Twice daily, in our prayers, we recall the Exodus from Egypt, affirming our faith by remembering the miracles that demonstrated G-d's power over nature.

Less remembered, however, is an earlier attempt at exodus, detailed in Parshas Vayechi, that would have appeared entirely natural. After the death of Yaakov, Yosef and his brothers ask Pharaoh to allow them to go to the Holy Land to bury him.

Pharaoh grudgingly allows them to go—but only the adults; their children and property were left behind as a guarantee for their return. Apparently, the brothers had been looking to make this their final departure from Egypt, to take their families to the Holy Land for good. Pharaoh said no.

But what if Pharaoh had allowed them all to go? Would this have been a suitable time for redemption, for Yetzias Mitzrayim?

Redemption has one critical condition: It must demonstrate G-d's strength as the force behind it. This goal of achieving revelation through redemption is repeatedly emphasized throughout the story of the Exodus, which stresses that the miracles of geulah produced an appreciation of G-d’s dominant strength.

In the story of Yosef and his brothers, as well, revelation is a dominant theme. Yosef's wisdom is consistently seen as imbued with the G-dly spirit, as he repeatedly invokes G-d as the engineer of the complex set of circumstances that brought him to his high position in Egypt.

His brothers, on the other hand, see things differently. They perceive Yosef’s turbulent experiences as a result of their own bad behavior. The element of redemption is eclipsed by the glare of their own cruelty and its painful consequences for Yosef. In a series of events so dominated by the hateful and harmful hands of man, they do not perceive the gentle hand of G-d.

This lack of perception is highlighted when Hashem ruefully contrasts His method of involvement with the Israelites of Egypt to the way He had related to their forefathers.

As Rabbi Yehuda Halevy explains in his Kuzari, G-d had not revealed miracles to the forefathers, as their faith did not require it. But to the entirety of Klal Yisrael, it had become necessary to bring about redemption through miraculous means.

For the new generation, not sensitive to the subtleties of G-d's hand in nature, a flash of brilliance was needed. It takes far greater perception and sensitivity to see G-d in the ordinary.

Tradition teaches that the final redemption will come in two stages, the first achieved through Mashiach ben Yosef and the second through Mashiach ben David. The Gaon of Vilna teaches that the first stage will be accomplished with Yosef's approach, through natural means, while the second stage will be built on miracles.

Perceptive people will merit to see G-d's redemptive presence in His hidden hand in history, long before the rest of us reacognize it from the miraculous events that even the blind can see.

One can only wonder: Had all the brothers shared Yosef's perception, had they seen in this story the geulah that Yosef saw, would the subsequent era of slavery have been necessary? Could this journey to bury Yaakov have been the final trip to Israel, culminating in the triumphant acknowledgment of exceptionally ordinary G-dliness?

And are we perhaps failing to notice the same thing: the final chapters of redemption as they occur in our own lives and in the national life of Klal Yisrael?

Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Rabbi Hauer is rabbi of Bnai Jacob Congregation, Baltimore, MD.