Did Yosef's brother's ever confess?

Among the kinnos we recited on Tisha B'Avv  is the one commemorating the Asar Harugey malchus. We recall them again on Yom Kippur, as these 10 great rabbis were seen as stand-ins for the brothers of Yosef who retained culpability for selling him.

I was thinking about this today and recalled a shiur from nearly six years ago that I referred to here: http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2015/12/did-yosef-forgive-his-brothers.html

 In the shiur that Michal Horowitz gave today, she mentioned that Rav Moshe Feinstein said that Yosef never explicitly forgave his brothers, never saying so outright, and that kept the debt hanging over klal Yisrael that was collected in the form of the asara harugey malchus.  She said it to make the point that one should be sure to clearly say that they forgive so that there will not be a price to pay for the person or the person's descendants.

During the shiur someone asked if the brothers actually asked forgiveness. She said she wasn't certain that they did. It's true that they did not do so directly; however, in Vayechi, this week's parsha they do so indirectly after their father's death when they tell him that Yaakov said he should forgive them (50:17) : "Ana sa na pesha achicha vechatatham ki raa gamlucha veata sa na lepesha avdey Elokey avicha. [Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they treatedf you badly, and now forgive the transgression of the ones who serve the G-d of your father]"  Yosef doesn't respond with "you are forgiven" but with what amounts to saying "there's nothing to forgive." What he says is: "Al titrau, ki hatachat Elokim ani? Veatem chashavtem alay raa, Elokim chashva letova. [Don't be afraid. Am I in place of G-d? You thought to cause me harm, but G-d had a plan for good]"

I then offered the explanation my grandfather gave on distinguishing between intentions and outcomes for culpability:

He starts by explaining the double language for wrongdoing that the brothers used in referring to their sin as they sinned both against Yosef and against G-d. The first part of Yosef's answer, "ki hatachat Elokim ani?" was making the point that he is not empowered to forgive them for a transgression against G-d.

Yosef then addresses the the transgression against him, and says it doesn't require forgiveness.  Yosef points out that it is true that they had bad intentions toward him, but G-d had good ones. As a bad outcome was averted, so was the negative account of a bad deed. Yosef was applying  the princple of crediting for intentions is only on the positive side. That is "machshava tova Hakadosh Barush Hu metzrfa lema'ase [Hashem adds on the credit of good intentions to the deed]" but not the reverse. Yosef insisted there was no bad deed on record, only bad intent, and that doesn't count by itself.

However, today I thought of  a different approach to the culpability of the brothers:

Perhaps the one they needed forgiveness from was actually Yaakov -- who suffered all those years without knowing what was going on and never even got the explanation that the brothers sold Yosef. There was no way they could atone for that because they never even confessed to him.

 Their telling Yosef that their father said to forgive them appears to have been motivated out of their fear of his taking revenge once his father was no longer around rather than a factual report of what he told them after they confessed. Certainly, Rashi takes that point of view as he relates on the previous pasuk (Bereishis 50:17):

אביך צוה: שינו בדבר מפני השלום, כי לא צוה יעקב כן שלא נחשד יוסף בעיניו 

Your father commanded: They altered the facts for the sake of peace. Jacob gave no such command, since he did not suspect Joseph. 

Accordingly, it is likely that Yaakov was never told the story. Yosef wouldn't tell his father something he would find so painful to hear about, and his brothers would not have wanted to risk his reaction to finding out that they were the cause of Yosef's extended stay away from him and kept the truth from him for so many years. 

However, Yaakov does realize the whole chain of causation in the olam haemet even if he didn't pick up on it while in Egypt or through the ruach hakodesh that inspired his brachos for each brother. 

 And that may be why he said he can't be the one to toast in the Midrash related in Pesach 119b (Thanks to my son Eliezer for finding me the source to cite) because he married two sisters.

וְאוֹמֵר לָהֶן: אֵינִי מְבָרֵךְ, שֶׁיָּצָא מִמֶּנִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל. אוֹמֵר לוֹ לְיִצְחָק: טוֹל וּבָרֵךְ. אוֹמֵר לָהֶן: אֵינִי מְבָרֵךְ, שֶׁיָּצָא מִמֶּנִּי עֵשָׂו. אוֹמֵר לוֹ לְיַעֲקֹב: טוֹל וּבָרֵךְ. אוֹמֵר לָהֶם: אֵינִי מְבָרֵךְ, שֶׁנָּשָׂאתִי שְׁתֵּי אֲחָיוֹת בְּחַיֵּיהֶן, שֶׁעֲתִידָה תּוֹרָה לְאוֹסְרָן עָלַי.

And Abraham will say to them: I will not recite the blessing, as I am blemished, for the wicked Ishmael came from me. Abraham will say to Yitzchak: Take the cup and recite the blessing. Yitzchak will say to them: I will not recite the blessing, as the wicked Esav came from me. Yitzchak will say to Yaakov: Take the cup and recite the blessing. Jacob will say to them: I will not recite the blessing, as I married two sisters, Rachel and Leah, in their lifetimes, and in the future the Torah forbade them to me.

Yaakov understood that the whole start of galus emanated from jealousy, and he considered his part in marrying two sister to have been the prime cause of it.

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