וירא יעקב, “Yaakov saw.” This is not something that Yaakov saw with his eyes but something he saw in his heart; proof that this this the meaning of the word וירא in this instance is that he described what he had “seen” as הנה שמעתי, “here I have heard,” instead of saying: הנה ראיתי, “here I have seen.”

כי יש שבר במצרים, “that there is grain for sale in Egypt.” The word שבר usually refers to something for sale as we know from Deut. 2,6 אוכל תשברו מאתם, “purchase food provisions from them.” It is noteworthy that Yaakov neither mentioned the word “food,” nor the word “grain,” The reason he referred to grain by saying שבר is because that word includes both “trading or selling” as well as “‘grain.” He continued using this word when he told his sons in Genesis 43,2: שובו שברו לנו מעט אוכל, “go back and secure for us some food (by buying grain).” In our verse (2) he said: שברו לנו משם, without the word אוכל. When Yaakov described the journey to Egypt he asked his sons to undertake as רדו שמה, “descend there,” instead of לכו שמה, “go there,” he also foreshadowed that any journey to Egypt would be but a prelude to the family’s eventual exile in Egypt. The number of years the Jewish people would be enslaved in Egypt corresponded to the numerical value of the letters in the word רדו, i.e. 210 years. When he used the expression ושברו משם, he meant that he foresaw both food supply as well as enslavement or exile as emanating from Egypt.

ונחיה ולא נמות, “so we may live and not die.” He meant that even if in the more distant future his descendants would face great problems in Egypt, they would not succumb to them and die. They would survive thanks to the very grain they were going to purchase now. Our sages (Sotah 9) referred to this phenomenon when they said concerning Deut. 32,23 חצי אכלה בם “My arrows I will use up against them.” They said that half the Jews in exile may be exterminated by their Gentile enemies while the other half will survive. The meaning of the verse is that whereas G’d’s arrows will become exhausted the Jews will not all perish. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 91,6 had still another interpretation for the word שבר. They saw it as if it had been spelled with the dot on the left side of the letter ש, so that we would read it as סבר, “hope.” If we accept this interpretation we could read the verse as: “Yaakov saw in his mind’s eye that there was hope in Egypt for his descendants.” Although the ”hope” referred to the exalted position of Joseph in Egypt, Yaakov had lost the power to have clear visions ever since he had been parted from Joseph, so that this was only a very nebulous kind of vision.

למה תתראו, “why do you make yourselves conspicuous?” The meaning may be: ”why do you want to risk weakening yourselves by hunger? If this is the correct meaning the word is related to Proverbs 11,25 גם הוא יורה, “he will also be irrigated. This is the way Rashi understands the word תתראו. Rabbeinu Chananel understand the word as an admonition by Yaakov to his sons “why are you confrontational with each other?” He quotes support from Kings II 14,8 לכה נתראה פנים, “let us confront each other!” Verse 11 in the same chapter of Kings also confirms the meaning of this word as being to confront each other when we read ויתראו פנים הוא ואמציה מלך יהודה, ”he and King Amatziah of Yehudah confronted each other.” Nachmanides understands the word as: “why are you looking at each other in this place instead of journeying to Egypt and getting supplies?” They should have traveled as soon as they were in danger of exhausting their food supplies as soon as they heard that there were supplies to be bought in Egypt.

Midrash Tanchuma Miketz 8 suggests that Yaakov challenged the brothers’ physical strength and their courage suggesting they had nothing to fear by traveling to Egypt. This is why he added the words “we will live and not die.”

וירדו אחי יוסף עשרה, “ten of Joseph’s brothers descended.” The Torah should have written: “ten sons of Yaakov descended.” The reason that the Torah refers to them as “Joseph’s brothers” indicates that they had repented the fact that they had sold him and had meanwhile resolved to relate to him as their brother and to buy his freedom at whatever cost. (Tanchuma Miketz 8).

An alternative reason why the Torah describes the ten sons of Yaakov as ten brothers of Joseph may be that the Torah wanted to inform us of their good intention to pray for Joseph’s welfare by forming a quorum of 10 worshipers. We know that the minimum number of adult males required to form a holy congregation is 10. This is why the Torah refers to ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל, “I will be sanctified amongst the children of Israel” (Leviticus 22,32).

