[Avodah] "VaYakom Melekh Hadash al Mitzrayim..." Self-hatred

[Michael Makovi]

>> "I personally think it was a new king. I see no way to explain how the
>> old king suddenly rose against Yosef like this. Even evil gentile
>> kings, don't usually have a Jew put in second-in-command and then turn
>> on his people a year later."

> If you look at history, you'll see that's not true.  Also, some of the
> m'forshim explain that the Egyptian people pressured the king and said
> that he would be deposed if he didn't turn against the Jews so he
> bowed to pressure, which could also explain the seemingly incongruity.

To take an example: Abarbanel was offered a personal exemption from
the Expulsion. Apparently, even gentile rulers are not so liable to
un-friend a beloved Jew. The rest of the Jews, maybe. But Yosef
himself? No.

>> "Rabbi Joseph Telushkin asks, how on earth could this new pharaoh not
>> know Yosef? He compares it to if a president of the US arose who
>> didn't know George Washington."

>The comparison of the then Egypt and the U.S. is an invalid
>comparison. The two forms of government are like night and day.

It's not davka US. The point is, for Yosef to be unknown to the king,
implies a dramatic shift in rule. Whether "did not know" is literal or
figurative, the point is that for the new pharaoh to not appreciate
Yosef, implies a dramatic change.


>> "The Torah doesn't need to say that the old king died."

> You're correct; it doesn't need to. But the fact that this king was
> such a friend to the Jews would have been derech eretz and kovod
> habriyos to mention his death.

Maybe. But I think it is implied in the fact that a new king arose.

Mikha'el Makovi