Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

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בלה תובשחמ
ones, do not weaken with time or later experiences (Lawless & Engen, 1977).
So catching a whiff of the scent once worn by a lost loved one can reactivate
intense feelings associated with that person. Odors can also bring back accurate
memories of significant experiences linked with them. (Psychology, Bernstein,
Penner, Clarke-Stewart, Roy)
With this in mind, let us take a deeper look at Yosef. Yosef has, with God’s help,
built himself into a dominant power in Egypt. He has changed his name, his
mode of dress, and his spoken language. More deeply, he has chosen to forget. He
names his first son Menashe, and he explains, “Ki nashani Elohim,” “For God has
made me forget all of my suffering and the entire house of my father” (41:51). In
the face of his success, why remain connected to such a painful past? Of course,
intellectually, he recalls the events that led to his slavery in Egypt, but he has
abandoned his emotional connection to them. And thus he is able to remain in
control. He is able to stare his brothers in the face and maintain his disguise, and
to see his family’s distress and continue to manipulate.
But this time, when Yosef encounters his brothers, something is different. Though
subtle and intangible, something lurks in the very air of the room, plunging him back
into the intense grief, anger, sadness, yearning he had disconnected from so long
ago. The smell of his betrayal, the odor of his terror and confusion as he was handed
over by his brothers to the Ishmaelite merchants envelops him once again. His cold
detachment vanishes and he, the master of control, is overwhelmed by emotion.
This collapse of Yosef ’s control allows God’s control to take over. Instead of an
elaborately constructed, manipulated climax, Yosef reunites with his brothers
in a moment of shared weakness. The brothers’ weakness lies in their terror at
the unpredictable power of this viceroy-turned-their-brother and their own
shame at their long-ago betrayal. And Yosef ’s weakness is his inability to detach
himself from the “amali u’beit avi,” his “suffering and all my father’s house,” that
he thought he had escaped so long ago. It is in this moment of weakness and
joint vulnerability that the reconciliation can begin. While the brothers plotted
and Yosef contrived, God had His own vision of how to bring the brothers’
relationship to equilibrium.