Nachmanides writes that the brothers are described as such to alert us to the fact that at this point Joseph’s first dream, which involved 10 people binding sheaves was in the process of becoming true. In that dream Binyamin (only 11 years old) was not included as binding sheaves. As soon as the brothers paid their respects to the ruler of Egypt this dream had been fulfilled. (verse 6). The second dream in which eleven stars bowed down to Joseph could not be fulfilled until Binyamin too came to Egypt with his brothers as well as his father Yaakov.

According to Bereshit Rabbah 91,6 the wording of the Torah in which the ten brothers of Joseph are described as traveling to Egypt is based on the fact that Joseph had issued instructions to his officials that the names of the persons coming to Egypt to buy grain as well as the names of such person’s father as well as his home town be recorded in a central register. He would scan the list of names every evening. As soon as the names of his brothers appeared on one of these lists, Joseph closed all the grain distributing points bar one to force his brothers to make their purchases at that point. He supplied his officials with the names of his brothers and waited for them to arrive at that distribution point in order to arrest them upon arrival. When three days passed and none of Joseph’s brothers was reported as having made any purchases, Joseph took men from Pharaoh’s palace guard to search for his brothers in the market-place. They were located in the red light district. When questioned by the palace guards why they had spent so much time in that location they told the guards that a handsome brother of theirs who had been missing for a long time might have been sold into prostitution and that they had come to buy his freedom.

ויתנכר אליהם, “and he pretended to be a stranger who did not know them.” Joseph recognised his brothers as soon as he set eyes upon them. He was afraid that they might recognise him also. This is why he pretended to not to know who they were. We find something parallel when the wife of King Jerobam who sought help from the prophet Achyah Hashiloni (who was blind to boot) for her sick son pretended to be someone else at the instruction of her husband (Kings I 14,2-6). Achiyah challenged her, calling her by her true name the moment she entered his room. The expression used by the prophet Jeremiah to describe this charade was also the same as here, i.e. מתנכר. It is possible that Joseph did not change his features in order to deceive his brothers but merely spoke to them in a tone and language which made it unlikely that they would associate his person with being remotely similar to their brother. Once the brothers had told him where they came from, Joseph became convinced they were indeed his brothers. This accounts for the Torah writing once more: ויכר יוסף את אחיו (verse 8). (Compare commentary by Nachmanides.)

According to Tanchuma Miketz 8 the words ויתנכר להם mean that as far as the brothers were concerned he was a pagan seeing that he used his goblet to consult it as if it possessed magic powers. He said to them that the goblet had informed him that they were spies. They replied that they were upright people, had never been spies, but that they had merely complied with their father’s instructions not to enter Egypt by the same gate. Thereupon Joseph demanded to know what business they had had in the red light district? They answered that they had lost something precious and had hoped to locate the lost object in that area during the last three days. Thereupon Joseph told them that his goblet told him that two of their number had once destroyed an entire city by the name of Shechem. When they heard this they became frightened and told Joseph that they were actually twelve brothers. Thereupon Joseph demanded to know the whereabouts of the other two brothers. They told him that one of their number had disappeared and that the youngest one was at home with his father. Upon hearing this, Joseph told them that if they would bring the youngest brother to see him he would accept their claim that they were not spies.

שנים עשר עבדיך אחים אנחנו, “we, your servants, are actually twelve brothers.” Originally they had said that they were twelve men all the sons of a single father (verse 11). They had done so in order to explain why they were traveling together and keeping company all the time. They also explained that their traveling together reduced the chance of their being robbed of their food purchases.

כנים אנחנו, “we are upright (honest).” The term is applied to righteous men who are descendants of righteous men. They invited Joseph to confirm this through independent inquiries he could make about them and their father. Joseph said to them: “you entered by twelve different gates only to be all together now. This suggests to me that you must be spies and have now come together to report to each other what you have found out.” Joseph indicated that their behaviour was typical of spies. Thereupon they enlarged on their family background in order to convince this ruler of Egypt that they had nothing to hide. Thereupon Joseph took them at their word saying that bringing down Binyamin to Egypt would provide proof to him if indeed they had spoken truthfully. The brothers had no response to this.

