This week’s Parsha, Vayeshev, is a famous portion of Bereshit. In the Parsha, Yosef is told by his father to go check on his brothers in the field. Yosef’s brothers see him coming and plot to kill him, but Reuben stops the brothers and instead suggests they throw Yosef into a pit. The brothers than soak Yosef’s special coat, made for him by his father, in goat’s blood and return to Yakov. Yakov was heartbroken and mourned the loss of his son. We learn that Yosef gets sold into slavery in Egypt in the house of Potiphar, and after a conflict within the house, Yosef finds himself in prison with the Pharaoh’s royal baker and royal butler. One night, both the butler and baker had bad dreams, which Yosef interpreted for them. When the predictions came true, Yosef asked the butler to remember Yosef’s feats while sitting in the court of the Pharaoh.
Although traditionally the main focus of the Parsha is in the coat Yakov made for Yosef, or in the dreams Yosef interpreted, there is an often overlooked disturbance in the text. When Yakov hears of Yosef’s “death” it says he mourned for “many days.” Rashi brings up that Yakov mourned 22 years, which was from the time he heard of his son’s death until they met once again in Egypt. If Yakov mourned for 22 years, why does it say he mourned for many days?
Like all other phrases in the Torah that seem out of place, a look back into the text finds the answer to the reason behind the seemingly misplaced phrase. In Parshat Toldot, Yakov deceives his father Isaac into giving him the blessing of the first-born son. When Esav hears his birthright has been stolen, he plots to kill his brother. Rivka than tells Yakov to run to her brother Laban for a, “few days.” Later, in Parshat Vayetzei, the phrase, “few days” is seen again. It says that the seven years Yakov worked to gain Rachel’s hand in marriage seemed like a few days because of his intense love for Rachel. Rashi explains that the similarity in the text shows the connection between the cause and effect for Yakov’s punishment. Because Yakov lied to his father in regards to the birthright, the “few days” it felt like it took to marry Rachel was turned into “many days” of mourning over his lost son Yosef.
Yakov mourned for what seemed like many days over the loss of his beloved son because he had to face the consequences for his actions. Yakov’s lie to Yitzchak ended in Yakov getting a birthright, but also four wives. This stroke of good luck isn’t the lesson to be taken from lying to our parents, so Hashem made Yakov pay for his sin later on in the form of mourning over his son.