Who sold Yosef to Mitzrayim? There isn’t really one answer to that question. The brother’s plotted to kill him, but the ישמעאלים were the ones who he was sold to, and they brought him down to Mitzrayim. Then of course Hashem was clearly involved, because had the מלאך not pointed Yosef away from שכם and sent him to דתן he never would have met up with the brothers.
Put yourselves in Yosef’s shoes. You must be furious with your brothers, they were jealous of you and literally tried to murder you, you screamed and cried and begged but they dumped you in a pit and then slumped you over a camel’s back for a few bucks. And indeed, the Pasuk in last week’s פרשה says, וירא יוסף את אחיו ויכרם ויתנכר אליהם וידבר אתם קשות, Yosef saw his brothers and he recognized them and he estranged himself with them and spoke harshly with them. There is no kindness there. But then he remembers the dreams that he had, and he puts a plan into place to test his brothers. They had forsaken him as a brother, and he wanted to see if they would come together as brothers. First, he imprisons Shimon, then he coordinates a scenario where his brother from both parents would be placed in danger. What will the brothers do now for a child of Rachel? Our פרשה begins with Yehuda’s moving speech and he puts his life on the line for Yosef’s little brother. Yosef sees that they have finally banded together as brothers and are ready to let their father’s unequal love fall away and not affect them.
He yells out הוציאו כל איש מעלי, take out all men from before me, since he does not want his brothers to be embarrassed. The מדרש at the end of the Torah deals with the problematic last 8 פסוקים of the Torah. Those פסוקים discuss Moshe dying and Yehoshua taking over, but how can Moshe be writing about his own death and the events that occurred after that? One of the answers given is that Moshe wrote those 8 פסוקים without spaces and Yehoshua inserted the spaces. This means that the spaces that we have in the Torah, while obviously holy and important are not necessarily the only spaces that make the Torah complete. Watch what happens if you manipulate the spaces in this Pasuk, הוציאו כל איש מעלי, כל אישמעלי, אישמעלי on some level Yosef was saying – possibly to himself – get any reference to the Arabs out of here! They had no hand in me standing here! Hashem is the only reason I am here! And that is how Yosef can tell the brothers לא אתם שלחתם אתי הנה כי למחיה שלחני אלקים לפניכם. He needed to convince himself that there was no earthly cause for him being in Mitzrayim. Sure, it seemed like it was the brothers and the ישמעאלים and Potiphar and all the others that he could blame. But at this emotionally charged moment, he told himself, take the ישמעאלים out of the picture, Hashem set all this up so that I can feed you. This is how Yosef was able to never be a victim and always overcome all of his challenges and dark moments.
May we all be zoche to see past the natural reasons for the troubles that we have and see that Hashem is coordinating the entire world and eventually all will come together.