(2009/5769)

Our Parashah begins with Yehudah’s challenge to Yosef in defense of his brother Binyamin. The Midrash, commenting on the Pasuk, “Ki Hineih HaMelachim No’adu,” “And behold the kings have entered into battle” (Tehillim 48:5), quips, “Zeh Yehudah VeYosef,” “[The kings mentioned in the Pasuk refer to] Yehudah and Yosef. There is no doubt that Yaakov had planned to anoint Yosef as the king of Israel. The Ketonet Pasim, striped coat, given to Yosef was a sign of royalty. Yosef dreamt of his parents and brothers bowing down to him because Yaakov had planted that seed in his mind. Yet Divine Providence decided that ultimately, Yehudah would defeat Yosef and emerge as the undisputed king of Israel. Why is it that Hashem believed that Yehudah would be more fit for Malchut than Yosef?

The Rav once suggested that Yosef and Yehudah represent two opposing personalities. In the words of Rambam in his introduction to the eighth Perek of Masechet Sanhedrin, Yosef is described as the Chasid Me’uleh, one who naturally gravitates to that which is morally sound and correct. When Potifar’s wife tries to seduce him, Yosef repeatedly resists her temptation. When his father Yaakov asks him to check on the welfare of his brothers tending the sheep, he goes without hesitation, despite the fact that he knows fully well that his brothers despise him and wish him harm. As the viceroy in Egypt, he responds to the severe famine by allowing Egyptian citizens to maintain 4/5 of the produce of the land and contribute 1/5 as a tax to the government. The typical sharecropper arrangement features the exact opposite: 4/5 is hoarded by the government and 1/5 kept by the peasant. In each case he acts with ethics, decency, and morality.

Yehudah is the Mosheil BeNefesh, one who stumbles and gives in to temptation but ultimately recovers. He enters into a relationship with Tamar thinking that she is but a prostitute. Later he acknowledges that it is was he who had impregnated her. Yehudah is responsible for selling Yosef into slavery, yet when it comes to sparing Yaakov the grief over losing Binyamin, it is Yehudah who rises to the occasion.

What type of person would be most suited for royalty? What type of person could serve as a role model for each of us to emulate? Yaakov believed it was Yosef, but Hashem insisted that very few people would aspire to reach those heights. Most of us are like Yehudah – we fall, fall again, and are able to correct and learn from our mistakes. It was for this reason that “Lo Yasur Sheivet MiYehudah,” “The seat of authority shall never be away from Yehudah” (BeReishit 49:10), and for this reason we should strive to become kings.