The Secret of the Sale of Joseph, the Ten Martyrs, and the Eternal Test of the Tzaddik

Lesson No. 150 | Sunday, Parashas Va'eschanan, 10 Menachem Av (Delayed Tisha B'Av) 5758.

A profound discourse explaining how all the troubles and exiles are rooted in the blemish of the sale of Joseph and the doubt in the true tzaddik. Through the brothers' testing of Joseph in the pit of snakes, the lack of emunah (faith) in Moshe Rabbeinu at the sea, and the mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) of the Ten Martyrs, the secret of the mitigation and atonement for the Jewish people is revealed.

Children asked me why there were such harsh and terrible massacres among the Jewish people. The answer is that all the harsh and terrible killings are solely because of the sale of Joseph. All the killings that have killed us, are killing us, and will kill us, all the terrible holocausts, all of Auschwitz—everything is because of the sale of Joseph. And if not for the Ten Martyrs, no trace of the Jewish people would have remained.

The sale of Joseph took place in Dothan, in the vicinity of Afula. There, they threw him into a pit full of snakes and scorpions. The pit was empty; there was no water in it, but there were snakes and scorpions. The brothers said, "We do not know if he is a tzaddik or a wicked person." They were all men of truth, people searching for the truth. Therefore, they decided to throw him into a pit of snakes and scorpions and put him to the test. If the snakes and scorpions bite him, it is a sign that he is wicked. If they do not bite him, it is a sign that he is a tzaddik.

Joseph was in the pit for several hours, surrounded by snakes and scorpions. Every second his soul departed; every second he saw them coming to strike him, sting him, and kill him. For these hours, we have been suffering for nearly four thousand years. Because of those hours when he was surrounded by snakes and scorpions, we are surrounded by terrorists, Nazis, and enemies of Israel. These are the snakes and scorpions that surrounded Joseph.

We were all present at the sale of Joseph. The entire Jewish people, all the generations, all the souls that were and will be—everyone participated in the sale of Joseph. Everyone was spiritually pregnant (ibbur) within the Ten Tribes at the moment they threw Joseph into the pit. Today, we do not know why we are surrounded by so many terrorists who drain our souls every second, but for Joseph, those hours in the pit felt like an eternity. Dozens and hundreds of snakes slithered around him, trying to touch him, and every second his soul departed anew.

The Test of the True Tzaddik

When they pulled him out of the pit, he was already dying, devoid of the spirit of life. The question arises: How could they sell a man of such beautiful form and appearance, the beauty and grace of the entire world, for twenty pieces of silver? A simple slave is worth two thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars. A slave like Joseph, beautiful in form and possessing all the wisdom in the world, whose face illuminated from one end of the world to the other, is worth at least two million dollars! They should have sold him for millions.

However, at the moment they pulled him out of the pit, he was entirely green, drained of all life force. The hours he spent in the pit were an absolute eternity for him, and we have been paying for this for nearly four thousand years. All the lamentations that we cry are the crying of Joseph, the crying of the tzaddik: "How the gold has dimmed, how the finest gold has changed."

A person does not always know if the tzaddik is true or not. He will throw him to the snakes and scorpions; he will test the tzaddik. It is still not clear to him if the tzaddik is genuine. He always has ninety-nine percent doubt, barely a fraction of a percent of emunah (faith). He is constantly testing him anew.

Facing the Sea of Reeds: The Doubt in Moshe Rabbeinu

This was also the case with the Jewish people at the Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds). They stood "facing the end" (a play on words: Suf/Sea and Sof/End). I tell you: Sit and learn a little with your children what it means to be "facing the end"! Today, ten-year-old children only talk about vehicles and cars, because their fathers are drivers and only talk about that. Instead of making a Shabbos table and learning, they talk about money and mortgages. Whoever does not learn here with their children, ninety percent of them should be thrown out of here. What will you talk about with the children if the parents themselves do not know where they are holding?

What happened facing the sea? The Jewish people divided into four factions. They thought that Moshe could no longer help them. They did not know who the tzaddik was. Moshe performed miracles and wonders, bringing the Ten Plagues, but they thought he was just a sorcerer who knew how to summon animals from the forests.

