[Avodah] Fables and Lies

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 12:49:24AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: Rabbi Frand got these ideas from the Sfas Emes. His point seems to be
: that the kaparos suffered by the Ten Martyrs could have been avoided,
: if Yosef would have given his brothers their full due. But "Yosef could
: not endure it any longer", and he revealed himself sooner than he could
: have, leaving a bit more to be taken care of at some future date.

I don't find this notion very satisfying. The punishment seems way out
of proportion of what's left of the crime.

And, as I noted before, even Shaar haGilgulim doesn't identify the
harugei malkhus as gilgulim of the brothers. So it's not completing
their punishment, since it's coming to the wrong people. Was Yosef's
neshamah's enduring the torture as R Yishmael kohein gadol punishment
for not doing his job in punishing his brothers?

I was taught (somewhere in my childhood) that Yoseif relented because
he saw the brothers had done teshuvah. After all, here was Binyamin,
another son of Rachel, who had just gotten better treatment than them --
a gift 5 times their size from the viceroy in Egypt. But unlike last time,
rather than their jealousy taking over, Yehudah places Binyamin ahead
of his own welfare. And the language used, "aval asheimim anachnu",
is the template for a key element of vidui.
<http://www.aishdas.org/10YemeiTeshuvah.pdf> pg 26-28.

According to this, why should anyone be punished after the teshuvah?

(RJSachs, the CR of the UK, suggests that this teshuvah was a critical
preparation for galus Mitzrayim. That straying while in Mitzrayim was
inevitable, and without having learned the art of teshuvah, all would
have been lost.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
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http://www.aishdas.org                       - R' Zelig Pliskin
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