חי פרעה, “by the life of Pharaoh!” We must not assume that Joseph invoked Pharaoh’s name to swear a vain oath, one that he would not honour. We will demonstrate that when Joseph used the language of an oath he always kept it. In this instance, he wanted to know what the brothers would have done if they had found the brother of whom they had said that he had disappeared. They answered that they would have bought his freedom using all the money at their disposal if need be. When Joseph countered that this was all well and good if the owner of their missing brother were willing to sell him. However, supposing that the owner would not be prepared to do that, what would they do then? They answered that their purpose in coming to Egypt was to settle the matter either one way or another. Either they would be killed in the process or they would have to kill to release their long lost brother. Upon hearing this Joseph exclaimed: “by the life of Pharaoh I was right! You are spies!” The words “by the life of Pharaoh” meant “I will certainly not release you now that you have admitted that you are prepared to kill in order to gain your objective.” Joseph kept his word by not allowing Shimon to return to Canaan at this stage. When the brothers said: “we are twelve, all the sons of one man,” they meant that all twelve of them including their father were alive. The Torah only shows that they were not aware of the truth of their statement that all twelve brothers were alive.

ביום השלישי זאת עשו “on the third day ‘do this!’” According to Bereshit Rabbah 91,9 the verse in Hoseah 6,2 יחיינו מיומים ביום השלישי יקימנו ונחיה לפניו, “In two days He will make us whole again; on the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in His presence,” are a reference to what happened to the brothers during the three days described in our verse. G’d does not subject the righteous to trials lasting more than three days. The merit of the fathers Yaakov, Yitzchak, and Avraham was instrumental in Joseph changing his mind. The third day was significant already ever since the day Avraham espied the mountain on which he prepared Yitzchak as a sacrifice (Genesis 22,4), and it became important again in Exodus 19,16 as the day G’d revealed Himself to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. This implies that the merit of their Torah learning also assisted the brothers when they confronted Joseph.

שבר רעבון בתיכם, “the provisions to still the hunger of your families.” This verse contains the veiled lesson that man must not use food and drink in order to indulge himself and his palate but merely in order to maintain the health of his body. Solomon phrases this principle thus in Proverbs 13,25: “the righteous eats to sustain his life-force.” This is the reason that Joseph used the term שבר רעבון when speaking of the provisions he let them purchase. The limitation (rationing) was particularly appropriate at a time of famine when there is not enough food available to gorge oneself. The principal manifestation of a person’s יראת ה', fear of the Lord, is the manner in which he makes minimal use of the creature comforts available to him in this world. This is the reason that Joseph commenced this sentence with the words את האלו-הים אני ירא, “I am a G’d-fearing person.”

ויעשו כן, “they did so.” This teaches that all the brothers willingly submitted to Joseph’s decision and said to him: “we are all at your disposal; take the one from amongst us whom you choose.”

אבל אשמים אנחנו על אחינו, “but we are guilty concerning our brother, etc.” It is the customary thing for righteous people to acknowledge mistakes they have made and to acknowledge G’d’s justice when they feel they are being punished for some sin. This is the meaning of Leviticus 5,19 אשם הוא, אשום אשם לה', “it is a guilt offering; he has become guilty before the Lord.” [The Torah discusses a guilt-offering brought by a person who became aware of his error but had not been accused by man to have committed such an error. Ed.] By contrast, it is the norm for wicked people to deny that they committed any sins at all. This is the meaning of Zecharyah 11,5: “whose buyers will slaughter them with impunity.” They will not admit having committed a sin.

אשר ראינו צרת נפשו בהתחננו אלינו, ”when we saw his soul in distress and he pleaded with us.” This verse seems to support the opinion of those who hold that it was not the brothers who actually sold Joseph. For if the brothers had been guilty of that crime they should have expressed their remorse for having sold him rather than for having remained deaf to his pleas. Their guilt had been to have thrown him into a pit and to have abandoned him to his fate. No doubt Joseph had pleaded with them not to throw him into the pit.

על כן באה עלינו הצרה הזאת, “this is why this anguish has come upon us.” They meant: “we deserved this anguish as retribution for the anguish we caused Joseph.” The expression כן, describing the correctness of something also occurs in Numbers 27,7 when G’d told Moses that the daughters of Tzelofchod had been correct in their claim to share in the land of Canaan as the heirs of their father.

