers would have been exposed for their treacherous act of selling their brother.

The brothers were able to show their sincere remorse for their sin. And they proved this when Yosef showed favoritism to Binyamin, and there was no jealousy.

We cannot minimize the importance of helping maintain one’s self esteem. Rabbi Twerski maintained that self esteem is a major component of a healthy personality. It was important enough to delay Yakov’s reunion with Yosef by nine years.