The sefarim tell us that the punishment of the Shevatim for their selling of Yosef came in the form of the Romans executing the Ten Martyrs which we mention on Yom Kippur in the piyut אלה אזכרה in tefilas Musaf. Some learn that the ten brothers of Yosef were even reincarnated in the Ten Martyrs to receive their punishment. This interpretation seems to favor the opinion that Yosef did not forgive his brothers for their cruelty towards him as we find in the Medrash Shochar Tov 1 רבי אבין אומר בכל דור ודור עדיין חטא של מכירת יוסף קיים.

The Meshech Chachma (vayikra 16,30) writes that this lasting punishment is alluded to in the Yom Kippur Mussaf davening in the ending of the beracha of Shemoneh Esrai כי אתה סלחן לישראל ומחלן לשבטי ישורון. The mentioning of forgiveness for the Shevatim refers to the selling of Yosef. This could be the reason why the avodah for the atonement of this aveirah that we beseech on Yom Kippur is performed in the Beis Hamikdash proper and not in the courtyard. The reason being that the Kodesh and Kodesh Kadoshim were located in the land of Binyamin who did not participate in the sale of Yosef, in contrast to the courtyard which was the property of Yehudah who did play a major role in selling Yosef.

According to the above point of view, why did their punishment of tikkun become so delayed to be actualized only after the Churban of the Second Beis Hamikdash? To understand this we have to first examine the beginning Mishnah in Meseches Baba Kama. ארבעה אבות נזיקין השור והבור והמבעה וההבער. There are four categories of damages, an ox, a pit, a tooth, and fire. One is responsible to pay damages caused by his ox by stepping on a vessel, his digging of a pit in public, damages brought about by his animal having pleasure such as eating a neighbor's grass, and lighting a fire which spread and caused damage.

We suggest that this Mishna can be understood in a deeper allegorically level alluding to the sale of Yosef. There are physical damages and spiritual ones. For instance Chazal say that if one causes an individual to sin he is worse than killing him .(במדבר רבה כא ה) We also find that the entire Aggada of the Churban Beis Hamikdash was written in Meseches Gittin in the perek called הניזקין damages. By selling Yosef to Mitzrayim, a country steeped in decadence and immorality, they willfully were complacent with damaging Yosef's spiritual's identity and making a churban of him. In the sefer Bais Yishai he writes that the selling of Yosef took place on Asarah B'taiveis a fast day established on account of the beginning of the siege around Yerushalyim leading up to the Churban. We can glean from the above that spiritual damages also fall under the category of נזיקין.

This first Mishna of Baba Kama hints to a few clues that strongly support such an interpretation of מכירת יוסף . There are ten Mishnayos in this perek which symbolizes the ten brothers who sought to damage Yosef spiritually. One of my bachurim Avi Miller brought another remez to this in that the Mishna begins with ארבעה אבות . The Pachad Yitzchak ztl writes that Yosef's role in building Klal Yisrael was both an Av and Shevet. Yosef after succeeding to pass the test of immorality with the wife of Potifar, thereby implanted a protection to all of Yisrael to restrain from immorality in Mitzrayim. This achievement merited him to belong partially in the category of Avos מעשה אבות סימן לבנים . So the words of ארבעה אבות lend themselves to be a reference to our "Fourth" Father , Yosef.

The ending lines of this first perek specifically mentions the greatness achieved by Yosef. So the first word of the perek is ארבעה referring to Yosef, the end of the perek speaks about Yosef, and in between them the contents are נזיקין. Furthermore, the word נזיקין contains in it the word זקן which also refers to Yosef as he is described as the בן זקנים .

