"Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come closer to me," and they drew closer. And he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. But now do not be sad, and let it not trouble you that you sold me here, for it was to preserve life that G-d sent me before you."
וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹסֵף אֶל אֶחָיו גְּשׁוּ נָא אֵלַי וַיִּגָּשׁוּ וַיֹּאמֶר אֲנִי יוֹסֵף אֲחִיכֶם אֲשֶׁר מְכַרְתֶּם אֹתִי מִצְרָיְמָהוְעַתָּה | אַל תֵּעָצְבוּ וְאַל יִחַר בְּעֵינֵיכֶם כִּי מְכַרְתֶּם אֹתִי הֵנָּה כִּי לְמִחְיָה שְׁלָחַנִי אֱלֹקים לִפְנֵיכֶם
Breisheit 45:4-5
Remarkable Turn of Events
The Ohr HaChaim comments on "Now don't worry or feel guilty because you sold me" saying, why use the double language of 'worry' and 'guilty' - can't one of these words suffice? Also these are two opposite ideas where 'worry' focuses on a broken heart, and 'guilt' is connected to haughtiness?
Yoseph says to his brothers, 'You are worried because of the sale [of me to Egypt]' since they had said [when they came to Egypt to request food] "but we are guilty of our brother's misfortune" (Breisheit 42:21). Now that Yoseph reveals himself, he uses the language "don't worry" to announce to them that their feelings are close to his heart and that he knows they are still worried about what they did to him even to this very day.
The Ohr HaChaim continues by saying the reason for saying "guilty" is to point out that the sale itself brought about a remarkable turn of events.
Still a Brotherhood
The Netivot Shalom notes that the verse states "You sold me" adjacent to "Your brother" in order to show that even at the time of the sale, nevertheless Yoseph was their brother, and that even at this time darkness had still not clouded the eyes of the brotherhood.
And on the next verse "Now don't worry or feel guilty because you sold me," why shouldn't they worry and feel guilty about what they did? Even though things turned out good in the end, nevertheless they committed a horrible act in selling their own brother - their own flesh and blood - and they should be judged negatively and be expected to repent.
So then why say to them "don't worry"? It is because they don't have to repent at all! Essentially they didn't do anything at all. As it says later "You might have meant to do me harm, but G-d made it come out for good" (Breisheit 50:20). And the Ohr HaChaim says on this verse 'This is like someone who intends to pour his friend a glass filled with poison, but actually pours a glass of wine - he is not guilty of anything! And so the brothers are likewise free of guilt - both between their fellow man and with heaven.
How Can You Sell Your Brother
And what about the repetition in the verses about the sale of Yoseph to Egypt?
The Netivot Shalom continues noting that the original sale of Yoseph to Egypt is a mystery. How could 11 holy and pure sons of Yaacov (the staff) and without a single blemish to their name, and yet from out of them come the Community of Israel, how could they reach such depths to come to sell their own brother - their flesh and blood?
And that is why the Torah includes these verses here! The Torah comes to clarify what Yoseph was thinking when the sale took place. Yoseph knew the righteousness and holiness of his brothers, so he would be puzzled on how they can come to carry out such a cruel action?
Judging for Merit
The Netivot Shalom explains that a truly righteous individual does not see even the slightest blemish of evil in his fellow man, and only judges them for merit. Yoseph understood intrinsically that these actions absolutely must have a greater good connected to them, and they can't just be doing this out of a sense of spite or pure evil, heaven forbid. Yoseph thus concludes that for these holy and righteous individuals to do this act, it must be to make something greater.
Ultimate Will
Yet the question still remains, how could the brothers do this? The fact that Yoseph judges them for merit means that this must be the will of G-d that he be sold, and that really the actions of the brothers are out of force majeure.
The actual purpose of this act was for good, since the actions of the righteous (tzadikim) are always for good. So actually the very act of his brothers was to sort of send Yoseph on a mission on their behalf, and that they had no choice in this matter, that their very limbs betrayed them and ultimately were carrying out the will of G-d to have Yoseph sold and brought down to Egypt.
In the end they see that everything was for the best, and for Yoseph, even at the seemingly dark time of the sale, the spirit of brotherhood had not gone dark.
True Tzadik
Here is where we see the greatness and righteousness of Yoseph, that he is a true tzadik. Since typically with people, everything that one finds despicable in his fellow man and then judges them detrimentally, these very characteristics are actually present within, and are his own deficiencies [and the criticism he puts forth is about those characteristics within himself that he dislikes]. A holy and pure Jew will only see goodness in his fellow Jew.
Internal Character Flaws
Ultimately regarding the matter of faith by a Jew, this is tied to his level of purity and dedication to G-d. That if a Jew has doubts in his faith, this creeps out through character flaws. These internal deficiencies can boil one's blood and literally contaminate one's blood, and this contaminated blood then goes up to the brain and into the heart, creating deficiencies in faith.
I want to add my own addition to the words from Netivot Shalom. There is an expression in English that goes 'Makes my blood boil' which can refer to a number of circumstances. Anger, bitterness or jealousy can all make a person's blood boil, and these are all profound character flaws. As Pirkei Avot notes (Ch 4 Mishna 27):
Jealousy, lust, and honor remove a man from this world.
True Faith
The Netivot Shalom continues. Yoseph was a tzadik to his very base, and his faith was on a very high level. When a Jew's faith is very high, then nothing can influence him negatively. He knows that when a man harms him, the Faithful Jew knows that this pain was not from the man inflicting it. This is like the metaphor of a dog that is hit by a rock. The dog barks at the rock thinking that the rock carried out the attack. As opposed to man, who knows that a rock has no will, and that the rock was actually thrown by someone. Likewise for the Faithful Jew, when harm befalls him, he knows that this is straight from heaven. And when it is decreed by heaven that he should suffer, then it will either be by one way or another, and that every action is a matter of heavenly supervision (השגחת פרטית).
This is what Yoseph was saying to his brothers "I am Yoseph your brother!" (Breisheit 45:4), that even at the moment of selling him, the sense of brotherhood did not go dark, since he knew that this was all a matter of heavenly supervision, and that the brothers didn't do anything. "He that believes shall not make haste" (Yeshayahu 28:16) since the true believer understands that no man has the power to do anything to him and that everything that happens is from heaven and under divine supervision.
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