Summarized by Avishai Moshayev. Translated by David Strauss
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will declare to you, your elders, and they will tell you. (Devarim 32:7)
Every complex situation demands that we contemplate it, that we try to understand what God wants from us in the world. As the Rambam writes in Hilkhot Ta'aniyot (1:3):
Conversely, should the people fail to cry out to God and sound the trumpets, and instead say: "What has happened to us is merely a natural phenomenon and this difficulty is merely a chance occurrence," this is a cruel conception of things, which causes them to remain attached to their wicked deeds. Thus, this time of distress will lead to further distresses. This is implied by the Torah's statement (Vayikra 26:27-28): "If you remain indifferent to Me, I will be indifferent to you with a vengeance." The implication of the verse is: When I bring difficulties upon you so that you shall repent and you say it is a chance occurrence, I will add to your punishment an expression of vengeance for that indifference to Divine providence.
But it is not at all simple to contemplate the acts of God and to understand from them what He wants from us. In the story of Yosef and his brothers we see a number of cases where several different interpretations were offered for the same acts.
Yosef and Yehuda
We shall briefly mention two points in other parashot before turning to the one in our parasha.
In the previous parasha, in the middle of the story of Yosef's descent to Egypt, we find a chapter that deals with Yehuda, who distances himself from his brothers and goes off to deal with his own private affairs:
And it came to pass at that time, that Yehuda went down from his brothers, and turned in to a certain Adulamite, whose name was Chira. And Yehuda saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shu'a; and he took her, and went in to her. (Bereishit 38:1-2)
The chapter continues to relate the affairs of Yehuda and his family, and Yehuda's goal seems to be commonplace and trivial – to marry and have children. But Chazal expounded the passage as follows:
And it came to pass at that time, that Yehuda went down from his brothers… Yehuda was busy taking a wife, whereas the Holy One, blessed be He, was busy creating the light of the messiah. (Bereishit Rabba 85, 1)
Although Yehuda's objective in these actions was earthly, from the standpoint of God we are dealing here with a completely different purpose and intention – to bring forth from the seed of Yehuda and Tamar the messianic king.
A second example of historical interpretation is that of Yosef, in the following parasha; when he reveals himself to his brothers, he says to them:
And Yosef said to his brothers: Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said: I am Yosef your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here; for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years has the famine been in the land; and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to give you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive for a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (Bereishit 45:4-8)
Yosef contemplates the terrible events that befell him, and sees in them the hand of God. It was not the hatred of his brothers that caused this, but the planning of the Prime Cause to save Yaakov and his family from starvation.
The Brothers' Contemplation
Returning to our parasha, a significant portion of it deals with the brothers' descent to Egypt to buy food, in the course of which a number of strange things happen to them. They suspect that what is happening to them is not natural, and that Divine intervention must be involved. It begins with the story of the money in the sacks, after they came to Egypt the first time to buy grain:
And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey provisions in the lodging-place, he saw his money; and, behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. And he said to his brothers: My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying: What is this that God has done to us? (Bereishit 42:27-28)
From the moment they find the money, they realize that God is involved in the affair and that He is responsible for the fact that the money is in their hands. After some time, when they descend to Egypt the second time, they are summoned to eat in the ruler's palace:
And when Yosef saw Binyamin with them, he said to the steward of his house: Bring the men into the house, and kill the beasts, and prepare the meat; for the men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Yosef bade; and the man brought the men into Yosef's house. And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Yosef's house; and they said: Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our donkeys. (Bereishit 43:16-18)
The brothers are probably not the only ones who came from Canaan to Egypt to solve the problem of the famine – Egypt probably received many caravans of people entering the country; but it is precisely with them that the king chooses to speak and sit down for lunch – this certainly requires explanation!
