Also known as Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers
אני יוסף
Yosef reveals himself to the brothers who sold him and asks them not to be distressed.
The story
Yosef could not hold himself back in front of everyone standing around him. He called for everyone to be sent out, and no one stood with him as he made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and Pharaoh’s household heard.
וְלֹא־יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק
Bereshit 45:1
Yosef told his brothers who he was, and asked whether his father was still alive. His brothers could not answer him, because they were stunned and shaken in his presence. Then he said, “Come close to me, please,” and they came close. “I am Yosef, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.”
Yosef said to them, “Now, do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here. God sent me ahead of you to keep you alive. It was not you who sent me here, but God.”
וְעַתָּה אַל־תֵּעָצְבוּ וְאַל־יִחַר בְּעֵינֵיכֶם
Bereshit 45:5
Yosef told his brothers to hurry to his father with his message: “God has made me master of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay.” He added that his father would live in Goshen, near him, with his children, grandchildren and all he had, and promised to provide for him there through five more years of famine.
וְהָיִיתָ קָרוֹב אֵלַי
Bereshit 45:10
Yosef fell on the neck of his brother Binyamin and wept, and Binyamin wept on his neck. Then he kissed all his brothers and wept. After that, his brothers spoke with him. The Torah does not say what they said.
Yosef said to his brothers, “I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?” And his brothers could not answer him, for they were stunned and shaken in his presence.
Words from the verse
הַעוֹדis … still?
נִבְהֲלוּwere stunned, shaken
What it teaches: Forgiveness
Letting go of anger towards someone who hurt you, and starting afresh.
Yosef asks his brothers to come close, and tells them plainly that they sold him into Egypt. Right after that he asks them not to be distressed or angry about it, and promises to provide for the whole family. The Torah teaches that forgiveness does not pretend nothing happened, and still chooses to draw the other person close.
A question to sit with
When someone who hurt you cannot find the words, what might help them come close to you again?
Questions about the story
What did the brothers do when Yosef told them who he was?
They asked him for forgiveness
They could not answer him
They told him his father was alive
Answer
b. They could not answer him
The Torah tells us his brothers could not answer him, because they were stunned and shaken in his presence. At this point it does not give a single word from them.
What did Yosef ask of his brothers after saying they had sold him?
That they ask their father’s forgiveness
That they tell no one what they did
That they not be distressed or angry
Answer
c. That they not be distressed or angry
Yosef said, “Do not be distressed or angry that you sold me here,” and explained that God sent him ahead of them to keep them alive.
The lesson
Someone who truly forgives cares even about the pain of the one who hurt them.
For this week
If there is someone close you have already forgiven in your heart, try telling them in words this week that all is well between you.
From the sources
Rashi explains what opened the brothers’ mouths. At first, he says, “they were ashamed before him,” and they spoke with him “once they saw him weeping, and his heart whole with them.” In his reading, shame held them back until they saw that Yosef was weeping and that his heart was whole with them.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
