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Even after being reunited with his father, Joseph avoided spending very much time with him. Why? Because of the one question that Joseph feared his father would ask him.

How to Honor a Father

Parshah Nuggets: Vayechi

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By Mendel Kalmenson
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson has traveled Europe, Asia and South America, reaching out to Jews in the remotest areas. He now resides with his wife Chanale, daughter Geulah, and son Dov, in Brooklyn, New York, where he serves as rabbi of the Besht Center, a spiritual center for young profssionals.
Mendel regularly contributes articles to Chabad.org, most of them appearing in his Parshah column, "What the Rebbe Taught Me."
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Discussion (2)
December 30, 2012
sicha?
Which commentator says that he didn't want his father to ask him that question?
Anonymous
December 29, 2012
I was thinking that Joseph was more protecting himself, because his father would have wanted to know why Joseph didn't attempt to contact his father during those 7 years of plenty, when he was viceroy for the Pharoh. He could have?? and then why didn't he? He must have realized how his father suffered from his loss, a parent that looses a child, what loss is greater, and when Joseph finally had the opportunity to contact his father....he didn't.....Why is that..... I think he would be avoiding that question.
And even if it was the other explanation.....what kind of fear keeps a child from the presence of the beloved presence of the parent, certainly he had developed the character trait of humbleness that would have allowed him to negotiate the issue of his brothers behaviors....at the least to acknowledge that it was an act of HaShem and certainly Yaakov had been around long enough to be able to turn that over to HaShem as well...
Sophia Joshua
Ashland
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