The Gemara explains that the Egyptian necromancers knew how to produce the plagues of wild beasts and frogs, because they controlled the demons and could summon large creatures like lions and leopards. However, they could not produce the plague of lice, because it is difficult for demons to gather billions of tiny lice from all over the world. So the Children of Israel thought that Moshe simply had a different trick that the necromancers did not know. When they stood facing the sea and saw the Egyptians approaching, they decided that Moshe had gone bankrupt. Four factions stood there: some said let us wage war, some said let us flee to the desert, some said let us surrender, and some said let us jump into the sea.

The Murderous Beatings on the Way to Rachel's Tomb

Just as they disparaged Moshe, so too they despised Joseph. People always want to know if the tzaddik is genuine, so they throw him into a pit to see if he will be saved. And behold, the test succeeded and Joseph emerged alive. Not a single snake or scorpion touched him. So why did they sell him? Because they said, "Let us conduct another test. We will sell him to Egypt and see if we find him alive after twenty years. One test is not enough; perhaps it was a coincidence and perhaps the snakes were not hungry."

After the terrible torture where his soul departed a million times and he turned as white as chalk, they sold him to the Ishmaelites. But the beatings he received on the way were horrific. They flayed the skin from his flesh. From Afula to Rachel's Tomb—that was the route—they beat him murderously. He nearly died under the blows, and only by a miracle did his soul remain within him.

Rabbi Avraham ben Rav Nachman brings down in his book Kochavei Or that it would have been better to kill him than to sell him to these Ishmaelites. The sale of Joseph to the Arabs was literally like murder. Slaves in that era were mere tools in the hands of their masters, objects of abuse. They would buy a slave for pennies and torture him until his soul departed.

They flayed his skin from the murderous beatings he received all along the way, until he threw himself upon our Mother Rachel, and as he reached out his hand, he began to cry out: "Mother! Mother!" Then, the hands of those Arabs, may their names be erased, who were beating him immediately withered, until they begged him for forgiveness.

The Ten Martyrs and the Mesirus Nefesh of the Tanna'im

Regarding this sale, we read on Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av about the "Ten Martyrs" (Asarah Harugei Malchus). Rabbi Yishmael the Kohen Gadol ascended to Heaven in purity and awe, and asked if the decree had truly been sealed and if they needed to serve as an atonement for the Jewish people for all generations. These ten can atone for everything that we go through.

One of those ten was Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion. The Gemara in Tractate Avodah Zarah relates that when Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma fell ill, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion went to visit him. Rabbi Chanina would gather large public assemblies and study Torah with tens of thousands of students.

To understand what it means to have tens of thousands of students, the Gemara in Kesuvos tells of Rav Huna in Babylon, who had thirteen Amoraim acting as translators to explain his words to the massive crowd. "When the Sages would stand up from Rav Huna's yeshiva, they would shake out the hems of their garments, and a cloud of dust would rise and cover the sun." It was to such an extent that they saw the darkness in the Land of Israel and said, "The yeshiva of Rav Huna in Babylon has concluded its session."

Similarly, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion gathered large public assemblies in the open field, despite the decree of the Romans. Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma spoke words of rebuke to him that came straight from the heart: "Chanina, my brother, do you not know that this nation has been empowered from Heaven? For it destroyed His House, burned His Sanctuary, and killed His pious ones... And as for me, when I hear about you sitting and engaging in Torah and gathering public assemblies, what will be tomorrow? They will burn you in fire!"

Rabbi Chanina answered him, "Heaven will have mercy." Rabbi Yosi said to him, "I am speaking words of reason to you, and you say to me, 'Heaven will have mercy'? I will be surprised if they do not burn you and the Torah scroll in fire."

Rabbi Chanina asked him, "Rebbe, what is my status regarding the life of the World to Come?" A man who studies Torah with tens of thousands of people is asking if he has a share in the World to Come! Rabbi Yosi said to him, "Did any specific deed come to your hand?" He answered him, "Money set aside for the Purim meal became mixed up with charity money, and I distributed it all to the poor." He gave from his own personal money to charity in secret, without anyone knowing.

Rabbi Yosi said to him, "If so, may my portion be from your portion, and may my lot be from your lot." A single coin given to charity in secret, which no one knows about, is worth more than millions of hours of public Torah study. Not many days passed before Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma passed away, and the great men of Rome went to his grave and delivered a great eulogy for him. On their way back, they seized Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion and burned him and the Torah scroll in fire, as an atonement for all of Israel.

Lesson No. 150