Rabbi Aharon Kotler zt’l was once asked how the story of Yosef and his ordeal with the tribes should be related to children. Rabbi Aharon keenly replied, "And how do you relate it to adults?"
    If someone were to ask what the most difficult parshios in the Torah are, one might answer Parshios Tazria and Metzora, for they deal with the intricate laws of Tzara’as with which we are so unfamiliar. Another person might say that Parshas Mishpatim is the most complex because it lists the vast laws of monetary responsibilities and obligations. However, the parshios of Vayeshev, Miketz, and Vayigash are (arguably) the most vague and hidden parshios in the Torah. We read the verses of the Torah that tell us a story that we accept at face value. In truth Chazal expend tremendous effort to explain what really occurred between Yosef and the brothers. However we hold onto our childish notions and naïve understandings of our perceptions. When I was in eighth grade I was speaking to my second grade Rebbe (with whom I retained a connection) and he commented that it takes a lifetime to undo the childish pictures we have of the stories of the Torah that we learned in our youth. It’s hard to eradicate the images of the Maccabees standing on top of the mountains with bulging muscles and a powerful army poised to vanquish the Greek forces. The pictures painted in our minds of Avrohom arguing with his father Terach claiming that the big television smashed the little televisions or of Eisav holding a bow and arrow running after Yaakov who had long curly payos remain with us even years later. No different is the immature understanding we have of the brothers’ confrontation with Yosef that we dismiss as being mere sibling rivalry because their father showed one son added favoritism, Heaven forbid.
    Picture the following story: Yasir Arafat has a very disturbing dream. He is bothered to no end by the dream and he calls in all his Moslem advisors but none can give him a satisfactory interpretation. Then one of the chief advisors remembers that there is a forsaken Jew in the lowest prison of the P.L.O. who knows how to interpret dreams. The Jew was thrown into jail years earlier for attempting to seduce the wife of one of his chief executives. He is pulled out of the prison and brought before Mr. Arafat and is able to explain to him the significance of his dream. The next thing you know the Jew becomes vice president of the P.L.O. and second in command to Mr. Arafat. It’s a pretty crazy story and hard to believe that anything like that could ever occur. Yet this story is not that much different from what transpired to Yosef. The pasuk states that when the brothers came down to Egypt, Yosef could not eat with them because it was repulsive for an Egyptian to eat with a Jew. So it is obvious that the Jews were regarded as vastly inferior to the Egyptians. Yet Yosef, a Jew, became the Viceroy of the greatest superpower of the ancient world. The entire world must have known the story of the Jew who became Viceroy of Egypt. Yosef must have been on the front cover of every single newspaper in the world and the top story on every radio station. Yet the brothers did not even suspect that this man was Yosef. To us, it seems so simple and obvious that it was Yosef. There were not that many Jews in the world as it was and they knew that Yosef had been sold as a slave, so why didn’t it occur to them that this man may be Yosef? The Gemarah (Shabbos ) records that the Amoraim said of their predecessors (i.e. the Tana’im) "If they were like angels, then we are like men; and if they were like men, then we are like horses and donkeys."
    When Chazal state a point they do not exaggerate or spice up their words. If Chazal use a specific example to describe something, they meant it precisely as it sounded. Chazal here are expressing the idea of ‘Y’ridas hadoros- the degeneration of the generations’. Basically this means that with each passing generation, there is a diminished level of spirituality. As great as we can become, we can never reach the levels of the leaders of the previous generation (nor does G-d expect us to). If the Amoraim felt they were so far inferior to the Tana’im, what can we say for ourselves? If the Amoraim were like men, then can we even compare ourselves to spiders? And here we are discussing people who lived many generations before the Tana’im. In fact we are speaking of people who lived even before the era of the prophets, judges, and the elite generation of those who left Egypt. Anyone who was ever worthy of seeing the Steipler Gaon zt’l can testify that he lived a life of utmost holiness and purity dedicated only to serving Hashem. He knew of nothing physical and only desired to become closer to Hashem with each moment of his life. Anyone who knew him will testify that the Steipler would never be jealous of anybody no matter what they attained or possessed. If so, it goes without saying that this characteristic is even more true about the Chofetz Chaim, and the Gaon of Vilna before him, and Rashi before him, and Rava and Abaye before him, and Hillel and Shamai before them. The Torah here is speaking about people who were FAR greater than all of the names mentioned: the tribes themselves. The tribes were the pillars of Klal Yisroel. They were worthy of having the future of the Torah world emanate from them. It is unfathomable to even entertain the possibility that they were literally jealous of each other.
    When reading these parshios, we must understand a basic premise and that is that we will NEVER fully understand the full depth of what transpired between those holy individuals. Chazal grant us insights and present many foundations that allow us to read the verses with greater ease and learn lessons that we can implement into our own lives. But our finite minds are not capable of grasping the interaction of men who were far greater than angels.
    The brothers actually did hear the story of the Jew who became Viceroy but they also heard that the former slave had tried to rape a woman. When they heard the latter part of the story, they were absolutely convinced that this man was not Yosef. They knew very well that Yosef was a tzaddik and a kadosh (holy individual) and he would never commit such an act. Reverting back to our original analogy with the Jew who met Yasir Arafat, we can say that if that Jew was an African-American, no white Jew would think that the Jew may be his brother; it’s simply impossible. When the brothers heard the story of the slave they felt the same way. That slave who tried to commit such a sin could absolutely not be the Yosef Hatzaddik they knew.
    Why then, does the Torah write that there was jealousy between the brothers? Although the full explanation requires great depth, on a simple level we can say that the Torah writes words utilizing a different yardstick and measuring system than we do. There is famous sefer known as "Maggid Mayshorim" which is a compilation of lessons taught to the holy Bais Yosef by an angel. At certain points in the sefer, the angel addresses the Bais Yosef as a drunkard who sleeps all day. The Bais Yosef was surely not a drunkard and definitely woke up at the crack of dawn and was already immersed in learning before he davened. Otherwise he would not have been worthy of the revelation of an angel. However, once he must have drank an ounce of wine and the drinking was not 100% for the sake of spirituality and one time he must have slept a moment longer than such a holy person like him should have, so the angel spoke to him in harsh terms. This is the pedestal Hashem places great tzaddikim on. On our level of understanding and if we would utilize our definition of jealousy, there were absolutely no feelings of envy between the brothers. However on their lofty level in some way there was a certain subtle feeling of jealousy and lack of perfect love between them, and for that the Torah says they hated him and were jealous. Before we read any of the stories of the Torah, we must remember that we will never comprehend the true meaning of what occurred. We are only focusing on the words of Chazal who have granted us some small level of insight of what really occurred so that we can take lessons from them on our levels.
    Thus, the Torah speaks of the tribes’ jealousy so that we can read about the damage of jealousy, but Heaven forbid, we should not think that they were truly jealous of each other. One who doesn’t understand this fundamental point prior to learning the parshios that speak about Adam, Noach, the Avos, and the tribes will lose a great deal of appreciation of their greatness and why they were, are, and forever will be our role models.
[‘Stam Torah’ on Parshas Vayigash was adapted from a shmooze by Rabbi Elimelech Abramsky shlita, in Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Vayeshev, 5755]