Mikeitz: Look Out for your Brother In this week’s Parsha, Yosef conceals his identity from his brothers and uses his power as Pharaoh’s vizier to bring the entire family to Egypt. As part of this plan, Yosef's brothers were imprisoned. After three days all of them were released, but Shimon was kept as a hostage:“Then he herded them into a ward for a three-day period. Yosef said to them on the third day … "Let one of your brothers be imprisoned in your ward house…” (42, 17-19).
The Brisker Rav asks a powerful question on these few sentences. What was the reason that Yosef imprisoned all the brothers, waited three days, and then allowed them to go back and feed their household? Why didn’t he just tell the brothers straightaway that if they left Shimon in the ward, the rest could go back home?
The Brisker Rav answers this question based on a discussion in the Talmud Yerushalmi. A group of people are on a journey when they are waylaid by a group of goyim. The goyim tell these travelers that they must hand over one member of their group, who the goyim will kill. If the travelers don't comply, the goyim say that they will kill everyone.
The Yerushalmi says that this is a case of "Die and do not transgress"-murder is one of the three cardinal sins for which one must choose death rather than transgressing. (The others are illicit relations and serving other gods).
On this basis, the Brisker Rav explains that the brothers couldn’t hand over Shimon, since they thought Yosef would kill him. Instead, they all insisted on staying in the ward together.
So why then did they leave after three days?
The Ramban says that after three days the brothers thought that it might be safe to leave Shimon in the ward. Yosef seemed to be trustworthy- since he hadn't harmed the brothers for three days, they had no reason to think he would kill Shimon after they left. The rest of the brothers could go back to feed their household.
In this way, the Brisker Rav points out that it was never Yosef's plan to keep the brothers in the ward. He only wanted to keep Shimon, but the brothers insisted on all of them staying in the ward rather than leaving one of their own to die. After three days they realized that Yosef wouldn’t kill Shimon and that all he wanted was to keep a hostage so he could force them to bring the younger brother, Binyamin.
There’s a story that happened in the city of Brisk. A Jewish warden accidentally fell asleep on the job. For his negligence he was sentenced to death. Before his execution, they offered him a final wish and he told them that he wanted to say Viduuy (Confession) in front of the Brisker Rav.
Messengers approached the Brisker Rav on Rosh Hashana, moments before Tekias Shofar. They told the Brisker Rav the story of this warden and explained that he had to go to the ward and fulfill this man's final wish. If he refused, the whole town would be destroyed. But the Brisker Rav refused to go.
Later that day, a second group of messengers of higher ranking came. They told the Brisker Rav the same thing and made the same threat. Again, the he refused to go with them. A couple hours later another group of messengers came. They approached a group of townspeople and asked, “Who is the Rav of the town?” The townspeople told the messengers that he had already refused twice. What made them think he would change his mind now? The messengers answered that the Rav was no longer needed in the ward. The warden's death sentence had been pushed off.
After a short while, the people in the town asked the Brisker Rav why he had refused to fulfill this warden’s final wish, especially in the face of a threat to destroy the area. He responded that had he gone to the ward, the warden's final wish would be fulfilled. So the Brisker's visit would have caused this Jew to die and therefore it was forbidden for him to go.
Even though there was a threat to destroy the city, it was still forbidden for the Brisker Rav to go. It would be indirect murder, and subject to the principle of, “Die and do not transgress.”
The Brisker Rav shows us the greatness of the brothers who were willing to sacrifice their own lives rather than give up Shimon. The Brisker Rav himself was willing to die than transgress one of the three cardinal sins.
Hopefully this story can give us strength nowadays to look after our Jewish brothers and follow the examples of our ancestors. |
