[Avodah] yosef and the 10 Martyrs

[Eli Turkel]

from the column of R. Ari Kahn on Aish Hatorah

Rabbenu Bachya cites the famous teaching that the ten martyrs are seen
as a recompense for the sale of Yosef. This theme is found in the
Midrash and has entered into the liturgy of Yom Kippur. Rabbenu Bachya
asks why there were ten martyrs, if only nine brothers were involved
in the sale. Binyamin was at home, Yosef was a victim, and Reuven left
prior to the sale. He suggests that Yosef had some responsibility for
his own plight, having caused the enmity at home, and therefore
atonement for his sins is exacted by the death of a martyr.
Alternatively he suggests that Reuven accounts for the tenth martyr,
as a punishment for Reuven's own peccadillo.

Perhaps we can suggest a different answer: Yosef himself was the tenth
protagonist because he never forgave his brothers completely. He, too,
bore guilt. Had he managed to control himself longer, perhaps he would
have been able to arrive at a point of complete reconciliation. Yet we
see that the brothers and Yosef lived in Egypt together many more
years, and, tragically, they remained afraid of him. Scars from the
sale remained, unhealed, and later generations experienced the wrath
of those unhealed scars of an incomplete family.

-- 
Eli Turkel