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Why does Yosef warn his brothers not to quarrel on the journey home when they had already taken full responsibility for selling him? True repentance requires more than saying "I made a mistake"—it demands facing the despicable nature of one's actions. This insight also explains why King Dovid's flawed ancestry was essential for leadership.
Rabbi Zweig opens with a profound question: how can decent people who achieve success, money, or power avoid being transformed into arrogant, impossible individuals? He explores this through several textual difficulties in Parshas Vayigash. The first question concerns the list of the seventy souls who descended to Egypt. When listing Yehuda's children, the Torah (תורה) mentions five sons—Er, Onan, Shelah, Peretz, and Zerach—yet explicitly states that Er and Onan had already died in Canaan years earlier. Why include them in a list of those who went down to Egypt, rather than simply listing the three who actually made the journey? The second question involves an apparent contradiction in Yosef's behavior. In the previous parsha, when the brothers first came to Egypt and Yosef (unrecognized) accused them of being spies, they took full responsibility for their sale of Yosef: "We are guilty concerning our brother...therefore this distress has come upon us" (42:21). They showed complete contrition with no recriminations against each other. Yet in this week's parsha, after Yosef reveals himself and everything is resolved positively, he warns them: "Do not quarrel on the way" (45:24). Rashi (רש"י) explains that Yosef feared they would argue and blame each other for the sale. But why would Yosef suspect recriminations now, when things were going well, if he had already witnessed them taking collective responsibility when their situation looked dire?
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Bereishis 45:24, 42:21, 46:8-12
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