[Avodah] Yosef and his brothers

[T613K at aol.com]

>>This reminds me of something striking that I always think about  this time  
of 
year, when we read the whole Yosef story. That  is, when Yosef is set upon by 
 
his brothers, put in a pit, and then  sold -- the Torah doesn't say a peep  
about  how Yosef reacted  to all this at the time, whether he said anything, 
fought back  or what.  He's just -- silent.  The emotional tone of the  sale  
is 
flat. <<[--TK]



RRW then wrote:


>>Mikketz 42:21 "behischaneno eileinu.." 

There IS a  brief mention of Yosef's emotions as reported by the guilt-ridden 
brothers  during their recollection of the event.<<


>>>>>>
That was the exact point of my post, which maybe I didn't make sufficiently  
clear.  AT THE TIME of the sale, the emotional tone is flat, numb -- which  is 
apparently how the brothers made themselves feel at the time they sold their  
brother.  The heartwrenching "ra'inu tzaras nafsho behischan'no eileinu" --  
the pleading and crying, the sorrow and the guilt -- only show up (in the text 
 and in the brothers' memories) years later, when the brothers are standing  
before Yosef in Egypt.  It is only then that the brothers feel the emotion  in 
retrospect that they didn't feel (or didn't let themselves feel) at the time  
of the sale, and it is also only then that we, the readers, feel the  emotion.


--Toby  Katz
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