Vayigash: Who Sent Yosef to Egypt? (Part 1: The Questions)
Yosef answers this question three times, and we assume we know what he meant, but Ibn Kaspi hints at a different interpretation in the Rambam - one that raises a few problems of its own.
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Vayigash: Who Sent Yosef to Egypt? (Part 1: The Questions)
At first glance, it appears that Yosef’s brothers were responsible for sending him down to Egypt. They threw him into a pit, after which he was sold by the Midianites to the Yishmaelites and Medanites, eventually ending up in Egypt. However, if one were to ask Yosef, himself, who sent him to Egypt, he would reply, “God sent me.” We know this because, upon revealing himself to his brothers (Bereishis 45:4-8), he underscores this fact no fewer than three times:
(4) Yosef said to his brothers … “I am Yosef your brother whom you sold to Egypt. (5) Now, do not be pained, and do not be angry with yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to be a source of sustenance. (6) For it is two years that the famine is in the land, and there are another five years in which there will be no plowing and harvesting. (7) God sent me ahead of you to make for you a remnant in the land, and to preserve life for you, that there be many survivors. (8) And now, it was not you who sent me here, but God; He set me as father to Paroh and master of all his house, and ruler throughout all of the land of Egypt.”
The most basic question is: What did Yosef mean when he said that God sent him to Egypt?
The simplest answer is that even though the brothers acted of their own volition, Yosef’s descent to Egypt was orchestrated by God as part of His Divine plan. This view, held by the majority of commentators, is expressed by Sforno and his student, R’ Elia di Nola, in their commentaries on Bereishis 45:8:
Sforno: And now, it was not you who sent me here – behold! When you see the Divine objective, which was only achieved through these prior causes, there is no doubt that these prior causes were also in accordance with the Divine will to bring about this objective.
R’ Elia di Nola: And God sent me etc. and now – after seeing that this matter has not occurred by chance, and there were many intermediaries, and all of them brought me to this thing, then it certainly was the will of God (blessed is He) and was intended by Him.
In other words, when Yosef said, “God sent me,” he meant that his descent to Egypt was brought about through hashgachah pratis (personal providence), involving God’s intervention in the natural order. This would seem to be the pshat (straightforward reading) of the Yosef saga.
Nevertheless, some seem to disagree. R’ Yosef ibn Kaspi (ibid. 45:7) hints at this in his commentary, writing:
“God sent me ahead of you” (45:7), and after this, “it was not you who sent me here, [but God]” (45:8). May that righteous man, Rabbi Moshe (i.e. the Rambam), who enlightened our eyes in this, be remembered for good, for he made these two verses two categories in the final chapter of the second section [of the Moreh ha’Nevuchim]. The explanation of this matter will be written elsewhere [in Maskiyos Kasef, Ibn Kaspi’s commentary on the Moreh]. Understand this, if you are able.
To fully grasp Ibn Kaspi’s commentary, we must delve into the relevant passage from the Rambam. In this chapter (2:48), Rambam opens by explaining how the Prophets describe Divine actions:
Very clearly, whatever comes to be must have a proximate cause to bring it to be. This cause, too, needs a cause, and so on, until the series ends at the First Cause of all things, God’s Wll and Choice. For this reason, prophetic deliverances tend to elide all these mediate causes and ascribe a given event to God directly and call Him the doer. All this is well known and discussed by me and other theists. It is the view held by everyone of our religion. This said, listen closely to what I’ll explain in this chapter. Give it special attention, beyond any other chapter in this work.
What I want to show you is that all proximate causes of temporal effects, whether those causes are natural and essential, random and accidental, or voluntary—resulting from human choice or even the volition of other animals—are biblically ascribed to God. In the Prophets’ idiom, they are called what God did, said, or ordained, using the language of speaking, calling, commanding, or sending. This is the theme I wanted to call to your attention in this chapter: Since God is taken to have stirred this volition in this irrational animal, imposed that choice on that rational animal, and caused nature to take the course it does—chance being understood as but a superfluity of natural causes (2:20), mostly a mix of natural, voluntary, and freely chosen effects—it follows that the effects of such causes resulted from what God commanded to be or to be done. I shall give you examples of each type, and you can apply them to any like case.
Rambam identifies four categories of effects that are ascribed directly to God in Tanach and provides illustrative examples of each. Here are the four categories, with the examples omitted for the sake of brevity:
(a) natural events whose course is constant, like the melting of snow as the weather warms or the dashing of waves in the wind at sea … (b) the results of human choices, like one nation’s making war on another or someone’s attacking or just insulting another … (c) the volitions of animals, moved by animal urges … (d) the effects of sheer chance …
He concludes with a summary and a promise of the usefulness of this interpretive principle:
Plainly, as you can see, any causal sequence, essential or accidental, voluntary or chosen, is spoken of in terms of these five notions: commanding, saying, speaking, sending, or calling. When you see this and allow for it wherever relevant, many an anomaly will dissolve, and the truth about many a puzzling passage will come clear to you.
We are now in a position to appreciate Ibn Kaspi's oblique reference to the Rambam. Since Rambam identifies “sending” as one of the verbs used by the Torah in this manner, it is reasonable to assume that he applies this framework to Yosef’s statements about God sending him to Egypt. However, Ibn Kaspi highlights a surprising detail: Rambam classifies Yosef’s statements into two distinct categories! Here are the two examples cited by the Rambam in the context of his categories:
(b) Of the results of human choices, like one nation’s making war on another or someone’s attacking or just insulting another … and as the righteous Yosef said, “it was not you who sent me here, but God” (45:8) …
(d) Of the effects of sheer chance … as in the incident of Yosef: “God sent me ahead of you [to make for you a remnant in the land, and to preserve life for you, that there be many survivors]” (45:7).
The problem alluded to by Ibn Kaspi is articulated by Ha’Ephodi (Moreh 2:48):
Regarding the matter of Yosef saying, “God has sent me ahead of you” (45:7) – this requires analysis, as the Rav (Rambam) previously stated that Yosef’s case was attributed to free will when he said, “It was not you who sent me” (45:8). Yet here he attributes Yosef’s case to chance!
In sum, two questions remain: (1) Why does Rambam interpret “God sent me ahead of you” (45:7) as a chance occurrence, but “it was not you who sent me here but God” (45:8) as a reference to God as the First Cause behind the brothers’ free will decision? What compels Rambam in either case? (2) Do Rambam and Ibn Kaspi actually dispute the standard view that Yosef’s descent to Egypt was brought about by hashgachah pratis? If so, what is the basis of their disagreement? And if not, then how can the two seemingly different approaches be reconciled?
I have some thoughts based on a few commentaries, but they need more time to percolate. I can’t promise answers next week, but if you have any thoughts or ideas, I’d love to hear them!
Let me know what you think!
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Intriguing and well laid out. I'll take a stab at the first question (Efodi's). Verse 7 ascribes to God positive intentions in sending Yosef down to Egypt. As the brothers certainly did not have that in mind (to the contrary—they had malicious intentions), Rambam pegs it as an example of the 'chance' category. In other words, it worked out well in the end, but that was how it happened to have played out. Verse 8, on the other hand, merely mentions God's sending Yosef to Mitzrayim, remaining silent regarding God's intentions. As the bothers—via their free will—did indeed cause that to happen, Rambam is able to read it as an example of the second category.