ולא יכול יוסף להתאפק, Joseph could no longer contain himself, etc. He could not wait until all those present would leave of their own accord, but he called out loudly that everyone other than the brothers be removed from his presence immediately. The Torah adds the words ולא עמד איש אתו, that no one remained with him, to underline the speed with which his servants left his presence.

בהתודע יוסף, when Joseph revealed himself. The letter ב before התודע means "on account of" (his revealing himself). In order for the brothers to accept Joseph's claim that he was their brother, the matter of his sale had to be aired. Joseph wanted to spare his brothers the embarassment of becoming known as people who had sold their brother, hence he had to clear everyone out of the room. When the Torah mentions immediately afterwards that Joseph wept loudly when he revealed himself and all of Egypt heard about it, this is a clear indication that Joseph was not concerned that he could be overheard. He was only concerned that his brothers' part in all this should not be overheard.

ויאמר יוסף אל אחיו גשו נא אלי, Joseph said to his brothers: "please come closer to me." The reason he asked them to come close was so that when he would mention the fact that they had sold him he could whisper. Only after they had come closer did he say: "I am your brother Joseph whom you sold, etc." Joseph was careful to say all this in a whisper although he had sent everybody outside. He was familiar with the proverb that walls have ears.

אני יוסף אחיכם, "I am your brother Joseph." The reason he repeated the fact that he was Joseph a second time was that he felt there were two reasons why the brothers had not yet responded to him. 1) They were afraid of him and could not answer him just as a thief cannot answer when he is found out suddenly. 2) They simply did not believe him when he claimed to be Joseph. He said: "I am Joseph your brother, does my father still live, etc.?" in order to dispel their fear of him. He stressed the word your brother in that sentence. In the next sentence, after he had formed the impression that they did not believe him, he stressed the words your brother whom you have sold, indicating that even at the time they had sold him he had not ceased feeling like a brother towards them. He added the words "whom you have sold to Egypt" as proof that it was he, Joseph, for not even a prophet could have knowledge of that fact except he himself (compare Yalkut Shimoni 142).

ועתה אל תעצבו, "and now do not be sad, etc." We must first understand what Joseph meant when he said: "and now;" what did he want to exclude? Why did he tell the brothers neither to be sad nor to be angry? Besides, psychologically speaking, the feeling of sadness is the opposite of the feeling of anger. A sad person is humble whereas an angry person is arrogant, selfrighteous. Why would Joseph ask the brothers to be neither?

We must assume that Joseph meant that he was well aware that at present the brothers were saddened by the fact that they had sold him as they had indicated at the time they said to each other: "but we are guilty, etc." We also know from Bereshit Rabbah 91,3 that the brothers were prepared to pay a very substantial ransom to buy Joseph's freedom when they found him in Egypt. Taking this into consideration Joseph told the brothers: "do not be sad now seeing that you have located the subject of your search." He hinted that he was aware that they felt positive towards him and had been sincerely saddened by what they had done to him.

He added that they should not become angry at themselves for having set in motion all the developments which had led to this reunion. He supported his argument by saying that actually what the brothers had done had resulted in their now being able to rely on him to see them through the famine, and not become impoverished, etc.

ועתה, לא אתם שלחתם אותי הנה, "Now, you did not send me here, etc." Joseph explained why he told the brothers not to worry that he still hated them for what they had done to him and how cruelly they had treated him. He implied that it was true that at the time he certainly had not understood why they could have harboured so much resentment against him; he had had reason to hate them for that; ועתה, now, things had become clear.

Having reflected on all that had transpired since the brothers had sold him, Joseph had realised that it had been part of an overall design orchestrated by G'd. The brothers had merely been G'd's agents, though they did not realise it at the time. It would not be appropriate for him to continue to feel hatred towards them.

