Parashat Mikeitz: The Joseph Mystery

“Oh no—not he!

How can you accuse him is a mystery

Save him—take me

Benjamin is straighter than the tall palm tree.”

(Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, taken from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)

The story of Joseph’s encounters with his estranged brothers, in both Mikeitz and the start of Vayigash, could be described in the words of Winston Churchill as being akin to ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’

Summing up their first meeting, the following takes place:

1.    The impact of the famine in Canaan has forced Yaakov to send the ten brothers down to Egypt where there is grain.  He forbids them from including Benjamin in their party.

2.    They stand before Joseph and although he recognizes them, they don’t realise who he is.

3.    He accuses them of being spies and prohibits them from leaving Egypt until they return with Benjamin.

4.    He jails his brothers for three days and then only agrees to allow them to leave on the condition that Shimon stays behind.  He is then led away to prison.

5.    Joseph orders that the brothers’ sacks are filled with grain and the money that each has paid for a quantity of grain is returned inside their individual sacks.

6.    In the desert, Levi opens his sack to feed his donkey and finds his money pouch.

Rabbi Sacks’ translation accurately conveys the scene:

“My money has been returned!” he told the brothers.  “There it is in my pack!”  Their hearts sank.  Trembling, they turned to one another, saying “What is this that Gd has done to us?” (42:27-28)

Reading the story so far, one tries to understand Joseph’s game plan and decipher what he hoped to achieve by acting in this manner.  The brothers have come down to Egypt in good faith to buy food.  This dignitary has accused them of being spies; jailed them for three days, taken the second eldest brother as a hostage in return for the youngest being brought back; sent them on their way and finally donated the grain they requested gratis!

The story becomes even more bizarre when, having exhausted the grain and feeling the pangs of hunger once again, they have no option but to return to Egypt with Benjamin in tow, in tandem with peace offerings of balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds and double the amount of money they had originally taken, as well the original amount.

When they meet with Joseph, he invites them to dine in his home and instructs his steward who also happens to be his eldest son Menashe to take his brothers back to Joseph’s house. Once there, they are reunited with Shimon and when Joseph finally arrives, they present their tributes and prostrate themselves in front of him (as per his dreams). They are treated like VIPs; served the best cuisine (Benjamin is given five times as much as the others) offered the finest wine and finally sent on their way back to Canaan with sacks full of grain which all include their money pouches…along with Joseph’s precious silver goblet which Menashe has secreted inside Benjamin’s bag.  Joseph gives them a head-start before sending him to catch up with them, search their bags and inevitably find the bag, accusing his uncle of being a thief who will forever be enslaved to Joseph.  Benjamin has effectively been framed by Joseph for something he did not do.

If you thought the story was a little strange before, at this point, it would not be an understatement to refer to it as being ‘off the scale’!  What are Joseph’s motives and why would he act in such a callous way to the only brother with whom he shared both parents?

Chazal, our Sages, grappled with these questions and shed some light on this fascinating series of events.  I will enumerate a few of these to you.

There are three strands (source: https://alhatorah.org/Why_Did_Yosef_Frame_Binyamin/2) to their responses and these are:

1.    Joseph wanted to see if his brothers had truly repented for having sold him in the first place.

He had accused them of espionage so that they would have no option but to return to Egypt to free Shimon whilst bringing Benjamin as part of the deal.  He would carefully observe how they treated their youngest brother and whether he too had been similarly despised.  He added an additional test by risking the brothers’ ire through favouring him during the banquet.  Philo, a Jewish Greek historian (d. c.50 CE) wonders whether they despised Benjamin in the same way that they had done to Joseph?

When he returned their money the first time around, this was not necessarily carried out as a test but more as a way of demonstrating that he was looking after their welfare (Rabbi Shmuel ben Chofni d. 1034).  Similarly, the Ramban (d. 1270) and Sforno (d. 1549) suggest that this was also carried out of goodwill and not part of his plan to test them.

Sefer Hayashar, a medieval Midrash, posits the theory that Joseph had already revealed his true identity to Benjamin, so that he was playing along with a scenario of having been framed.

The brothers’ reactions and particularly Yehuda’s moving plea for clemency which appears at the start of next week’s Parasha indicates that they had repented.  In returning their money, Joseph was showing them that he harboured no ill will towards them.

2.    He had no interest in reconciling with his ten brothers per se, but wished to reconnect with his father and Benjamin.

This is a completely different angle but nonetheless interesting.

Shadal (d.1865) puts forward the idea that Joseph was primarily interested in reconnecting with Benjamin which would be the most natural thing for him to do, granted their shared parentage.  He therefore constructed the entire charade to have Benjamin brought down to Egypt for that purpose.  Reconciling with his brothers and father were a by-product of this reunion.

On the other hand, R’ Yosef Bekhor Shor (12^th Century, France) holds the idea that Benjamin was used as a pawn to entice Yaakov to come down to Egypt to plead for his youngest son and, in the process, this would lead to a reconnection with Joseph.  He didn’t reveal himself to his brothers until he could no longer hold back his emotions, which we read about next week.

This idea does not show Joseph in a positive light and if we go along with this, we have to take on the view that Yehuda’s plea caught him off guard.

Whether he constructed the entire process to meet either Benjamin or Yaakov does not factor in his desire to reconcile with his brothers.  That he returned their money however, demonstrates that he was concerned about their welfare.

Or we could consider the final strand:

3.    Joseph wished to punish his brothers for what they had done to him more than two decades earlier.

Radak (d. 1235) suggests that Joseph’s actions came as the result of pure vindictiveness towards his brothers.  He did not wish to physically punish them but to put them through emotional distress, which inevitably he did.  That said, his motive most probably lay in teaching them a lesson and engendering them to become better individuals.  He is, after all, known as Yosef Hatzaddik – ‘the righteous one’.

In returning their money, he was therefore playing mind games with them which is what happened as they were no doubt scared the first time around.  Joseph might also have been knowingly punishing his own father for having left his grandfather, Yitzchak, for the same amount of time, which was 22 years.  Radak’s criticism of Joseph is that his actions came about as a result of the feelings of revenge for what had happened to him – in contrast to the view taken by the vast majority of other commentators, who saw him indeed as a tzaddik.

All of which leaves us, as every good mystery should, with more questions than answers.

Whatever Joseph’s motives, and whichever avenue of thought you choose to follow, we do know that the outcome of the story was positive.  He was reunited with his brothers and father.  We know that this leads us to the next chapter in our long history and the Egyptian exile that we will be reading about very soon.  Our annual reminder of the dangers of fraternal strife is as relevant now as it always was.  How brothers who should have loved each other behaved in a way that is sadly, not unusual (although thankfully selling your sibling to Ishmaelite traders is not all that common these days!)

We have a great deal to learn about ourselves from these Parshiot and how we must do everything we can to engender peace with one another in our nation.

We may not always agree on everything (we are Jews after all!) but if we can treat each other as graciously as our ancestors did once they had reconciled, there is hope that we might be able to inspire those outside of our nation learn how to behave more respectfully towards one another.  The story of Joseph and his brothers is so much more than just the inspiration for a wonderful musical! 

Shavuah Tov.