And Reuven said unto them: Shed no blood; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him — that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.
Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Torah teaches proper conduct: when a person performs a mitzvah, he should perform it wholeheartedly. If Reuven had known that the Holy One, blessed be He, would record his rescue of Yosef, he would have carried Yosef on his shoulders and brought him to his father.
On the daf / in context: Ruth Rabbah uses Reuven’s rescue as an example of wholehearted mitzvah performance: knowing the greatness of the deed would have led him to carry it out even more fully.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (midrashic sugya) — not a formal named middah of the 13. The derashah teaches wholehearted mitzvah performance rather than a rule about publicizing good deeds.
What Is Learned
When performing a mitzvah, do it with a full heart and with the greatest appropriate care. The midrash says Reuven would have gone further in rescuing Yosef had he known how the deed would be recorded.