“Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me here; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:5)

After revealing himself to his brothers, Yosef says, “Al tay’atzvu…” – you should not feel bad, because Hashem has sent me here. Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi Shlita asks, “Does it really make a difference whether Hashem sent Yosef there or not? The bottom line is that the brothers did an injustice to Yosef!” Though it may be that what came about from their actions was a Divine decree, does that really exonerate them?

When I was in Yeshiva, there was a bochur who came late to shacharis. He was “accosted” by the mashgiach for his infraction and asked, “Why did you come late?” The bochur responded, “That is what Hashem wanted!” I remember hearing those words and being amused at his creativity – and chutzpah. But I also felt empowered because it gave me an insight into understanding the issue of Hashem’s omniscience and how it relates to our free will.

What is the response that the bochur should have received (aside for a punishment for his chutzpah)? Yes, it is true that Hashem lets us do everything, but it does not mean that He wants us to do everything! It could very well be that the result that Hashem wants could happen in a different manner, and it doesn’t have to be because of your choice of action. In fact, we believe that in whatever situation Hashem puts us into, we can pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and climb to the most exalted places.

Imagine the following: Reuven is driving his car and has to swerve to the right to avoid a pothole or another driver, and thereby forces Shimon to go off the side of the road in his car. When Shimon exits his car, he finds an attaché case that is filled with thousands of unmarked bills! Both Shimon and Reuven would marvel at the situation and say that Reuven’s swerve was an act of G-d, which caused Shimon to go off the road in order to then find the money.

Then, there are times that a person has no choice and must perform a certain action. For example, Reuven is  violently attacked by Shimon. To save his own life, Reuven is forced to kill Shimon. We can see how the Divine decree forced Reuven to kill his adversary. But there is also some negativity associated with Reuven’s action. If Reuven asked if he should be menachem avel Shimon’s relatives, the answer would definitely be yes because he was chosen to be the shaliach for such a tragedy (I am not discussing right now if one sits shiva on an attacker such as Shimon). Here too, one has to see Hashem’s hand in what happened, and yet he still has a responsibility for what happened.

Rav Ezrachi explains that Yosef understood that all the trials and tribulations that he went through were engineered by Hashem to force him to become the person who could be the viceroy of the king of Egypt. Thus, Yosef said in this situation, “I do not see your acts as acts of free will, but rather from my vantage point I see them only as acts of G‑d.” Thus, he comforted his brothers by saying, “Look at your situation from my vantage point and you will not be saddened.” (However, the brothers would still have to examine their actions to see if from their perspective they needed to do teshuva.)

We often have the opportunity to look at something through two different lenses. One possibility is, “Why did that person do this to me?” and in all self-righteousness, we can sit there and have bad feelings about that person. However, we have a choice to look at the situation totally differently and say that Hashem knows that this is an area in which I have to work, and Hashem sent me an opportunity to do that work. I should really be thankful for being placed in a situation which brought about an opportunity for self-growth. This opportunity to grow is the silver lining, even in the cloudiest of situations.