Perhaps this consideration enabled the brothers to face their father who would now have to become aware that it was the brothers who had caused him to mourn the loss of Joseph all these years. In view of the outcome, the brothers did not even need to feel shame when they faced their father. It is quite unlikely that once Jacob had become aware that Joseph was the ruler in Egypt that he should not have made every effort to find out how Joseph came to be in Egypt and what happened to cause his striped coat to become blood-drenched at the time. The only argument that would reconcile Jacob and his sons with what had happened was that it had become evident that G'd's plan had been executed step by step. There was no point in second-guessing why and how G'd had brought all this about. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 86,1 have already said that Jacob had originally been meant to descend to Egypt in chains, but that the sale of Joseph enabled him to arrive in Egypt in style, i.e. riding in Pharaoh's chariot.

ויבך עליהם, He cried over them, etc. After the brothers observed Joseph crying over them they were able to respond to him and they said to him whatever was on their minds. After all, everything that Joseph had said to them up to that point might have been designed only to alleviate the brothers' feeling ashamed of their conduct. It was only after he kissed them and wept over the years they had been separate that the brothers recognised Joseph's truly good character and that he was a true brother that they were able to speak to him naturally. Whereas Joseph's original burst of weeping could have been attributed to his reunion with Benjamin, the latest burst of weeping definitely concerned his reunion with all of them.

והקול נשמע בית פרעה, the report reached Pharaoh's palace, etc. Inasmuch as the Torah (verse 2) had already reported Joseph as crying out aloud, the Torah now had to report that the reason for Joseph's strange behaviour had become clear. Pharaoh and his servants now realised that a great reunion had taken place.

וייטב בעיני פרעה ובעיני עבדיו, and both Pharaoh and his servants were pleased about this. Whereas up until now they had felt embarassed that a former slave ruled over them, the brothers' arrival made it clear that Joseph had never been a slave.

זאת עשו, "Do this, etc." Whereas you do not require permission for most of what you are about to do, you do need Pharaoh's permission to take the wagons for transporting your families. When the Torah describes Pharaoh as telling Joseph to present the wagons to be used as something Pharaoh had "commanded, etc." this is only a figure of speech for a courteous invitation by Pharaoh that the brothers' families should avail themselves of these facilities on their journey to Egypt.

The command עשו may also express something stronger than permission; Pharaoh had realised that what had been happening was Divinely decreed, that over and beyond the fact that Pharaoh was pleased to assist the migration of Jacob's family, he saw in all this a decree by G'd.

ולאביו שלח כזאת, To his father he sent the following: The reason the Torah added the word זאת instead of merely enumerating the list of provisions and gifts which appear in this verse is to tell us that what is described as מטוב מצרים, Egypt's best [produce], something which the Torah had not identified, referred to the quality of the various items listed. The verse therefore says: "Of all the items listed forthwith Joseph sent his father of the best quality available in Egypt." Our sages in Megillah 16 describe the words מטוב מצרים as referring to wine which had been aged for a long time. Bereshit Rabbah 94,2 identifies טוב מצרים as some kind of special white beans, a medication with anti-depression properties. If that were so, the verse should have written בזאת, instead of זאת and has to be understood as if the word עשרה חמורים had a conjunctive letter ו at the beginning.

ועשר אתונות נושאות בר, as well as ten she-asses carrying grain and bread, etc. The reason the Torah repeats the word לאביו, for his father, a second time is to tell us that it was not a separate consignment. The Torah meant that apart from the load carried by these she-asses, i.e. the grain and the bread, there were special delicacies for Jacob only. Joseph instructed his brothers that these items were meant only for his father.

וישלח את אחיו, He sent off his brothers, etc. This means that Joseph sent everybody home, including Benjamin. Benjamin's testimony would convince Jacob most of all; this is why Joseph had already stressed previously (45,12) that Benjamin was a witness that he was Joseph. Now that Yehudah had fulfilled the conditions of his guarantee it is clear that if his bones rattled in his coffin during the years Israel travelled in the desert this was only because he failed to have his vow annulled, as pointed out in Megillah 11.

ויגדו לו לאמור. They told him, saying, etc.. The word ויגדו indicates the difficulty the brothers had telling their father what had transpired in Egypt. What was good news for their father involved a confession of the evil the brothers had perpetrated and how they had caused their father unnecessary anguish. It is also possible that the use of the word ויגדו [especially the missing letter י ] alluded to the ensuing exile of the Jewish people and the hard times their descendants would experience there eventually. We do indeed find that Jacob was afraid to travel to Egypt until reassured by G'd in a dream (46,3).

