MiKeitz: Family Reunion

(3) So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to get grain rations in Egypt; (4) for Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, since he feared that he might meet with disaster. (5) Thus the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations, for the famine extended to the land of Canaan. (6) Now Joseph was the vizier of the land; it was he who dispensed rations to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed low to him, with their faces to the ground. (7) When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them; but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke harshly to them. He asked them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to procure food.” (8) For though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. (9) Recalling the dreams that he had dreamed about them, Joseph said to them, “You are spies, you have come to see the land in its nakedness.” (10) But they said to him, “No, my lord! Truly, your servants have come to procure food. (11) We are all of us sons of the same man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies!” (12) And he said to them, “No, you have come to see the land in its nakedness!” (13) And they replied, “We your servants were twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.” (14) But Joseph said to them, “It is just as I have told you: You are spies! (15) By this you shall be put to the test: unless your youngest brother comes here, by Pharaoh, you shall not depart from this place! (16) Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of you remain confined, that your words may be put to the test whether there is truth in you. Else, by Pharaoh, you are nothing but spies!” (17) And he confined them in the guardhouse for three days. (18) On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you shall live, for I am a God-fearing man. (19) If you are honest men, let one of you brothers be held in your place of detention, while the rest of you go and take home rations for your starving households; (20) but you must bring me your youngest brother, that your words may be verified and that you may not die.” And they did accordingly. (21) They said to one another, “Alas, we are being punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us. That is why this distress has come upon us.” (22) Then Reuben spoke up and said to them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do no wrong to the boy’? But you paid no heed. Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” (23) They did not know that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between him and them. (24) He turned away from them and wept. But he came back to them and spoke to them; and he took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes. (25) Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, return each one’s money to his sack, and give them provisions for the journey; and this was done for them.

"And Yosef saw his brothers, etc." - Rabbi Yehoshua bar Nechemiah said, "He made himself a stranger (nocri) to them. "And Yosef recognized his brothers, etc." - Rabbi Levi and the Rabbis [argued about this]: Rabbi Levi said, "At the time they fell into his hand, 'And Yosef recognized his brothers;' at the time he fell into their hands, 'and they did not recognize him.'" And the Rabbis said, "He who left them adorned by beards, 'And Yosef recognized his brothers - and they did not recognize him,' as they did not leave him adorned by a beard [as he was too young].""And Yosef remembered, etc... and he said to them, etc...'we are all the sons of one man'" - they had a flash of Divine inspiration [in which] they said to him, "We and you are the sons of one man, we are." He said to them, "And where is [the other one]?" "We sold him." He said to them, "For how much did you sell him?" They said to him, "For five sela."He said to them, "And if a person would say to you, 'Give me five sela and I will give him to you,' would you do it?" They said to him, "Yes." "And if a person would say to you, 'Give me double and I will give him to you,' would you do it?" They said, "Yes." "And if a person would say to you, '[Even] if you would give me a thousand, I will not give him to you,' what would you do?" They said to him, "For that have we come down [to Egypt], whether to kill or to be killed." He said to them, "'This is what I have said about you, spies, etc.'" "Through this will you be examined; by the life of Pharaoh" - when he wanted to make a false oath, he would swear by the life of Pharaoh. Rabbi Levi said, "There is a parable of a goat that ran away from the pasture and went in to a widow. What did she do? She got up and slaughtered it and flayed it and put it in her bed and covered it with a sheet. They came to request it from her. She said, 'So should happen to this woman if she knows about it, this flesh [actually referring to the goat] should be bitten and eaten.' So too, 'by the life of Pharaoh if you will get out, etc...Send one of you.'" "And he placed them in the prison for three days" - never does the Holy One, blessed be He, leave righteous ones in dire straits for three days and so was it taught to Yosef, to Yonah, to Mordechai, to David. And so is it stated (Hoshea 6:2), "He will revive us from the two days; on the third day" of the tribes, "He will bring us up" - "And Yosef said to them on the third day."

אם כנים אתם, "If you are really honest, etc." This verse may be understood with the help of our sages in Yerushalmi Terumot chapter 8. We read there as follows: "If a group of people travel together and they encounter Gentiles who demand that one of them be handed over to be killed, the alternative being that they would all be killed, it is forbidden to hand over anyone belonging to the group. The whole group must face death rather than make the decision whom to hand over. If, however, the person to be handed over had been named by the killers, the others may save their lives by handing over that person." When Joseph said: "if you are honest, etc.," he meant that the brothers knew full well if they were telling the truth; אחיכם אחד, your one brother will be imprisoned. There was no death threat to the brothers, hence they were allowed to choose whom to hand over for incarceration. Joseph implied that if, on the other hand, they were dishonest, i.e. spies, (which made all of them guilty of the death penalty) then, of course, they would not be allowed to hand over one of their number who had not been specified. Handing over their brother would then be tantamount to killing him. This would also be illegal as they would all have to be prepared to die. The brothers were agreeable, thus indicating that they had spoken truthfully all along. We may presume that the brothers themselves elected that Shimon be imprisoned; Joseph did not single him out.

Perhaps up to the time when Joseph had said that one of their number had to remain in prison as hostage, they had not related their present experience to the sale of Joseph at all. They had thought that inasmuch as man is a free agent that whatever had happened to them was in retribution for freely committed wrongs. They had not considered what they had done to Joseph as a wrong at all. When Joseph pointedly said: "one of your brothers has to stay here," they suddenly realised that their situation was connected to what they had done to another one of their brothers. The words ויעשו כן then mean that they singled out Shimon. They suddenly realised that the painful experience they now underwent of leaving one of their brothers with a stranger was tit for tat for having abandoned Joseph to a fate with strangers at the time of the sale. I have frequently alluded to the fact that guilt somehow creates situations in which the retribution experienced reminds one of the nature of one's sin. David has mentioned this in Psalms 62,13: כי אתה תשלם לאיש כמעשהו, "for You repay each man according to his deeds." The brothers saying אבל may therefore be understood thus: "If our present experience had been even slightly different we would not have realised why we are now being punished; but the very fact that our punishment corresponds to the nature of our sin convinces us of our guilt. Now we are absolutely certain that we are guilty of lack of compassion."

Their father Jacob said to them, “It is always me that you bereave: Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you would take away Benjamin. These things always happen to me!” Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” But he said, “My son must not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If he meets with disaster on the journey you are taking, you will send my white head down to Sheol in grief.” But the famine in the land was severe. And when they had eaten up the rations which they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again and procure some food for us.” But Judah said to him, “The man warned us, ‘Do not let me see your faces unless your brother is with you.’ If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down and procure food for you; but if you will not let him go, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘Do not let me see your faces unless your brother is with you.’” And Israel said, “Why did you serve me so ill as to tell the man that you had another brother?” They replied, “But the man kept asking about us and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still living? Have you another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How were we to know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?” Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy in my care, and let us be on our way, that we may live and not die—you and we and our children. I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible: if I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I shall stand guilty before you forever. For we could have been there and back twice if we had not dawdled.”

Then Judah came near unto him (Gen. 44:18). May it please our master to teach us: Which guarantor is responsible for the repayment of a loan? Thus do our masters teach us: R. Simeon the son of Nanos answered the query: Which guarantor is responsible for the repayment of a loan? It is the one who says: “Lend him the money and I will repay you.” When he places it in the hand of the guarantor, he is the one who is liable.¹The lender gave the money because of his confidence in the guarantor.