And their encounter with the Egyptian viceroy? That was the strangest thing of all. It left them feeling utterly confused and helpless. His insistence that they had come to Egypt to spy without even so much as circumstantial evidence shook their self-confidence and made them lose their equilibrium.

To add to the absurdity after they spend three days in prison the viceroy offers them this bizarre deal: “If you are honest your one brother will remain in prison… and you may go and bring relief to your houses’ hunger. Then bring your youngest brother to me and your words will be confirmed” (Bereishis 42:19–20).

But rather than address the terms of the viceroy’s offer strangely enough they express a sudden realization: “And they said to one another ‘In truth we are guilty for our brother for we saw his distress when he pleaded with us but we did not listen and this is why this trouble has come upon us.’ ”

At this moment of crisis they suddenly recall an episode that took place 22 years earlier. What does it have to do with their present predicament?

Let’s not forget that when Yaakov’s sons sold their brother Yosef they believed wholeheartedly that they were doing the right thing. At the time they were completely sure of it. The pasuk points out that immediately after casting Yosef into the pit of death (before they thought of the alternative of selling him) “They sat down to eat bread” (ibid. 37:25).

This surprising verse testifies to one of two possibilities: Either they were criminals with no conscience capable of calmly sitting down to a meal after performing an execution or they were absolutely sure that their deed conformed to their moral standard. When the average person finds himself impelled by circumstances to commit a crime especially a murder he feels extremely agitated for days; sometimes he is haunted by his act for many years (think of classic literature’s most conflicted character Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment).

But by all opinions Yaakov’s sons were certainly not criminals chalilah. If the Torah sees fit to mention the fact that they sat down to eat after casting Yosef into a pit from which he had no hope of coming out alive then its intent is to tell us that they viewed their deed as absolutely proper in the eyes of G-d and man.

Their judgment was seemingly correct. Looking at the situation from their point of view Yosef posed a threat to the emergence of the Jewish People. Two signs of approaching danger aroused their concern. First Yaakov’s clear preference for Yosef his ben zekunim and second Yosef’s dreams of kingship which he reported to his brothers in irksome detail.

Their father’s preference for Yosef brought back unpleasant historical associations. Their great-grandfather Avraham had also preferred his younger son over the elder and pinned the future of his Hebrew progeny entirely on him. Yishmael and the other sons of Keturah were sent away albeit with generous gifts. Their grandfather Yitzchak had done likewise declaring Yaakov the younger son to be his spiritual heir while Eisav was excluded from the Jewish nation.

Yaakov’s sons were worried: Is this process of selection about to be repeated? Will one son be chosen as the progenitor of the Jewish People and all the rest of us excluded from this great spiritual inheritance?

The exclusion of Yishmael and Eisav was understandable; they did not follow the path of Avraham the trailblazer but instead were drawn to and influenced by the culture of the people around them. But we the sons of Yaakov are faithful to the legacy of our fathers. Why should we be left out?

Added to this worry was the phenomenon of Yosef’s dreams. His seeming aspiration to break away from the group and rise above them as their ruler was plain to see. Jewish equality with all sharing equal status before G-d was already threatened while the nation was still in the formative stage.

They feared that by representing himself as a king he was attributing to himself qualities of a superior race. Again a historical paradigm came to mind — Nimrod who had separated himself from the children of Enosh in order to lord it over them to tyrannize them and bend them to his will in an oppressive totalitarian regime. Was Yosef through his belief in his dreams going to bring Nimrodism into the Jewish nation?

Yaakov’s sons decided they must do whatever it took to eliminate this danger. They believed that their motives were pure. And pure they were — in light of how they interpreted and evaluated the available data of what they saw. They believed they had just saved Am Yisrael and its entire future.

If they were so confident in their decision at the time why — 22 years later when the viceroy of Egypt inexplicably pressures them to return home and bring back their youngest brother — do they immediately connect this unfortunate situation with their lack of mercy toward Yosef on that long-ago day. What forces this collective memory as they find themselves facing a capricious foreign ruler? Such are the mysterious workings of the human subconscious. No deed thought or rumination ever disappears from memory entirely. The subconscious absorbs everything remembers everything stores everything and from its hidden depths it also acts as man’s conscience and guide. A person might act in accordance with perfect legal logic in conformance with the highest standard of ethics and think it all through before acting — but his subconscious will subject the deed to its own test in the light of absolute objective truth. From the treasury of man-made ethics the subconscious filters concepts and actions and files them in drawers marked “truth” and “falsehood ” “good” and “evil.” This is the inner self that cannot be fooled.