The reason the Torah uses the expression לאמור is to tell us that the brothers were astute in the manner they conveyed the good news to their father. It is well known that sudden good news may shock a person and cause cardiac arrest. The brothers therefore led up to what they had to say in stages; first they mentioned that they were the bearers of good tidings, ויגדו לו לאמור; after Jacob had been thus prepared they told him that Joseph was still alive. At that point this news was not liable to endanger Jacob's life.

It is also possible that we should read the verse thus: ויגדו לו לאמר עוד, "they told him saying: furthermore," etc. They said: "Not only have we all returned safely but we still have more to say." Once they had conditioned Jacob's mind they informed him that Joseph was still alive. Having said this they added a little later that Joseph had achieved a position of great stature in Egypt.

I have been troubled by the fact that Joseph did not communicate with his father during all these years. Did he not realise that his father must have been in terrible anguish concerning what had happened to him? While it is true that as long as Joseph was a slave he may not have been able to communicate with his father, nonetheless during the nine years since his appointment as viceroy surely he could have done so? Why did he not at least write his father a letter to temper his father's pain and to stop him from mourning him? Not only this, why did he not at least send a message to his father during the year of famine when there was a constant stream of travellers between Egypt and Canaan? Who had given Joseph permission not to tell his father that he was alive after the brothers arrived in Egypt the first time?

Whereas we can understand why Jacob had to suffer twenty two years in order that G'd's plan could be executed, this is all well and good from G'd's point of view. Since Joseph was not aware of G'd's plans, who gave him the right to let his father suffer longer than necessary?

We have good reason to believe that Joseph had perfectly good reasons for preferring not to communicate with his father until he did. No doubt he would have liked to communicate with his father ever since he came to Egypt until he was appointed as viceroy.

Even assuming that an opportunity had presented itself prior to his sudden and dramatic promotion, he was afraid that as soon as his brothers would hear about his whereabouts they would try and murder him so that he could not testify against them. The brothers would therefore have a vested interest in disposing of Joseph if they heard that he was still alive somewhere.

It is also possible that as soon as Jacob would receive such a communication he would curse the brothers for what they had done to Joseph; as a result the brothers would die and he would indirectly be responsible for their deaths.

Once Joseph had been released from prison and become viceroy he no longer had to fear for his life if a letter from him would be intercepted or the brothers would attempt to kill him to prevent their father from learning the truth. On the other hand, he considered a statement by our sages in Baba Metzia 59 that it is preferable to be burned in a fiery oven than to cause a fellow human being to go pale with shame. Joseph was concerned for his brothers' dignity as human beings, something they would lose if their father would find out at that point what the brothers had done to his favourite child. He decided therefore that the anguish of one man, i.e. his father, was preferable to discrediting his brothers.

Besides, Joseph may well have felt that the brothers still wanted him out of this world and would confer how to bring this about. When Bereshit Rabbah 91 described the brothers as taking a great deal of money to Egypt in order to ransom Joseph, this merely means that they hoped to succeed in order to demonstrate that they were sorry for what they had done. Only then would they no longer feel threatened by him and plan to dispose of him.

Joseph, of course, was unaware that the brothers had undergone a change of heart until he had personally tested them in the presence of Benjamin. Only after that experience did Joseph realise that he was no longer in danger from his brothers. Until all the pieces of the puzzle came together at the time Joseph decided to reveal himself to his brothers it would have been premature to risk identifying himself. Until Joseph was able to put the brothers at ease by attributing all that had happened to G'd's planning, he would have been risking his life by revealing himself. You will recall that Yehudah had resorted to a confrontational stance when he found out that Joseph had included innocent Reuben in his treatment of the brothers. Tanchuma item 5 on our Parshah even reports the brothers as planning to kill Joseph [not in his capacity as Joseph, of course, but in his capacity of a ruler who had framed Benjamin, Ed.], and that it had taken an angel to save Joseph from their hands. Considering all the foregoing Joseph can hardly be faulted for allowing events to run their course without informing his father prematurely.