Other strange things happen at the meal – Yosef's knowledge of the order of their births, for example – and in the end he sends them off with the silver goblet hidden in Binyamin's sack. After the brothers' departure, Yosef sends a man after them to accuse them:
And when they were gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Yosef said to his steward: Up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them: Why have you repaid evil for good? (Bereishit 44:4)
The messenger does not explicitly accuse the brothers of stealing the goblet, but of a more general evil; and it seems that the brothers consider the matter and come to the conclusion that everything that is happening to them now is punishment for the sale of Yosef into slavery – and therefore they offer to be punished in kind, that they will be slaves if the goblet is found with them:
And they said to him: Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing. Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought back to you out of the land of Canaan; how then should we steal out of your lord's house silver or gold? With whomever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen. (Bereishit 44:7-9)
If the brothers had any doubt about this understanding, it was dispelled when the goblet was actually found in Binyamin's possession. It was clear to them that he did not steal it, and therefore it must be a punishment from God for the sale of Yosef. And therefore they again offer to Yosef that they all be slaves, and not just Binyamin - for they all took part in the sin, much more so than Binyamin himself:[1]
And Yosef said to them: What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man such as I will indeed divine? And Yehuda said: What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord's bondmen, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found. (Bereishit 44:15-16)
But Yosef's reaction to this proposal turns everything upside-down:
And he said: Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the goblet is found, he shall be my bondman; but as for you, go up in peace to your father. (Bereishit 44:17)
Yosef's demand is for a completely different punishment: all the brothers will be set free, and only Binyamin – the one with the least complicity in the sale – will remain a slave. This changes the brothers' analysis of the situation, and they realize that they are not facing punishment for the sale but rather a test – will they once again allow their little brother to be sold into slavery for their own personal gain? This time they do not even have to lie and say "Binyamin is torn to pieces"; they can tell Yaakov with complete sincerity that the Egyptian ruler hid his silver goblet with Binyamin and therefore he is to remain a slave, and be completely absolved of blame.
But the brothers decide otherwise, and in the next parasha we see Yehuda approaching to plead and demand that Binyamin be released. Note that in his words he does not mention the two previous incidents, neither the money left in their sacks nor the silver goblet, but speaks of his father and the sale of Yosef:
My lord asked his servants, saying: Have you a father, or a brother? And we said to my lord: We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him. And you said to your servants: Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes upon him. And we said to my lord: The lad cannot leave his father; for if he should leave his father, his father would die. And you said to your servants: Without your youngest brother coming down with you, you shall see my face no more. And it came to pass when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. And our father said: Go again, buy us a little food. And we said: We cannot go down; if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we may not see the man's face, unless youngest brother is with us. And your servant my father said to us: You know that my wife bore me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said: Surely he is torn in pieces; and I have not seen him since; and if you take this one also from me, and harm befall him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us; seeing that his soul is bound up with the lad's soul. (Bereishit 44:19-30)
By mentioning this family history, Yehuda expresses the desire of all the brothers to rectify their earlier sin – and they fight to save Binyamin, realizing that God is presenting them with a test and an opportunity to repair the sale of Yosef.
The brothers decide to maintain the unity of the family, to keep Binyamin with them – and thanks to this, Yosef also reveals himself to them and all the sons of Yaakov unite together, brothers to each other and faithful to the path of their father. As it is stated in the Midrash:
When Yaakov our patriarch was passing from the world, he called his twelve sons. He said to them: Listen to the God of Israel, your Father who is in Heaven. Do you, perhaps, have in your heart disagreement over the Holy One, blessed be He? They said: "Hear, O Israel" (Devarim 6:4) our father, just as you do not have in your heart disagreement over the Holy One, blessed be He, so, there is no disagreement in our heart. Rather, "the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." (Bereishit Rabba 98, 3)
As in those days, so in this time – we too are obligated to constantly contemplate the unusual and historic events that are happening around us and try to understand from these events what it is that God wants from us; and to remember that the obligation of unity is not limited to Yaakov's own sons, but rather it applies to all of Israel:
And there was a king in Yeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. (Devarim 33:5)
The kingdom of God reveals itself within the nation of Israel when we are together, all the tribes of Israel. Thanks to this, we will merit the final blessing of Moshe, salvation by way of the power of God and victory over all our enemies:
And Israel dwells in safety, the fountain of Yaakov alone, in a land of corn and wine; yea, his heavens drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like to you? a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and that is the sword of your excellency! And your enemies shall dwindle away before you; and you shall tread upon their high places. (Devarim 33:28-29)
[This sicha was delivered by Harav Baruch Gigi on Shabbat Parashat Miketz 5784.]
Edited by Yair Lichtman
[1] In fact, Binyamin did not participate in any way in the sale, so why should he be punished? It can be explained that since the brothers sold Yosef as a united group of the sons of Yaakov, and Binyamin was now part of that group, the punishment also falls on him.
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