Vayeshev
When
he reached Shechem, a man came upon him wandering in the fields. The man asked him, “What are you looking
for?” He answered, “I am looking for my
brothers. Could you tell me where they
are pasturing?” The man said, “They have
gone from here…”
37:15
– 17
Scripture
mentions this at length in order to relate that many events befell him which could properly have caused him to return, but he
endured everything patiently for the honor of his father. It also informs us that the Divine decree is
true and man’s industry is worthless.
The Holy One, blessed be He, sent him a guide without his knowledge in
order to bring him into their hands. It is this that our rabbis intended when they
said that these men were angels, for these events did not occur without
purpose…
Ramban
(13th Century)
Since
God did not want to postpone His plan, He assisted Joseph when Joseph left the
beaten trail not having found his brothers in Nablus…Joseph imagined that the
man who he encountered who seemed to know who he was, would certainly know
where his far more famous brothers were…Sometimes God uses the very efforts man
makes to thwart His plans as instruments to advance His plans…The apparently
superfluous words of the angel “they have moved from here,” give rise to the
comment of our sages that they had severed brotherly relations with Joseph…what
the man meant to tell Joseph was that the brothers’ departure itself was far
more relevant than the place they had moved to.
Akedat
Yitzchak (15th Century)
At any
rate, Joseph did not “read between the lines” (of what the angel told him) and
understood the meaning of his words to be simply that they had moved to a place
called Dotan and went in search of that location…
Rabbenu Bachya (13th Century)
Joseph
had to realize that though he might have dreamed something, this did not commit
the characters who appeared in his dream to act in a
predetermined manner and to thereby lose their freedom of choice. Moreover, he might even have erred in his
interpretation of what the events in his dream represented. Seeing that the angel was aware that God
wanted Joseph to end up in
Moshe Alshich (15th Century)
When the
brothers threw Joseph into the pit, the exile began – not just Joseph’s
personal exile from his father’s house and the
Abraham
Isaac Kook (20th Century)
When
Joseph is sold by his brothers, God sent His angel along to protect Joseph on
his various journeys…We have a tradition that when the Jewish people descended
into
Isaiah
Horowitz (16th Century)