A vort from the Rebbe, this week's פרשה, פרשת מקץ. In פרשת מקץ we learn that Paroh appointed Yosef to be the ruler over Mitzrayim, and the pasuk says ויקראו לפניו אברך, they called in front of him אברך. What does אברך mean? So Rashi says אברך is from the word, from the lashon of ברכים, of knees, which means that he was the ruler and everyone bend their knees to him, they bowed down to him. So the Rebbe asks, later on when the brothers of Yosef, when the shevatim shevatim came to Mitzrayim, it says וישתחוו לו אפים ארצה, they bowed down to him with their face to the ground, and Rashi says נשתטחו על פניהם, they laid down on the ground with their face to the ground. So if everybody else only bend their knees to Yosef, like the pasuk says that by יוסף ויקראו לפניו אברך, which is לשון ברכים, meaning they bend their knees, that's just how they gave him respect. Seems so if everybody did that, how come when the brothers came, it says that they laid down completely to him? If by the Mitzrayim it says that they only bend their knees to him, how come by the shevatim it says they lay down completely?

So the Rebbe explains a simple pshat. Yosef really wasn't completely a king, he was the ruler, but he wasn't really a king for everything. He wasn't appointed because he be'etzem supposed to be the ruler, just Paroh decided, from after he interpreted the dream, to make him king, make him the ruler, but he's not really a king, and therefore there was a difference. When they bow down to the king, they takeh lay down completely all the way on the ground, but when it was to Yosef, they only bend their feet. But the shevatim, they didn't know that. When the shevatim came, they only real they saw Yosef, what Yosef is doing, so what they did was they thought that he is similar to the king, he's the same level as the king, and therefore they bowed they laid down completely on the ground. Obviously they didn't want to ask around people what how you behave in front of Yosef, especially that he told them, \"You are spies.\" Imagine if they would go around asking how what things concerning Yosef, etc., etc., that would be more reason for them to suspect that he they are spies. So they didn't ask anybody, they just came to Yosef and they didn't know that by Yosef you only bow down, you only bend your knees, so they thought that he was like the king. By the king you lay down completely, so they lay down completely also. And that's the difference between the two pesukim. They called him אברך because they all bowed down to him by bending the knees, and by the shevatim they lay down completely, because they didn't realize that that's the way you do it. That's the pashut pshat the Rebbe says in the pesukim.

But then the Rebbe says al pi chassidut in פנימיות הענינים, it says in sefarim, like Torah Ohr, other sefarim, that the malchus, the the rulership, the kingship of Yosef represents the malchus shamayim, the kingship of the Aibershter, and therefore, when a person became batel to Yosef, essentially what it mean meant, he became batel to the Aibershter, because Yosef represented malchus shamayim, so they became batel to malchus shamayim. And that's the difference between how it worked with the Mitzrayim and how it worked with the brothers of Yosef. The Mitzrayim, they takeh had an hashpa'ah, Yosef had an effect on them, and just the presence of Yosef had an effect, so someone showed the bittul to Yosef made it had an effect that he's batel to the Aibershter. But by the Mitzrayim, they were at such a low level that it brought them a small level of bittul, a lower level of bittul. The shevatim, who were a very high level, so the malchus of Yosef, which is the malchus shamayim, brought them to a higher level of bittul to the Aibershter. And therefore, by the Mitzrayim it says their bittul was a partial bittul, they only bend down their knees, so it's a partial bittul, a little bit of bittul, but by the brothers of Yosef, it cause it brought to them a a great level of bittul to malchus shamayim, and therefore it expressed itself in the physical part that they laid down on the floor completely. They takeh didn't know that this was Yosef when they did this, but l'foal it was Yosef, and Yosef's presence has a hashpa'ah. So they had the hashpa'ah that they bowed down completely, laying down on the floor, which represents the complete bitul to malchut shamayim.