Let us examine the first damager the שור and how it relates to מכירת יוסף. Yosef is called a שור as the passuk (Devarim 33,17) says .בכור שורו הדר לו In the beracha to Shimon (Bereishis 49,6) וברצונם עקרו שור they intended to uproot Yosef (Rashi). Yosef was sold to the Yishmealim who brought him down to Mitzrayim as the passuk says (Bereishis 39,1) .מיד הישמעאלים אשר הודידוהו שמה The sale of Yosef is hinted in the gematriah of הישמעאלים which equals the word שור. Furthermore, the passuk (Yeshaya 1,3) says ידע שור קונהו that a bull recognizes its master. In the sefer כנף רננים he explains that it is not only the old master for whom the bull is willing to work, but the same drive instantly applies even to its brand new owner קונהו. It is as if the bull knows exactly what is was created for and does not change its nature at all. Yosef is called a שור because he understood that he was created to serve Hashem and he never changed his purpose and mission whether he was in Eretz Yisrael with his father or in Mitzrayim all alone. As the Avnei Nezer writes on the passuk קמה אלומתי וגם נצבה he never lost any of his madraigos. This is how the Chofetz Chaim ztl translated the passuk מי יעלה בהר ה' ומי יקום במקום קדשו . Many people climb the mountain however few fulfill מי יקום במקום קדשו to remain on top.

This passuk ends with ,עמי לא התבונן however my nation did not delve deep enough to understand their קונהו owner Hashem. Here too we find an allusion to Mechiras Yosef. ידע שור קנהו Yosef was deeply connected as one to his creator. The hint to this is the word קנהו (master) is gematriah יהוסף the name that he was given with the added letter ה after he overcame his ordeal with the wife of Potifar. However this is in contrast to עמי which is referring to the Ten Shevatim from which evolved Klal Yisrael, upon whom the Navi says לא התבונן they did not understand Yosef's relationship of righteousness with Hashem. A hinting to this pshat is the gematriah of עמי לא together with its five letters which equal יוסף.

The second damager is the בור the pit into which his brothers threw him. Some meforshim learn that they knew that inside the pit were snakes and scorpions which would kill him. They might have thought that since it was indirect murder they would not be responsible. The Torah writes that there was no water inside. Water symbolizes Torah. By throwing him inside that were saying that he deserved death because he was void of Torah as the Chazal say (Sotah 5) .כל המתגאה חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו Since Yosef acted with haughtiness he has lost his Torah. Therefore he is like a בור which translates as an עם הארץ and cannot lead Am Yisrael.

The third damager agent in the Mishnah is מבעה which refers to teeth. Yosef is hinted in מבעה symbolizing the mouth and koach of dibbur. The Baal Haturim writes that Yosef learned Mishnayos Torah Be'al Peh from his father which is hinted in the acronym of זקנים . The word שן is the root of ושננתם and משנה. The brothers' selling of Yosef was damaging and hindering his learning of Torah to be infused into Klal Yisrael.

The fourth agent of damage is fire. The passuk says בית יעקב אש בית יוסף להבה ובית עשו לקש that Yaakov is fire, Yosef is the flame, and Aisav is the straw that will be set aflame by Yosef. For as soon as Yosef was born, Yaakov was ready to leave Lavan because Yosef was the antagonist and defeater of Aisav. By the brothers' ridding of Yosef they were damaging this spiritual power invested in Yosef on behalf of Am Yisrael. Secondly, the brothers were fiery angry with hate and jealousy which caused them to damage Yosef by attempting to extinguish his fire by selling him.

As we just explained, this Mishnah alludes to the treacherous sale of Yosef by his brothers and the different aspects of damage that was done to him. The Halacha is that if the one desires to pay for his damages with land then he must pay with a land level of the highest quality category עדיות as the passuk says מיטב שדהו ומיטב כרמו ישלם (Shmos 22,4). With this we can answer why was the punishment of the ten brothers of Yosef delayed all the way up to after the Churban Habayis? The payit itself answers the question as Caesar said to them ואתם קבלו דין שמים עליכם כי מימי אבותיכם לא נמצא ככם "now you must accept the verdict of heaven upon yourselves for since the days of your forefathers there has not existed your equal. If they were alive I would sentence them before you". Since their selling of Yosef was tantamount to incredible spiritual damage to Yosef who as we said above possessed the characteristics of the Avos, the punishment payment had to be specifically in the מיטב form of the עשרה הרוגי מלכות who had no equal caliber since the Shevatim.

