Parshas Vayigash
1. It has already been said many times that Rashi, in his commentary on the Torah, addresses every question and difficulty that can be raised in studying the plain meaning of Scripture1. In places where we do not find Rashi explaining a difficult point in a verse, this proves that he has already addressed it in an earlier comment (or that, to begin with, it is no difficulty at all when studying according to the plain meaning).
Accordingly, we need to understand the following in our parsha. In the account2 of how Yosef made himself known to his brothers, the verse relates that Yosef said to them, "אני יוסף העוד אבי חי" ("I am Yosef; is my father still alive?")3. At once the question arises (as several commentators on the Torah indeed ask):
The content of the parsha up to this point concerns Yehudah's words to Yosef: how Yaakov had not wanted to send Binyamin to Egypt (out of concern that "ועזב את אביו ומת" ("should he leave his father, he would die")4), and how Yehudah feared that if Yosef detained Binyamin, Yaakov would not survive it — "והיה כראותו כי אין הנער ומת" ("And it will come to pass, when he sees that the lad is not there, that he will die")5. Yosef heard all these words, and they moved him until "ולא יכול יוסף להתאפק וגו'" ("And Yosef could not restrain himself, etc.")2. How, then, after all this, does he only now ask, "Is my father still alive?"
We also need to understand: we do not find that Yosef waited for an answer6 from his brothers to the question "Is my father still alive?" As soon as he saw that "ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אותו כי נבהלו מפניו" ("And his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified before him")7, he went on speaking to them — "ויאמר וגו' גשו נא אלי . . ויאמר אני יוסף וגו'" ("And he said… 'Come close to me, please' . . . and he said, 'I am Yosef…'") — and told them how he had become ruler over the entire land of Egypt, concluding with "מהרו ועלו אל אבי וגו'" ("Hurry and go up to my father…") and bringing him to Egypt8.
We must therefore say that Yosef certainly knew that his father was alive, and that the words "Is my father still alive?" carry a different meaning.
2. The Abarbanel9 explains that Yosef asked this (not to make sure that Yaakov was still alive, but rather) "כדי להכנס עמהם בדברים" ("in order to enter into conversation with them"). Knowing that the brothers would be put to shame when he told them "I am Yosef," he looked for a way to speak about other matters as well. The first matter was their father (and he intended to ask about the other members of the family as well, etc., but it never came to that, because "his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified before him").
Accordingly, one could say that Rashi, too, understands the plain meaning of the verse this way, and he does not need to write it explicitly because he has already explained something similar earlier — on the verse10 "ויאמר לו איכה" ("And He said to him, 'Where are you?'"): "איכה, יודע היה היכן הוא אלא ליכנס עמו בדברים שלא יהא נבהל להשיב כו'" ("'Where are you?' — He knew where he was, but [asked] in order to enter into conversation with him, so that he would not be too terrified to answer, etc."). Similarly, on the verse11 "אי הבל אחיך" ("Where is Hevel your brother?"): "להכנס עמו בדברי נחת כו'" ("to enter into gentle conversation with him, etc."). Here, Rashi relies on his commentary on those verses.
However, this explanation does not fit entirely smoothly in our case. After Yehudah's lengthy speech about the effect that Binyamin's detention in Egypt would have on Yaakov, Yosef did not need to ask "Is my father still alive?" in order to enter into conversation; he could have begun straightaway by asking about their families, and so on.
3. Seemingly, one could answer that the phrase "העוד אבי חי" (with a hei) is not a question (whether "my father is alive"), but an expression of wonder — as Rashi has already explained several times, for example on "השומר אחי אנכי" ("Am I my brother's keeper?")11: "לשון תימה הוא" ("It is an expression of wonder"), and elsewhere12. So too in our case: Yosef was astonished and amazed that "my father is still alive."
(The only difference is that in the example cited above (and in most places), the wonder negates the matter and what one might have thought — Kayin held that he was not "my brother's keeper." In our case, by contrast, the wonder affirms the fact: Yosef knows that Yaakov is still alive, but this arouses wonder in him. As Rashi has already explained earlier (on the verse13 "הלבן מאה שנה יולד" ("Shall a child be born to one who is a hundred years old?")): "יש תמיהות שהן קיימות" ("There are expressions of wonder that affirm [the matter]").)