And at moments of crisis and shock the subconscious sends its message. Then the veils fall away and the person finds himself contemplating the naked truth and hearing the voice of his conscience even if the original act is long-forgotten.

The Jewish term for this dynamic is middah k’neged middah — which might look like revenge but is actually a kindness from Hashem Yisbarach meant to help a person understand where he has gone wrong and been at fault. The holy shevatim knowing that there is no suffering without wrongdoing got the message immediately and they examined their deeds in order to do teshuvah. Since they saw that in their present trouble they were being treated without mercy they searched their memory meticulously and found a fault in this middah within themselves. They realized they had sinned against their brother Yosef who had pleaded with them in his distress and they had not listened to him. Rav Yehuda Leib Chasman a major mussar personality of the prewar generation notes in his sefer Ohr Yahel that the brothers do not express regret for the fact that they sold Yosef. They still believe that their decision was justified. But now they are aware that they sinned in having hardened their hearts when they carried out their decision. Now that they taste the bitterness of being treated without mercy they can sense the pain they caused their brother when they cut him off forever from his father and family for they too are now at the mercy of someone who refuses them mercy.

And as tzaddikim of great moral sensitivity raised to be self-critical in order to constantly refine their deeds and their feelings they recognized a certain unbending cruel tendency that accompanied the act of selling Yosef. This was the subject of their lament.

Rav Chasman draws a conclusion that we can all apply in our own lives: “As long as they themselves did not experience the trouble it never occurred to their great minds that there was any trace of sin or dishonor in their deed at all. But as soon as they experienced that trouble they immediately recognized it and said ‘In truth we are guilty.’ From this we can gain understanding of the great value of suffering for it softens the human heart and opens it to the truth even for people whose lives epitomize truth.”Such are the mysterious workings of the human subconscious. No deed thought or rumination ever disappears from memory entirely. The subconscious absorbs everything remembers everything stores everything and from its hidden depths it also acts as man’s conscience and guide. A person might act in accordance with perfect legal logic in conformance with the highest standard of ethics and think it all through before acting — but his subconscious will subject the deed to its own test in the light of absolute objective truth. From the treasury of man-made ethics the subconscious filters concepts and actions and files them in drawers marked “truth” and “falsehood ” “good” and “evil.” This is the inner self that cannot be fooled.

And at moments of crisis and shock the subconscious sends its message. Then the veils fall away and the person finds himself contemplating the naked truth and hearing the voice of his conscience even if the original act is long-forgotten.

The Jewish term for this dynamic is middah k’neged middah — which might look like revenge but is actually a kindness from Hashem Yisbarach meant to help a person understand where he has gone wrong and been at fault. The holy shevatim knowing that there is no suffering without wrongdoing got the message immediately and they examined their deeds in order to do teshuvah. Since they saw that in their present trouble they were being treated without mercy they searched their memory meticulously and found a fault in this middah within themselves. They realized they had sinned against their brother Yosef who had pleaded with them in his distress and they had not listened to him.

Rav Yehuda Leib Chasman a major mussar personality of the prewar generation notes in his sefer Ohr Yahel that the brothers do not express regret for the fact that they sold Yosef. They still believe that their decision was justified. But now they are aware that they sinned in having hardened their hearts when they carried out their decision. Now that they taste the bitterness of being treated without mercy they can sense the pain they caused their brother when they cut him off forever from his father and family for they too are now at the mercy of someone who refuses them mercy.

And as tzaddikim of great moral sensitivity raised to be self-critical in order to constantly refine their deeds and their feelings they recognized a certain unbending cruel tendency that accompanied the act of selling Yosef. This was the subject of their lament.

Rav Chasman draws a conclusion that we can all apply in our own lives: “As long as they themselves did not experience the trouble it never occurred to their great minds that there was any trace of sin or dishonor in their deed at all. But as soon as they experienced that trouble they immediately recognized it and said ‘In truth we are guilty.’ From this we can gain understanding of the great value of suffering for it softens the human heart and opens it to the truth even for people whose lives epitomize truth.”