Questions: Why does the Bible tell us a seemingly trivial detail such as Joseph washes his face?
Key Verses
Genesis 43:31 He washed his face and went out; he held back, and said: “Put bread”
43:33 They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; each of the men were stunned
The Joseph story is one of the most poignant and emotional in the Bible. The emotions transcend the generations and are palpable. The reader can feel what the characters feel despite the passage of millennia. In Chapter 43, Joseph is about to reveal himself to his brothers and loses his composure and excuses himself, leaving the room. In Verse 30, he enters a different room and weeps.
It’s always been confusing as to why the brothers didn’t recognize Joseph. After all, there were ten of them on the first trip. Didn’t Joseph look like them physically? We know they’re not all full brothers, but their lineage was not Egyptian, or even Canaanite for that matter. They were a clan from distant Aramea, on both sides of the family and must have looked different than the locals. Joseph was absent from the age of 18 until now, the age of 40. The human face doesn’t change drastically during this period of one’s life.
I recently saw someone I hadn’t seen since high school, a passage of nearly 30 years, and we recognized each other on sight. Yet, it’s a fact that the brothers didn’t recognize Joseph. It’s possible Joseph didn’t resemble his brothers physically either. Only one hint is given in the text about how Joseph looked. He’s described as being very handsome, which led to his having problems with Potiphar’s wife. Who else in Jacob’s family is described as having great physical beauty? Joseph’s mother Rachel. Perhaps Joseph looked like her and therefore wouldn’t have looked like any of the other half brothers. But even so, all these men, except for Benjamin, who never saw his mother, grew up in the same household as Rachel. Would none of them have noticed that this man looks like Rachel? It’s a little bizarre. Irrespective of that, Joseph would have stuck out as a foreigner and could have been identified as being from the same basic national group as the brothers, which one would think they would have identified. But they didn’t.
One reason for their not recognizing him may be that Joseph, as a high-ranking Egyptian official, wore makeup. Pharaohs wore makeup. It’s not a stretch to think that a Prime Minister would have too. That would go a long way towards explaining why not one brother said to himself, “Why does this guy look familiar?” or, “This man looks like one of us.” In fact, he looked as Egyptian as any Egyptian because of the garments he wore and the makeup that covered the other features that might have made him stand out, such as skin color or facial structure.
In Verse 31, the Torah says Joseph washes his face. Why write such a thing? One can understand if he was crying, he might perform such an act, although the first time the brothers arrive, he also secludes himself and cries and there he apparently doesn’t wash his face. However, the Torah includes things that matter, and this hardly seems relevant enough to be mentioned. Maybe the Torah is communicating a different point.
Nearly none of the commentators deals with this verse at all. It’s seen as a bridge sentence between Joseph’s near meltdown and his return to the room with his brothers, where he’ll carry out his next test, on his full brother Benjamin.
The verse records Joseph washed his face, exited the room to return to his brothers and then a most unusual word, “Vayitapak” appears. Rashi says Joseph restrained himself. In other words, he was ready to reveal himself to his brothers and something happened. The verb is in Hitpael (reflexive intensive form), meaning something caused Joseph to change his mind and not reveal himself. What’s going on here? What caused him to change his mind? Did someone say something? We’re not told, but the text provides enough of a clue to what happened that it could be figured out.
Firstly, Joseph washed his face. In other words, he had a plan. He was removing his makeup in order to reveal himself to his brothers. His face was different and would be recognized by his brothers. He was going to let his face do the talking. A high-ranking Egyptian official left the room hastily, and who returns in his place, wearing the same clothes as the man who left? Just look at his face, cleared of makeup. It’s Joseph. It’s Rachel. It’s a face the brothers must recognize. Joseph doesn’t even have to say a word. He will just walk into the room and in his mind, it’s clear to him the brothers will be stunned into silence, as their lost, thought-to-be dead brother enters the room. It’s drama at its best, and actually, fits the character of Joseph and the entire story. After washing his face, the Torah tells us he left the room, entering back into the chamber with his brothers.
Secondly, Vayitapak; something happened to make him change his mind. What happened?
It’s simple.
They didn’t recognize his face. Joseph was anticipating their knowing him on sight without makeup, but it didn’t happen. They just looked at him, seeing the man who had been wearing makeup moments earlier and recognized him as the same person who had left the room.
Joseph must have been thrown for a loop, his entire dramatic plan destroyed. But he doesn’t give up. He organizes the seating arrangement according to age. The brothers, while shocked he could know their order of birth, still don’t see him for who he is.
Joseph gets upset that they don’t know him and immediately devises another plan to set them up and seize Benjamin, the only one who had an excuse for not recognizing him, since he was a child when Joseph was sold into slavery.
Not only did the Torah have a reason for including this seemingly trivial detail in the narrative, one might argue, it’s the highlight of the entire encounter.