הלא אמרתי לכם לאמור אל תחטאו בילד! ולא שמעתם, “did I not tell you saying: “do not incur a sin in the way you treat the child! But you did not listen.” Reuven meant that he had told the brothers at the time not to do anything to him seeing he was still a child, and his mistakes etc., were due to his youthful immaturity.

וגם דמו, “and also his blood.” The cruelty you displayed at the time when you threw him into the pit is now being requited. Although you did not kill him with your own hands you are now being punished as if you had done so. G’d considers your deed as if you had spilled your brother’s blood. Perhaps he died before attaining maturity and due to his spoiled upbringing he was not able to cope with the physical demands of serfdom (based on Nachmanides).

ויקח מאתם את שמעון, “he took from amongst them Shimon.” He kept Shimon in jail longer than the other brothers in order to keep him apart from Levi. He remembered that when it came to killing the males of the town of Shechem, Shimon and Levi had acted as a team. Yaakov referred to the matter on his deathbed when he said (Genesis 49,5-6) “Shimon and Levi are brothers (comrades), violence is their stock-in trade.” When the Torah writes in 42, 27: “The one opened his sack,” the words “the one” are a reference to Levi the other half of that team of brothers. Seeing the brothers had not been prepared to select one of their number who should remain behind as a hostage that they would return with Binyamin, Joseph had to make the selection himself. From this incident our sages derived an important ruling, i.e. that when Gentiles demand from Israelites that they hand over one of their number without specifying which person they are to hand over, that the Israelites must not make such a selection but must rather all face death than to condemn someone in their midst. (If however, the Gentiles selected a particular individual from amongst the Israelites and they threaten to kill all the Israelites unless that individual is handed over, the Israelites (in order to save their lives) must hand over the individual demanded from them) (Jerusalem Talmud Terumot 5,4). There is a well known example in Samuel II 20, 1-22 when Sheva ben Bichri, a rebel against the regime of King David, happened to be trapped amongst other Jews and David had given orders to liquidate this Sheva ben Bichri as a dangerous rebel. His commander-in-chief Yoav and his brother Avishai had surrounded the town in which Sheva ben Bichri found himself. A woman in that town saved the other townsfolk by persuading them to hand over the rebel and thus to save the inhabitants of the town from becoming victims of Yoav’s army. [This was during the period of Avshalom’s uprising against his father. Ed.]

וימלאו את כליהם בר, “they filled their containers with grain.” They did not measure the quantity. ולהשיב את כספיהם איש אל שקו, “and to put back each man’s money into his sack.” so that the brothers would be unaware of this. This is why when one of them discovered his money in verse 28 they all became frightened. By contrast, when their money was replaced after their second trip to Egypt, Joseph informed them of that fact. As to the צידה, which the Torah says Joseph gave the brothers to be eaten on the journey, this was an act of kindness. He wanted to convince the brothers that he had no hostile intentions towards them provided they could prove that they had spoken the truth. He gave them these extra provisions in order to enable them to bring their youngest brother to Egypt.

מה זאת עשה אלו-הים לנו, “What is this that G’d had done to us?” They felt that G’d had repaid them for their deception of their father by now making them the victim of deception.

את שני בני תמית, “you may kill two of my sons, etc.” Reuven had four sons. According to the plain meaning of the text he meant to say that his father could kill two of his sons for one of Yaakov’s sons whom he would fail to bring back safely.

According to Bereshit Rabbah 91,9 Yaakov told him that he was a foolish firstborn seeing that he assumed that his sons were only his sons and not also the sons of their grandfather.

לא ירד בני עמכם, “my son will not go down (there) with you.” Yaakov did not say a word in response to Reuven’s offer of his sons as a guarantee. He had no confidence in Reuven seeing that he had previously sinned against his father in the matter with Bilhah’s couch. He did, however, have confidence in Yehudah, seeing Yehudah was the strongest and had displayed mastery over the other brothers (Chronicles I 5,2). Yehudah’s argument presented Yaakov with two choices. According to Bereshit Rabbah 91,10 Yehudah told his brothers not to argue with their aged father but to wait until their shortage of food would make a trip to Egypt an absolute necessity. When that point was reached he told his father that whereas it was not certain Binyamin would not be arrested in Egypt, it was certain that if they did not travel to Egypt they would all perish from the famine. It was better therefore to have at least a chance of all of them surviving by fulfilling Joseph’s conditions.