[Avodah] "Ha'od Avi Chai?"

[Zvi Lampel]

>
>
> From: Zev Sero <zev at sero.name>
>
> Why didn't Yosef also ask about his grandfather? ... To the best of his
> knowledge Yitzchak might well still be
> alive, so why no mention of him? ...
>
> This is answered according to the approach (I posted back in 2006) that
Yosef was afraid that his father may have agreed with his sons that for his
own good he needed to be sent to golus. (After all, the last two things we
are told about their relationship is is that when Yosef reported his second
dream, ''Vayigar bo aviv,'' [and Yosef was not a mind reader to know
''v'aviv shamar ess hadavar], and that Yaakov sent Yosef out to his
brothers [why? to protect them?], who sent Yosef to golus.) And now, after
all these years, Yaakov did not order his sons to find Yosef and bring him
home.

Yosef did not know his father thought he was killed by an animal.

So either Yaakov was in on it (and it would have been pointless for Yosef
to send a letter home, and a chutzpa for him to report that he became
Viceory of Egypt), or...Yaakov was no longer alive.

This is why Yosef was so concerned particularly about whether his father
was still alive, and asked about his welfare every time his brothers came
to him.

Zvi Lampel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20201222/d3006e8e/attachment-0001.htm>