But we need to understand14:
a) Yaakov was then "שלשים ומאת שנה" ("one hundred and thirty years") old15 (much less than the years of Avraham and Yitzchak16). What, then, is so wondrous about "Is my father still alive?"
b) Most importantly: what connection does this have to the opening of his words, "I am Yosef"?
c) Why, in general, did Yosef tell his brothers of his wonder — and do so at the very moment he made himself known to them: "I am Yosef; is my father still alive?"
(If it were a question, it would be understandable: on the contrary, what mattered to him most was to know about his father, and therefore he immediately asked them, "Is my father still alive?" But if he knew that Yaakov was alive, and "Is my father still alive?" is merely an expression of wonder, as explained above — why was it necessary to express it right then, when he told them "I am Yosef"?)
4. The explanation of this, according to the plain meaning, is as follows:
Rashi has already explained earlier — on the verse17 "וימאן להתנחם" ("And he refused to be comforted") — that "אין אדם מקבל תנחומין על החי וסבור שמת, שעל המת נגזרה גזירה שישתכח מן הלב ולא על החי" ("A person does not accept consolation for one who is alive but believed to be dead, for it was decreed concerning the dead that they be forgotten from the heart, but not concerning the living"). Therefore, "ויתאבל (יעקב) על בנו ימים רבים" ("And [Yaakov] mourned for his son many days")18.
And this is what Yosef said to his brothers: "I am Yosef — (and consequently the wonder arises:) is my father still alive?!"19 Since "I am Yosef" — Yosef is alive — it follows that for twenty-two years in a row Yaakov mourned for him. Moreover, this was a mourning that came on top of a love greater than "מכל בניו" ("than all his sons")20 — an appalling anguish, utterly out of the ordinary. It is therefore the greatest wonder that Yaakov endures such great anguish21 for many years and is still alive.
This also makes it understandable why Yosef had to voice this wonder to his brothers: it is an introduction to his subsequent emphasis on the urgency22 of bringing Yaakov to Egypt:
The urgency is not only "Hurry and go up to my father…"23 — letting Yaakov know as soon as possible the good tidings that Yosef is still alive (so that he will consequently stop mourning for him) — but also "רדה אלי אל תעמוד" ("Come down to me, do not delay")23, and "ומהרתם והורדתם את אבי הנה" ("And you shall hurry and bring my father down here")24. For this is a matter of danger to life: after such anguish — even after "ותחי רוח יעקב" ("the spirit of Yaakov was revived")25 through the tidings "עוד יוסף בני חי" ("Yosef my son is still alive") — the "אלכה ואראנו" ("I will go and see him") must also happen with haste.
5. On this basis we will also understand Yosef's lengthy wording: before telling the tribes "Hurry and go up to my father…," he repeated three times, "למחיה שלחני אלקים לפניכם" ("For the preservation of life G‑d sent me before you"), "וישלחני אלקים לפניכם וגו'" ("G‑d sent me before you…"), and "לא אתם שלחתם אותי הנה כי האלקים וגו'" ("It was not you who sent me here, but G‑d…")26:
Since every moment that Yaakov does not meet and see Yosef involves a concern of danger to life, the question arises: how could Yosef content himself with telling the tribes "Hurry and go up to my father…," that they should go to Eretz Yisrael and bring Yaakov from there to Egypt? He should have immediately gone himself, with haste, to Eretz Yisrael to see Yaakov, for [in addition to the fact that, because of the mitzvah of honoring one's father, he should have gone to Yaakov (in the first place), especially since it had to be done with great haste and Yaakov was already elderly27] that way it would have happened much sooner.
Yosef answered this by prefacing, with emphasis — several times — that his being in Egypt is (not by his choice and will, but rather) "G‑d sent me": he is on a mission from the Holy One, blessed be He, to be "המשביר (בר) לכל עם הארץ" ("the one who supplies [grain] to all the people of the land")28, and consequently he has no permission to leave.
6. There is another aspect to the necessity of "Hurry and go up to my father…":
Rashi has already explained earlier29 that Yaakov's mourning for his son Yosef corresponds to the twenty-two years during which Yaakov did not fulfill the mitzvah of honoring his father and mother. Therefore, knowing that the twenty-two years of Yaakov's punishment had ended, Yosef demanded of the tribes, "Hurry and go up to my father…": since the time of the punishment had ended, it must be that "לא עכבם אפילו כהרף עין" ("He did not delay them even for the blink of an eye")30.
