The story of Josef's "mishaps" is one of the most perplexing in the Torah. He invites his brothers acrimony and suffers appallingly as a result with consequences which shape the future of the Jewish people. The Talmud says that Yaakov had been told by Hashem that he would have to go to Egypt. Rabbi Dessler in page 230 of Michtav Me'Elihayu vol 2, quotes both the Medrash and the Zohar which report an exchange between Yaakov and Hashem. "Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt because I will be with you." No one needs to be told not to be afraid unless they are afraid. Yaakov told G-d that he feared that Egypt might extinguish and eradicate his children's Jewish identity. G-d replied "I will go with you as a guarantee that this will not occur".

The separation of Joseph from his father Yaakov lasted 22 years. The obvious question occurs as to why at no point did Joseph try to send word that he was still alive.

The 22 years leading up to the exile were ones of preparation for Yaakov. In Chapter 46 verse 5 it says, "And the children of Israel bore Yaakov their father" Why are they called the children of Israel and why is Israel called Yaakov? Yaakov had to get his sons and their families to the spiritual plateau wherein they could be referred to as Bnei Yisroel (children of Israel). This denotes a higher level than would the term Bnei Yaakov. Yaakov himself is so called, to hint at the parallel word "Eikev" meaning end. The prophecy which had deserted him through the sorrow caused by the disappearance of Joseph, he now allowed to flood into him in full measure. In so doing prophecy returned to him so that he would be able to see the future and the end of the world, when the Messiah arrives. This allows him to hope and to pass that hope onto his children.

Joseph too was busy. His elevation to the monarchy of Egypt allowed him the opportunity to direct Egyptian affairs so as to lessen that society's potency to corrupt the Jews. The classic example is moving the entire population of Egypt from their home cities to others within the empire. This meant that the Jews would not stand out so much as foreigners as everyone had become foreigners. When he commanded all Egyptian males to be circumcised there was near revolution and the people complained to Pharaoh. He replied "If he tells you even to cut off your arm do it". The reason for Pharaoh's support of Joseph was pragmatism. Even though everyone had followed Joseph's advice and copied his preparation for the famine, the grain which they had stored rotted. There was only food through Joseph and without him they would all have been dead. The grain of Joseph was therefore unnatural and miraculous.

There is a general Jewish principle, G-d only performs miracles for someone in direct response to the amount of "Mesiras nefesh" (self sacrifice), which they have made for Him. It was for that reason therefore, that all the appalling suffering which Joseph had gone through had to be endured. It afforded him the opportunity to accept each trial without complaint against G-d. Hashem consequently uses him as the conduit through which he would work. This allowed Joseph to minimise the potential poison that Egypt would be for the Jews.

With one more Talmudic teaching we can answer all the questions. The Jews were in Egypt for 210 years. Through that, they reached the 49th level of spiritual degeneration. Had they remained in Egypt a millisecond longer, they would have fallen to the 50th level which is the level at which G-d can no longer help. If in his 22 years of preparation therefore, Joseph had taken an "afternoon off" then the work of preparation would have been insufficient and they would have reached the fiftieth level sooner. They would consequently have been lost.

That is why he did not contact his father, which would have meant him going to see Yaakov, or his father coming to see Joseph. Joseph's job was to prepare himself to be able to prepare himself to change Egypt so the Jews would survive. Yaakov's task was to prepare the Jews so that they would surprise