We learn in the Torah that all of Jacob’s children were righteous and occupied a very high spiritual level. However, they plotted together to have Joseph thrown into a pit and sold him into slavery. If the Joseph’s brothers were truly righteous, how could they have done such a thing?
This question has been addressed by Torah commentators throughout the ages. One explanation is that, when Joseph was telling his family about his dreams and interpreted one dream to prophesy that his brothers family would all bow down to him, this implied a kind of disrespect which was morally reprehensible. However, this would indicate an imperfection in Joseph. If one or more of the children of Jacob were at fault, how could they all have been perfect?
I attended a lecture in Brooklyn given by Rabbi Shloma Majesky, Principal of Machon Chana, a women’s yeshivah. He was discussing this issue and the fact that the stories of the Torah, while apparently simple, contain profound elements that are beyond full comprehension. He gave the parable of a 3 year old child who returned from playing with at a friend’s house. “Mom, why are David’s parent’s so poor?” he asked. David’s father was a doctor. What did he mean that David’s parents were poor? The mother asked her son what he meant. “Well, the baby had a penny in her mouth and everyone in the family was panicking and worried. They were trying so hard to get the penny out.”
Just like the three year old in the story, we cannot have full comprehension of the world around us, and we tend to make assumptions. This is just as true in real life as it is about the stories in the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov said that we should always look at another with a good eye, to give the benefit of the doubt, and this is necessary, because we often lack the necessary information to form a sound conclusion.
There are various explanations to the question of how Joseph’s brothers could have reasonably (from their point of view) “punished” him. But no matter how many reasons we are given, we cannot fully comprehend the workings of another’s mind, particularly the mind of a Reuven or a Judah. Since every Jew is compared to a letter of the Torah, we cannot fully understand another’s actions, and should look at them with a good eye.