[Avodah] RSRH on Consoling Someone

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Yitzchok Levine _Larry.Levine at stevens.edu_ 
(mailto:Larry.Levine at stevens.edu) 

[quoting  RSRH]: >> But why didn't any of them attempt to sprinkle soothing 
balm  upon
the wound? Why didn't they reveal to him: "Yosef is alive!"? The  answer:
because that would have been the greatest cruelty of all. In the  minds
of parents, a child who was torn by wild beasts is never lost, but a  child
who is wicked is worse than lost. Therefore, he who would not  aggravate
the father's grief a thousandfold would have to remain silent until  the
day when Yosef would return and the joy of the reunion would  mitigate
in the father's mind even the crime that had been committed by  his
other sons. Had they told Ya'akov at that time the truth about  what
had been done to Yosef, Ya'akov would have felt as though he had  lost
not only one son, but ten sons at one time. <<


 
>>>>
There is some support for this reading in the words  of Rivkah to her son 
Ya'akov when she told him to run away because Esav was  plotting to kill him.  
"Hineh Esav achicha misnachem lecha  lehorgecha....LAMAH ESHKAL GAM SHENEICHEM 
BEYOM ECHAD?" (Ber.  27:42-45)
 
IOW, if one of her sons kills the other one, she will be bereaved of both  of 
them, because a murderer cannot be any son of Rivkah's anymore.
 
Rashi understands this pasuk differently, saying that Rivka will be  bereaved 
of both sons on the same day because if Esav attacks Yakov, Yakov will  
defend himself and they will end up killing each other.  But it seems to me  that 
an equally natural (if not so literal) reading of "bereaved of both sons"  is 
one that understands bereavement to be an emotional state, in which one son  is 
lost to his mother because of his death and the other is lost to  his mother 
because of his unforgivable crime.  (He would not be lost to his  father, 
because he explicitly stated that he would not kill Yakov  while their father was 
still alive.)



--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't read the  newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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