Mazel tov! So many weddings were held in recent days in Israel. Small, last minute weddings just before the lockdown. Here is some advice from the story of Joseph for all those couples who are just now setting up a little home of their own during the pandemic: speak to each other.
The meeting between Joseph and his brothers is thought of as one of the supreme moments in the entire Torah. What brings about appeasement and brotherly love? The power of speech.
Indeed, when Joseph was a teenager, his brothers could not bear to speak a single word to
him: “And they could not speak with him peacefully.” Afterwards when Joseph told his brothers his dreams, he lectured and did not converse with them. And when Joseph went looking for his brothers and was approaching them, they saw him from a distance and plotted to throw him into a pit.
Joseph hinted to his brothers, based on his dreams, what would happen to them, but he did not converse with them. And so his brothers spoke about what would happen to Joseph, but did not speak directly with him.
Then, after 22 years of separation, we read the following: “And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and afterwards his brothers spoke with him.”
This is how to progress in marriage and in family life, and how to build good relationships in general: instead of keeping silent and building up anger, open the heart and share with one another, speak openly, and continue to move forward together.
(translation by Yehoshua Siskin)