The gripping narrative of Yosef and his brothers grows increasingly tense as we move into parashat Vayigash, where the story’s climax sees Yosef reveal his true identity to his confounded and speechless siblings. No less dramatic is some of the midrashic literature which accompanies the passage:
Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria said “Woe to us for the day of judgment! Woe to us for the Day of Rebuke! If Yosef HaTzaddik, who is human, could rebuke his brothers in a way that they could not withstand, The Holy One Blessed be He, who sits in judgment over every single individual, how much more so can no human withstand His rebuke!” [Bereishit Rabbah 93:10-11]
This association between heavenly judgment and people being suddenly and shockingly confronted by their errors and inadequacies has already been established earlier in Bereishit Rabbah; when Yitzchak “trembles very greatly” upon realisation that he has been tricked (and perhaps that he has wrongly evaluated his sons) the midrash teaches that “Gehinnom” entered into the room.
Yosef’s brothers had believed that Yosef’s dreams were a product of his delusions of grandeur and were indicative of his dangerous intentions to establish himself as a ruler over them. So sure were they of their own conclusions that they were willing to sell into slavery (and at one stage even kill) their younger brother and cause untold suffering to their elderly father. Now after pleading with the Egyptian viceroy to redeem their youngest brother from slavery – and have mercy on their elderly father – this viceroy turns out to be the very brother they sold. Providence had raised him into a position of rulership over them – a position which he used not to harm them but to provide vital supplies in a time of famine.
At that single moment of hochacha, in which their entire value system and apparent truths came crashing down, there was nothing to say. It is this feeling which our sages equate with Gehinnom and the Day of Judgment.
The author of the midrash appears to be making a pointed comment to us. That our lives all contain certain convenient miscalculations and hypocrisy. Sacrifices, for example, that we consider too onerous to make in order to help others – or to further our spiritual development – but which we enthusiastically surmount in order to pursue money or personal pleasure.
This midrashic depiction of Gehinnom and the Day of Judgment as focused on shame has bearing on a fascinating discussion by Nissim of Gerona in Derashot HaRan #10. There Rabbeinu Nissim seeks to analyse the function of punishment generally – and particularly the notion of divine punishment in the afterlife.
Noting the Torah’s prohibitions against taking revenge and bearing a grudge, he understands that the Torah must therefore view such conduct as undesirable. It follows therefore that divine chastisement is only to be visited upon sinners for the purpose (i) of guiding them to improve or (ii) as an example for others to learn from. But how are we to approach the notion of sinners suffering eternal retribution in hellfire?
It would appear that the concept of Gehinnom itself may best be viewed as some kind of shaming and rebuke of sinners in a future era which is awash with knowledge of God (this has been explored at length in a previous post here). Strikingly, Resh Lakish teaches in Nedarim 8a
In the future there will be no Gehinnom, rather God will remove the sun from its sheath; the righteous will be cured by it and the wicked will be judged by it.
On the basis of our suggestion we can now view Gehinnom not as punitive punishment but rather as a temporary period of constructive suffering, through which the sinner is able to achieve Olam Haba.
The total shock felt by Yosef’s brothers at having their errors made unambiguously laid out in front of them is therefore an entirely appropriate and indeed helpful biblical template through which to relate to the idea of Gehinnom – a purposeful purgatory.
First posted on Facebook 25 December 2022, here.
