The Torah tells us of the amazing story of Joseph and his brothers. Yosef had two dreams in which he understood both to mean that in the future his brothers would bow down to him. When he told these dreams to his brothers they became very upset at him. Their father Yaakov showed a special love for Yosef, and gave him a beautiful colorful coat as a gift. This also made the brothers jealous of Yosef.
One day, as they were in the fields shepherding their sheep and saw Yosef approaching , they schemed a plan to throw him in a pit with snakes and scorpions. After they did that, they decided to sell him to an Egyptian peddler on his way to Egypt. In Egypt, Yosef ended up in jail after being falsely accused by the wife of the prince Potifar. In jail, Yosef interpreted two mens dreams correctly which was what eventually got him out of jail. Pharaoh had two dreams and needed someone to interpret them, so Yosef got the job. Yosef interpreted the dreams to be foreboding the future in which there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh appointed Yosef as second to the King, and made him in charge of the food storage houses.
{ The children created edible 'Yosef coats'}
When the years of plenty had past, and the storage houses were full of food, sure enough the years of famine arrived. People from all around would come to Yosef to buy food so they wouldn't starve. Yaakov sent his sons to buy food from Egypt since the famine had hit Israel as well. When they came to Egypt to buy food, they didn't recognize Yosef. They requested to buy food, but Yosef accused them of being spies. Yosef insisted that they bring their youngest brother to Egypt in order to retrieve food. Yaakov was afraid to do this because he did not want to 'loose' another son, but eventually he had no choice.
When Yosef was finally with all of his brothers, he broke down and revealed himselef to his brothers. He said, "I am Yosef, is my father still alive?" The brothers were shocked, and obviously deeply ashamed, but Yosef assured them that he was not upset at them and that they were forgiven. How did Yosef come to such a rationalization after all that his brothers had done to him!? He said, "Now it was not you that sent me here, but G-d." Yosef understood that it was part of G-d's plan that he be sent to Egypt, to set up a system of survival during the famine. We can all realize the profound strength it must have taken for Yosef to believe this, completely forgiving his brothers for things they had done to him. We can learn from Yosef the concept of true forgiveness. Everything is part of G-d's plan, and while no one should wrong another, we should all find it in ourselves to forgive.
In the fifth and sixth grades, after internalizing this lesson from our Hero Yoesf, we set up a 'court' in our classroom with the students having a chance to be the prosecutors and defendants. The teacher provided them with a case scenario in which they had to discuss if the person should forgive their friend or not. The children used the lessons from Yosef, as well as the discussions between themselves to decide. This helped the children analyze the situations and understand how it could be applied to their every day lives. Yosef showed us that even for the hardest things, we can find reason to forgive. G-d has a plan, and we are all a part of it.
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