[In light of this, it is even better understood why Yosef said "Hurry and go up to my father" — and not "our father." For (in addition to the fact that Yaakov's anguish was connected with Yosef) he thereby hinted to them that the urgency is connected with his, Yosef's, being able to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring his father ("my father"), since the twenty-two years of punishment for Yaakov not having fulfilled the mitzvah of honoring his own father had already passed.]
From this we also derive a lesson in the service of G‑d:
At times one must make use of a mode of "שמאל דוחה" ("the left hand pushes away")31 — severity and punishment. But one must know that this demands extra caution not to use this attribute more than necessary. As soon as the moment comes when pushing away and severity are no longer required, one must act, with haste, along the line of kindness and drawing close — "ימין מקרבת" ("the right hand draws close").
(From the sichos of Shabbos Parshas Vayigash 5734)
Notes
1) For in places where (Rashi) has no explanation according to the plain meaning — even though there is an explanation according to the derash — he writes "I do not know" or the like (cited in Likkutei Sichos vol. 5, p. 1, note 2, and in the gloss there).
2) 45:1 ff.
3) Ibid., 3.
4) 44:22.
5) Ibid., 31.
6) One cannot say that they did answer, but the verse simply did not spell out their answer (similar to how the verse does not spell out, in its place, Yosef's question "Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?" (Mikeitz 43:7), "Do you have a father or a brother?" (our parsha 44:19)) — for it states explicitly, "His brothers could not answer him."
7) 45:3 ff.
8) It is therefore forced to explain (as do the commentary of the Ralbag [OCR reads "Radbag"], Kli Yakar, and [OCR unclear: "והיפ."]; and similarly Pnei Dovid by the Chida) that Yosef worried that they had said this only to obtain what they wanted — the return of Binyamin — in the manner of what Rashi says above (44:20): "And his brother is dead — because he was afraid, he uttered a falsehood, etc." (and Yosef knew that this was false). Most importantly: he had already asked them, "Is your father well… is he still alive?" and they had answered him, "[Your servant our father is] well… he is still alive" (Mikeitz 43:27–28), and at that time they had no reason whatsoever to lie.
9) And similarly in the Tur HaAroch here (manuscript [OCR unclear: "הג'"]).
10) Bereishis 3:9.
11) Ibid. 4:9.
12) Rashi, Vayeira 18:25; Toldos 27:36; ibid., 38; Vayeitzei 29:15; and elsewhere.
13) Lech Lecha 17:17 (see Re'em and others there). It requires a bit of investigation why Rashi needed to bring examples from the Prophets and did not bring the verse here — but in any case it is difficult why he did not bring what is stated before it, Bereishis 3:11, as Rashi explains there, "as a question of wonder" (see his commentators there). This is not the place to elaborate.
14) In addition to the question — in the language of our Sages (Megillah 28a, end) — "[He] asked… 'By what merit have you lived so long?' He said to him… [OCR unclear: "קצת בחיי"]."
15) Our parsha 47:9.
16) 175 years (Chayei Sarah 25:7) and 180 years (Vayishlach 35:28). Note Rashi, Toldos 26:2. See also below, p. 463, note 38.
17) Vayeishev 37:35.
18) Ibid., 34.
19) See also Shach on the Torah here.
20) Vayeishev 37:3.
21) See also Sforno, Tzror HaMor, and others here.
22) See also Akeidas Yitzchak here.
23) 45:9.
24) Ibid., 13.
25) Ibid., 27–28.
26) Ibid., 5–8.
27) Mikeitz 43:27; our parsha 44:20; and elsewhere.
28) Mikeitz 42:6.
29) Vayeishev, ibid. Old Rashi edition, end of Parshas Toldos.
30) See Rashi (from the Mechilta) on Bo 12:41.
31) Sotah 47a; Sanhedrin 107b; Hilchos Talmud Torah of the Alter Rebbe, ch. 4, par. 17.
Key Lesson
Yosef's astonishment that his father had survived twenty-two years of anguish led him to stress the urgency of ending that suffering as soon as its time was over. So too in our service of G‑d: when severity and "pushing away" are needed, they must not exceed what is necessary, and the moment they are no longer required, one must hurry to act with kindness and draw others close.