"And Joseph was brought down to Egypt."
Our parsha tells us of many seemingly different events that occur one after another, after Jacob returns to his father in Hevron.
Joseph gets thrown into the pit and then sold as a slave in Egypt by his brothers, Yehuda marries, then loses two of his children, gets Tamar - his daughter in law - pregnant, who gives birth to twins. The parsha then returns to the story of Joseph, who ends up in prison on a trumped-up charge of rape. Is there a common denominator for all of these occurrences, or are these just random events?
The Midrash teaches us the following: "And it came to pass at this time, that Yehuda went down from his brothers." Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachman said: " The brothers were busy selling their brother Joseph, Joseph was busy wearing sackcloths and fasting, Jacob was busy wearing sackcloths and fasting, Yehuda was busy getting married - and G-d was busy bringing the light of the Mashiach into the world.
Who could have ever guessed, in their wildest imagination, that from these apparently scandalous deeds would come "Tikun Olam" - repair of the world?
In our parsha we learn about the birth of the two Mashichim, the well known Mashiach ben David and the lesser known Mashiach ben Joseph, each with a different purpose and job to do in this world, and each coming into this world through very tainted circumstances.
Ben David's origin goes back to the pregnancy of Yehuda's daughter-in-law Tamar - certainly shady, to say the least. Ben Joseph's beginnings come from the rape of Dina by Shechem, which we learned about in last week's parsha. That relationship produced a daughter who was later brought down to Egypt and eventually became the wife of none other than Joseph himself.
On the other hand, man certainly has free will; this is the basis of the entire purpose of this world: To enable man to chose between good and evil. Man certainly will be rewarded for his good deeds and punished for his sins.
Even though G-d, through His ultimate wisdom, was bringing about the "repair of the world" though the two Mashichim - the brothers, on their part, would have to be punished for selling their brother Joseph into slavery. Their punishment would take place many generations later in the time of the Romans, when they would murder the ten holy martyrs, whose souls were reincarnated from the ten tribes, in horrible ways.
Man sleeps but G-d is awake, bringing about the events that will purify the world, daily bring the Redemption closer. We can see today how by leaps and bounds history is unfolding before our eyes as never before, and events are unfolding at an ever faster pace.
The complainers, the ones who still have not come up to the Land to be part of the great Redemption process, see only awful events: This is not good, that is wrong in the Land, etc., forever complaining and waiting for that perfect day to come...
The point is clear from the confusing events of the parsha, that man does deeds which seem to be in the opposite direction than that which Redemption should take - but G-d has His own plans. Who are we to "teach" G-d how to redeem His world? Through these very deeds, the perfection of the world draws closer. One just has to open his eyes to see what is happening today. Certainly you do not want to miss this Redemption train!