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By Rabbi Shloimie Lindenbaum
ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אותו כי נבהלו מפניו (פרק מה פסוק ג)
After Yosef revealed himself to his brothers the Torah tells us that they were too astounded to respond. The Medrash applies this sensation to the final Day of Judgement when we will be faced with the glaring, undeniable truth and be unable to respond. The Sfas Emes explains the exact parallel between the discovery of the שבטים, and what we will experience on that awesome and frightful day. He says that essentially the שבטים now realized the true holiness that existed in Yosef the entire time. They had viewed him as an evil character, out to get them, and now they see that he was truly holy and pure. This realization is what put them into such intense embarrassment and shock. This will also happen in the future when Hashem will show us that everything that He gave us in this world, every possession, every situation, every gift, was a tool imbued with holiness and purpose in serving Him better and better. We took these gifts, and many times utilized them for evil. We viewed them as existing with the purpose of furthering our own selfish goals and evil intentions. On the final Judgement Day we will be embarrassed to realize that the very gifts that Hashem gave us to come closer to him, we used to rebel against him. All the things that were given to us with inherent holiness we used for the exact opposite. In this we will be the same as the שבטים who realized the true holiness that they had ignored in Yosef the whole time.
ולאביו שלח כזאת עשרה חמרים נשאים מטוב מצרים (פרק מה פסוק כג)
The Torah tells us that when Yosef sent his brothers back to Yaakov to ask him to come to מצרים, he sent a gift to his father- ten donkeys laden with the best that מצרים has to offer. The גמרא in מגילה explains that this refers to old wine which is pleasing to זקנים (lit. elderly people). R’ Shimon Schwab asks, surely Yaakov was not such a big wine enthusiast that he needed ten donkeys full of fine wine? Furthermore, why is the wine referred to as being the best of מצרים? R’ Schwab answers that we know that Yaakov and his family kept the Torah. If so, the fact that they would be willing to drink Egyptian wine (and not be concerned for יין נסך, wine which was used to serve idols) must mean that the Egyptians did not use wine in their service of their עבודה זרה. This is why wine was the best of מצרים, it was the one thing from מצרים that was pure of עבודה זרה and not contaminated by their idolatry. When we say it was pleasing to זקנים, it refers to wise and learned men (זקן ויושב בישיבה), because it did not have a connection to forbidden things. The reason why Yosef sent such a tremendous amount of wine was because he knew that his brothers would be in a state of regret and sadness over having sold him, in fact he encouraged them, “do not be depressed.” To assist in lifting their spirits he sent enough wine for Yaakov to share with the whole family, ויין ישמח לבב אנוש, wine naturally gladdens people.
