Miketz 5766
A Cause for Celebration
Towards the end of Parashat Miketz, we read that Yosef and his brothers (before he had revealed his identity to them) ate together in his home in Egypt, and the Torah writes, "Va'yishtu Va'yishkeru Imo" – "They drank and became intoxicated with him" (Bereishit 43:34). The Midrash informs us that this was the first time that Yosef or his brothers had drunk wine since they sold him into slavery. Yosef had not drunk wine because of his situation of distress, being separated from his family, and the brothers abstained from wine out of a sense of guilt for having mistreated their brother. Only now, for the first time in twenty-two years, did Yosef and his brothers drink wine.
The work "Yismach Yisrael" raises the question of why the brothers suddenly permitted themselves to drink wine at this point. Yosef understandably had reason to celebrate, having been reunited with his brothers after all these years. The brothers, however, were still entirely unaware that the Egyptian with whom they had been dealing was Yosef. Why, then, did they decide to end their period of abstention from wine? What happened there in Egypt that gave them cause for celebration?
The "Yismach Yisrael" answers that for the last twenty-two years, the brothers had worked on overcoming their tendency towards jealousy. Clearly, what happened between Yosef and his brothers was not simply an ordinary case of sibling rivalry and petty jealousy among brothers. The brothers genuinely perceived Yosef as a threat and decided on the basis of Halacha that he had to be removed from the family. Nevertheless, they acknowledged a trace of jealousy within their characters that motivated them to act as they did. Regretful for having succumbed to their feelings of envy, the brothers devoted themselves after the sale to correcting this flaw in their characters, to defeating their jealous instinct.
When the brothers brought Binyamin to Egypt (as Yosef had demanded) and met once again with Yosef, Yosef gave each of them a gift, giving Binyamin a gift worth five times the value of what the others received. The "Yismach Yisrael" writes that the brothers harbored no feelings of jealousy towards Binyamin despite the favoritism he enjoyed. Even though he received much more than they had, they felt no envy and were not at all disturbed by Binyamin's special treatment. This, indeed, was cause for celebration. After twenty-two years of work trying to overcome their jealous instincts, they finally experienced firsthand the successful results of their efforts, and so they celebrated.
Rav Yisrael Salanter is quoted as remarking that changing a single character trait is more difficult that studying the entire Talmud. A person who completes the study of even a single tractate of Talmud conducts a Siyum, a special meal to celebrate his accomplishment. All the more so, then, is success in Tikun Ha'midot – correcting a character flaw – cause for celebration.
We all work at improving ourselves and our characters. It is important to remember that the twelve righteous Tribes of Israel spent twenty-two years working to correct the one flaw of jealousy. Character refinement is a lifelong process. We live in a culture that demands instant results; we have instant food, instant copy machines, instant electronic mail, etc. Today, people expect everything to occur quickly and yield immediate results. We must remember that character improvement takes many years. When we see in ourselves even partial growth and success, we should rejoice and celebrate. And when we fail, when we find ourselves losing our temper despite our efforts to control it and restrain our anger, we mustn't be disheartened. In this endeavor of character improvement, there are no instant results. We must work on ourselves patiently and diligently, and feel satisfaction over even modest achievements.
