OU Torah YU TORAH and NAALEH.COM Shira Smiles on Parsha Remarkable Rebuke

Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein The ongoing famine has had serious consequences for Yaakov and his family. The brothers had gone down to Egypt to buy grain from the viceroy of Egypt, not knowing that he was Yosef. Yosef accused the brothers of being spies and incarcerated Shimon. Yosef demanded that they return with their youngest brother Binyamin to prove their innocence of the accusation. Now they had returned with Binyamin, and Binyamin was accused of stealing the viceroy’s chalice. The viceroy/Yosef insists on enslaving Binyamin and letting the other brothers return home in peace. At this, Judah rises up and pleads passionately for Binyamin’s freedom, even offering to take Binyamin’s place, “For, how can I go up to my father if the youth is not with me, lest I see the evil that will befall my father.”