Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
Why did Yosef put his brothers through such a difficult experience—keeping his identity secret for so long, pretending to accuse them of spying, hiding their money and the silver goblet, and imprisoning Shimon? And why did he insist that they bring Binyamin down to Egypt with them?
Many commentaries offer different answers. Here are two:
הִנֵּה עִם כֹּל הַנִּסָּיוֹן שֶׁעָשָׂה יוֹסֵף לְאָחִיו… עוֹד נִשְׁאַר סָפֵק בְּלִבּוֹ, הַאִם הָיָה לָהֶם אַהֲבָה עִם בִּנְיָמִין אוֹ אִם הָיוּ עֲדַיִן שׂוֹנְאִים אֶת בְּנֵי רָחֵל אִמּוֹ,
וְלָכֵן רָצָה לְהָבִיא אֶת בִּנְיָמִין בִּפְרָט בְּנִסָּיוֹן הַגָּבִיעַ לִרְאוֹת אִם יִשְׁתַּדְּלוּ לְהַצִּילוֹ.
Everything that Yosef did to his brothers… was because he was unsure whether they really loved Binyamin, or whether they actually still hated Rahel’s sons. Because of this, he wanted them to bring Binyamin specifically for the test of the goblet to see whether they would try to save him.
זָכָר כָּל הַחֲלֹמוֹת אֲשֶׁר חָלַם לָהֶם וְיָדַע שֶׁלֹּא נִתְקַיֵּם אֶחָד מֵהֶם בְּפַעַם הַזֹּאת כִּי יוֹדֵעַ בְּפִתְרוֹנָם כִּי כָל אֶחָיו יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לוֹ... וְכֵיוָן שֶׁלֹּא רָאָה בִּנְיָמִן עִמָּהֶם חָשַׁב זֹאת הַתַּחְבּוּלָה שֶׁיַּעֲלִיל עֲלֵיהֶם כְּדֵי שֶׁיָּבִיא גַּם בִּנְיָמִין אָחִיו אֵלָיו לְקַיֵּם הַחֲלוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן תְּחִלָּה... וְאַחֲרֵי שֶׁנִּתְקַיֵּם הַחֲלוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן הִגִּיד לָהֶם לְקַיֵּם הַחֲלוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי.
Yosef remembered the dreams he had, and he knew that they were not fulfilled this time because all his brothers were supposed to bow down to him... And since he saw that Binyamin was not with
them, he came up with this whole trick to falsely accuse his brothers so that they would bring Binyamin in order to fulfill this first dream... and, after that, he told them to bring his father in order to fulfill the second dream.
- Think about Yosef’s personality. Does one of these explanations seem to fit better with the Yosef you know from the story?
- How does each explanation affect how we view Yosef?
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