According to the opposing opinion that claims that Yosef did forgive them, how then can we explain the death of the Ten Martyrs as a tikkun? We can explain this as follows. Chazal learn that Yosef kept the Shabbos. However, the Zohar Hakadosh says that Yosef's madraigah was שבת קודש. Therefore the Mekubalim write that this was the blemish in the sale of Yosef to Mitzrayim. Removing an object from a רשות היחיד לרשות הרבים is a act of Chilul Shabbos. Similarly, removing Yosef Hatzadik from Eretz Yisrael where עיני ה' אלקיך בה which parallels the spiritual dimensions of a רשות היחיד, יחידו של עולם , and then selling him to Mitzrayim which is full of avoda zarah and the opposite kedushas Habris, is tantamount to Chillul Shabbos and blemishing the Bris Milah.

It could very well be that Yosef did forgive the brothers for their selling of him to Mitzrayim as a slave. However, they still had to contend with the Chillul Shabbos and Bris Milah that this same sale affected in Yosef. This was out of the hands of Yosef to forgive since they blemished the Shabbos itself.

In the Kinnos of Tisha B'av we find a similar Payit Arzei Halavanon concerning the Asarah Harugai Malchus. On Tisha B'av the Payaton elaborates on the death of Rabbe Eliazar Ben Shamuah. He was killed while he was saying the Kiddush missing the last word לעשת from ויכולו. He was the last one of the Ten Martyrs. Chazal say הכל הולך אחר הגמר. Therefore the ending tells us that all of the Ten Martyrs were atoning the avierah of the Ten Brothers which they didn't correct, and that was the defiling of Shabbos who was Yosef. This is hinted in the gematriah of לעשת which equals אברהם יצחק יעקב ויוסף. They didn't realize that Yosef was the fourth Av of Yisrael and their actions were מחלל השבת. The word לעשת means to fix and repair Rashi (Breishis 1,7). It is also gematriah חילול השבת with its nine letters. This is hinting that the עשרה הרוגי מלכות were executed to fix the חילול שבת by their sale of Yosef.

Now let us revisit the Mishna and see how this same list of damages to Yosef was also a Chillul Shabbos. Concerning Shabbos the passuk says (Shmos 31,13) לדעת כי אני ה' מקדישכם . This corresponds to ידע שור קונהו that because we are given a neshama yesairah we have greater clarity to recognize Hashem as the sole creator and sustainer of the universe. בור when one digs deep enough he can find water. Shabbos which is יומא דנשמתא , one can remove his earthliness and discover the מים עמוקים בלב איש . Shabbos is also a day of מבעה we use our mouths to learn Torah, daven extra and sing praises to Hashem מזמור שיר ליום השבת טוב להודות לה' ולזמר לשמך עליון. We reach the fourth level in creation called "מדבר". Yet the nature of teeth is sometimes they are revealed when one talks and other times they are not seen. On Shabbos our speech must be controlled and elevated as the Navi says ולדבר דבר We must refrain from Shabbos prohibited talking. Lastly, the Shabbos infuses a הבער a fire of deveikus and inspiration into the heart of a Yid. A fire has two functions, one to destroy and the other to enlighten. The neshamah of Shabbos aids us to סור מרע and enlightens to עשה טוב .

In conclusion we have a spectacular gematriah in this sugya שור בור מבעה הבער adds up to שבת קודש. This shows that these four aspects damaged Yosef and the Shabbos that he personified. The way to rectify the Mechiras Yosef is to enhance our Shabbos with all its trimmings and to demonstrate how precious and cherished it is to us. Every bit of added effort will help hasten to bring the galus to its close.