Empathy

After the brothers are turned away by Yosef, the Torah tells us their reaction.  The brothers appear to be admitting their guilt in the sale of Yosef and then Reuvain seems to say I told you so.  Is that the conversation, what kind of comforting words is Reuvain offering?  The Sforno and Or Hachaim explain that the brothers don't admit their guilt for the act of the sail, they say that they are guilty for not hearing the cries of Yosef.  However, they still held that their decision of the sale was correct and Reuvain says your teshuva is not good enough.  The sale itself should not have taken place!  We see from her that the brothers felt even though their decision of the sale was correct, they should have taken pity on their brother.  True, cold logic dictated they were correct, but how can you ignore the pleas and cries of your young brother?  At least they should have treated him in a better fashion.  I can't help but be reminded of the line in the movie Nuremberg 2000, where the Jewish psychologist is trying to understand how the Germans could do such atrocious actions without any pains of conscious.  He concluded that the root of evil is the lack of empathy.  It wasn't so much the act that bothered the brothers, it was their lack of empathy for their brother that they regretted.  Even if one is determined that they are right and someone must be punished at least feel his/her pain and then maybe you will see the decision isn't vindicated.
The Rebbe (Likutay Sichos volume 30) takes issue with this approach for it still seems unnecessary for Reuvain to say "I told not to do anything to him and you didn't listen."  If he wanted to say they should regret the sale itself, just say you sinned in the sale itself and must do teshuva for that, why say it in a seemingly haughty manner?  The Rebbe explains that there are two kinds of teshuva.  There is teshuva that comes because of an external factor that causes a person to realize his/her mistake.  Then there is a greater level, where the person on his/her own accord recognizes the need for teshuva.  The brothers did teshuva because of the צרה in front of them, but it wasn't a voluntary teshuva.  Reuvain says that shouldn't be the reason for the teshuva, you should do teshuva because of what I explained earlier to you; that it is a great sin to harm Yosef (see inside for how this explains why the Rambam tells us the great principle of בחירה חפשית in the middle of הל' תשובה.)