פרשת ויחי
This week’s Parsha describes the final moments of Yaakov Avinu’s astonishing life and the blessings which he gave to his children and grandchildren right before he passed away. One of the things Yaakov made a point of doing before his demise, was to ensure that Yosef would not take the opportunity to harm his brothers in revenge for their sale of him when Yaakov was no longer around. However, the Torah testifies about Yosef that such precautions were not necessary, because Yosef himself had no intention to exact retribution on his brothers, and had completely forgiven them for what they had done to him. The verse in which Yosef describes his sentiments to his brothers states, “Why should I harm you? Am I in the place of God? You thought to do bad to me, but Hashem intended for good to come out if it all”. The simple understanding of these verses is that Yosef was telling his brothers since everything worked out for the best, and ultimately I was able to save everyone’s life thanks to your sale of me, why should I be mad at you? While this understanding is certainly correct, Onkelos translates these words a little differently. Onkelos translates the words, “Am I in the place of God?” – “Why should I hurt you when I fear God?” I would like to explain why Onkelos felt the need to add this detail. Why was the simple understanding not sufficient to explain Yosef’s intent to his brothers?
R’ Chaim Kamil, the former Rosh Yeshiva of the Ofakim Yeshiva elucidates that both of these explanations are needed in order to properly understand this verse. He begins by saying that Yosef wanted to pacify his brothers by setting their mind at ease about two points. Firstly, it would not be logical for him to harm them, since at the end of the day, it was specifically the events which they had set in motion which led to everybody’s salvation. And secondly, he would never damage them because he possessed a deep fear of Heaven which would not allow him to do this. But he explains beautifully that when a person doesn’t have fear of Heaven, all the logic in the world will not prevent him from sinning. Logic is only helpful during a time when a person is sitting in a room, and has a chance to contemplate his situation. But the minute a person is put to the test, and his passions are aroused, all the logic in the world will not help him to keep his desires in check, and only fear of Heaven will be effective in helping him circumvent sin.
Parenthetically, we could ask on R’ Chaim, while we see that fear is needed in addition to logic, why wouldn’t fear alone be enough according to our previous analysis? To explain this, perhaps we could employ the Orchos Tzadikim. The Orchos Tzadikim says that if a person has not perfected his character traits, even fear of sin will not be strong enough to curtail one’s desires because if a person has not mastered his personality, even though he fears Heaven, his desires will persuade him to come to irrational conclusions, and he will end up doing the wrong thing, i.e. sinning. He compares fear of Heaven to a string, and good character traits to the pearls that one places on that string to make a necklace. Without the string, all the pearls will be scattered across the floor, but without the pearls, the necklace seems somewhat bare. Both are necessary to create a complete human being. In conclusion, even if Yosef had mastered his fear of Heaven, had he not developed his sense of logic and objective morality, he still could have come to the wrong conclusion and harmed his brothers.
While Onkelos’s two explanations come out very nicely according to R’ Chaim, I believe that there is another commentary who explains Onkelos slightly differently. Rashi teaches us that when a person understands what fear of Heaven truly is, one realizes that a person who possesses it could never come to sin. Yosef told his brothers, “You see that you intended for bad to happen to me and only good came out of it”. Yosef was explaining to them that a human being is completely powerless to do anything against the will of God, and this being true, they have nothing to be concerned about. The Gemorah in Megillah says that Yosef gave the brothers a parable. He expounded, “if twelve flames cannot extinguish one flame, then certainly one flame will not be able to extinguish twelve flames”. When a person comes to the realization that nothing can happen in this world without God’s permission, he has reached a state of true fear of Heaven, and it will be difficult for him to sin, because he will realize that just as the events of this earth are in God’s hands, so is he. When a person truly understands that all of his strength comes from Hashem, he could never use that strength to go against Him. Perhaps we could compare this to a father who saves up his money so that he could buy his son the baseball bat that he had wanted for some time, and when he finally buys it, and brings it to his son with the biggest smile, his son takes that bat and smashes his father in the head.
The first RM”A in the Shulchan Aruch alludes to this principle when he says that when a person contemplates the fact that Hashem’s glory fills the entire universe, this knowledge will immediately have a deep impact on all his actions, because a person does not act the same way he does alone in his house as he does when he is in front of the king. This knowledge of Hashem’s sovereignty will lead a person to a deep sense of humility, when he realizes his place in this universe, and humility is the primary component necessary to distance oneself from sin.
The Sefer Hachinuch counts the Mitzvah of fear of Heaven as one of the 613 Mitzvos and he explains that a person is required to foster a deep fear of Heaven which is constantly in his consciousness and will prevent him from sin. However, the Chinuch adds that although this awareness must be constantly present in the perception of every Jew, there is a special Mitzvah to awaken oneself to this realization when he is presented with a temptation for sin. In these moments, a Jew has a particular responsibility to contemplate and arouse his fear of Heaven so that he can emerge victorious against his enticement.
Perhaps we could conclude with the Midrash Yalkut, (Beshalach 227). The Midrash says that Yosef’s coffin traveled along with the Aron Kodesh because the Aron contained the Luchos which say, “I am the Lord your God”, and Yosef said to his brothers, “Am I in the place of God?” Based on what we have explained, the connection between the two is readily apparent. Yosef was completely conscious of the fact that Hashem runs every aspect of the world, and therefore subjugated all of his actions to Him. This awareness is exactly what Hashem wanted when he commanded in the first commandment, “I am the lord your God”, and so who would be more fitting then Yosef to travel alongside the Aron?
May we all merit to recognize Hashem in every aspect of our lives, and subdue ourselves to His will!