In the middle of Mussaf on Yom Kippur we read a lengthy piyut telling the story of the עשרה הרוגי מלכות, ten sages who were martyred by the Romans. The piyut begins by telling of a Roman general who felt it was his mandate to extract retribution for the sale of Yosef. To symbolize this sale, he filled his palace with shoes and invited the sages over for a visit. Why shoes? The prophet also mentions that Yosef was sold for shoes, which is somewhat puzzling as the Torah says that he was sold for 20 pieces of silver. Which was it?
Be that as it may, why are the shoes so central to the story that the general, and the Navi, are so focused on them?
There are a number of Midrashim that attempt to explain where the shoes come in. One Midrash says that after selling Yosef for 20 coins the brothers went and used the money to purchase shoes. According to another Midrash the brothers and the itinerant traders who bought Yosef neogitated a deal to sell Yosef for 20 coins. But they were surprised when they pulled him out of the pit to notice that he was in such good shape. The brothers demanded more money from the traders who offered to throw a pair of shoes into the deal, and it was done.
These Midrashim would seem to make our question yet stronger. According to both Midrashim the shoes were not an essential part of the sale. According to the first Midrash they were not part of the sale at all, only something the brothers did with the money they received after the sale was complete. According to the second Midrash the shoes were an after thought, a minor secondary, last minute, part of the deal.
So, we ask again, why the focus on the shoes when they seem to be a minor part of the story.
In the Tana D'Vei Eliyahu a comment is made on the pasuk מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים בת נדיב. The Midrash explains that just as feet are meant to be covered by shoes, so too a person is meant to cover up his good deeds and not publicize them. Shoes then symbolize the covering up of ones deeds.
Indeed when it comes to good deeds, keeping them quiet is the way to go. However, at times, covering up one's deeds has an entirely different meaning. If someone engages in controversial behavior, does something that others may have good reason to question, even if he believes that his behavior was correct, he should not try to hide what he has done. And if others question him, he should stand up proudly and defend his position. Covering up only leads to the impression, and probably the reality, that the person is not really so sure that his actions were justified. And if he was not really 100% sure, then he had no business doing what he did in the first place.
When the brothers came back to Yaakov they should have told him that they had acted as a Beth Din and had decided that Yosef was deserving of punishment. It was on that basis that they had made their decision and they should have defended their position to their father. The fact that they didn't defend their position, and chose instead to engage in a cover up, shows that they were not 100% comfortable with their decision on Yosef, in which case they had no right to do what they did.
For the sale itself they may have had grounds on which to defend their behavior, but once they engaged in a cover-up it showed the paucity of their reasoning and it was for that that they were guilty.
This is the point of the Navi, it was the shoes, it was what occurred after the sale for which they are being held responsible, not for the sale itself. This is why in all the Midrashim the shoes appear in the story after the sale.
Some food for thought before Yom Kippur
Be that as it may, why are the shoes so central to the story that the general, and the Navi, are so focused on them?
There are a number of Midrashim that attempt to explain where the shoes come in. One Midrash says that after selling Yosef for 20 coins the brothers went and used the money to purchase shoes. According to another Midrash the brothers and the itinerant traders who bought Yosef neogitated a deal to sell Yosef for 20 coins. But they were surprised when they pulled him out of the pit to notice that he was in such good shape. The brothers demanded more money from the traders who offered to throw a pair of shoes into the deal, and it was done.
These Midrashim would seem to make our question yet stronger. According to both Midrashim the shoes were not an essential part of the sale. According to the first Midrash they were not part of the sale at all, only something the brothers did with the money they received after the sale was complete. According to the second Midrash the shoes were an after thought, a minor secondary, last minute, part of the deal.
In the Tana D'Vei Eliyahu a comment is made on the pasuk מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים בת נדיב. The Midrash explains that just as feet are meant to be covered by shoes, so too a person is meant to cover up his good deeds and not publicize them. Shoes then symbolize the covering up of ones deeds.
Indeed when it comes to good deeds, keeping them quiet is the way to go. However, at times, covering up one's deeds has an entirely different meaning. If someone engages in controversial behavior, does something that others may have good reason to question, even if he believes that his behavior was correct, he should not try to hide what he has done. And if others question him, he should stand up proudly and defend his position. Covering up only leads to the impression, and probably the reality, that the person is not really so sure that his actions were justified. And if he was not really 100% sure, then he had no business doing what he did in the first place.
When the brothers came back to Yaakov they should have told him that they had acted as a Beth Din and had decided that Yosef was deserving of punishment. It was on that basis that they had made their decision and they should have defended their position to their father. The fact that they didn't defend their position, and chose instead to engage in a cover up, shows that they were not 100% comfortable with their decision on Yosef, in which case they had no right to do what they did.
For the sale itself they may have had grounds on which to defend their behavior, but once they engaged in a cover-up it showed the paucity of their reasoning and it was for that that they were guilty.
This is the point of the Navi, it was the shoes, it was what occurred after the sale for which they are being held responsible, not for the sale itself. This is why in all the Midrashim the shoes appear in the story after the sale.
Some food for thought before Yom Kippur
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