ולא יכול יוסף להתאפק לכל הנצבים עליו, “Joseph could no longer control his emotions from all those who stood around him.” It appears from this wording that the courtiers around Joseph became gradually more inclined to side with Yehudah in that argument, something that Joseph was not prepared to tolerate. This is why he ordered them out of his presence, calling out: “remove everyone from my presence!” Subsequently, the Torah reports: ויתן את קולו בבכי, “he raised his voice by weeping.” He broke out crying after he was left alone with the brothers, וישמעו מצרים וישמע בית פרעה, “The Egyptians heard; then this was heard in Pharaoh’s palace.”

According to Tanchuma Vayigash 5 things happened somewhat differently. The words “Joseph could no longer control himself” reflect a tremendous inner conflict raging within Joseph. If the brothers were to kill him, he had no next of kin who would demand to avenge his blood. He finally decided to take a chance on the brothers killing him rather than his exposing the fact that he had been kidnapped and sold into slavery by these men. This was the consideration which prompted him to order everybody out of the room.

העוד אבי חי “is my father still alive?” Joseph’s very first words concerned the well being of his father and the concern if he was still alive. ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אותו כי נבהלו מפניו, “his brothers were not able to answer him as they had become frightened of him.” They were dumbstruck realizing that they had sold him into slavery and now he wielded the authority of a king. They were also scared that he would take revenge on them now. The expression נבהלו occurs in that sense in Isaiah 13,8 ונבהלו צירים וחבלים יאחזון, “And, overcome by terror, they shall be seized by pangs and throes.”

According to Tanchuma Vayigash 5 Joseph said to them: “did you not say: ‘this one’s brother is dead?’ I shall call upon him now and he will come to me.” Thereupon he started calling: “Joseph, son of Yaakov, come to me!.” The brothers looked at each of the four corners of the room and nothing happened. Then Joseph said: “what are you looking for, I am your brother Joseph!” When the brothers heard that they lost consciousness. This is why they could not answer him. Rabbi Yochanan used this experience of Joseph’s brothers to exclaim “woe to us on the day of our death, woe to us when we will be called upon to answer for our sins.” If the brothers were so stricken when they heard Joseph reveal himself to his them, how much more will we be frightened when we stand before G’d to be judged! This is what is meant by the verse in Isaiah 10,3: “What will you do on the day of punishment, when the calamity comes from afar?” Another verse on the same theme is found in Maleachi 3,2: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can hold out when he appears?”

גשו נא אלי ויגשו, “step closer to me! They stepped closer.” When Joseph saw that the brothers were frightened and were trying to retreat he told them to come closer to him in order to calm their fear.

According to Bereshit Rabbah 93,10 the reason he asked them to step closer was to show them that he had been circumcised, repeating that he was their brother and felt as their brother in spite of their having sold him. He told them that he would not “boss” them around at all.

והיית קרוב אלי, “and you will be close to me.” The land of Goshen is close to the capital of Egypt. Joseph was well aware that his father would not want to reside in the capital; this is why he arranged for him to live in Goshen. Concerning the words: וכלכלתי אותך שם... פן תורש, “I will provide for you there. so that you will not become impoverished,” (verse 11) the meaning of these words is: “if you remain in Canaan you will surely become impoverished during the next five years of famine.” Joseph implied that he would not be able to look after his family economically while they were in the land of Canaan as he would be suspected of sending them grain in order to trade in it on the local market and to profiteer through their connection to him. Furthermore, they would suspect that the export of such grain supplies to his family were only a prelude to his own return there. On the other hand, if they would all come to Egypt everyone would know that he had no reason to return to Canaan and that he was not amassing a secret fortune in order to enable him to leave the country.

והנה עיניכם רואות ועיני אחי בנימין, “and here you can see with your own eyes and so do the eyes of my full brother Binyamin.” He equated Binyamin with the total of the other brothers. The Torah teaches that the love of the other brothers for him was no less than that of Binyamin who had not been a party to the sale. כי פי המדבר אליכם, “that it is my mouth that is speaking to you.” He referred to the fact that he addressed them in Hebrew (without interpreter). According to Nachmanides the fact that Joseph had a command of Hebrew did not prove that he was their brother as many people in Egypt knew that tongue and the ruler was bound by law to be familiar with all the languages spoken in countries which had trade relations with Egypt. The proof of his identity was the revelation that he knew they had sold their brother Joseph to Egypt. The meaning of the words: “that my mouth is speaking to you,” was a reference to his authority and that by dint of this authority he decreed that the brothers bring their father to Egypt as well as their families. By underlining that he was “your brother,” he demonstrated that he had their welfare at heart when he wanted them to move to Egypt.

According to Megillah 16 the words mean that “my mouth speaks only what is in my heart.” Although Joseph made no reference to his heart, our sages arrive at this conclusion as he could simply have said: “I am speaking to you.” He mentioned “my mouth” as the mouth is the instrument used to convey feelings of the heart.

ויפול על צוארי בנימין אחיות, “he fell on the neck of his brother Binyamin.” The verse tells us that Joseph embraced Binyamin and Binyamin embraced his brother Joseph by each one falling on the other’s neck, a customary gesture amongst brothers who wanted to demonstrate their fondness for each other. Solomon refers to such an embrace in Song of Songs 8,1 when he wrote: “if only I could embrace you as I would embrace a brother who has nursed at my mother’s breast.” The intimate relations between brothers of the same mother are also spelled out in the Torah in Deut. 13,7 where the Torah describes a secret seduction to idolatrous practices by someone who is the brother of the second party by the same mother.” Evidently, the Torah considers the bond between two sons of the same mother as stronger than a similar bond by two sons of the same father. The reason our verse refers to צוארי, i.e. “two necks,” is that a person’s “neck” consists of two parts known as עורף and גרון respectively. Jeremiah 2,27 distinguishes between עורף and פנים, the rear of the neck and the part of the neck facing forward. The sides of the neck are also known as צואר.

A Midrashic approach to the plural form of the “necks.” Joseph wept when he foresaw that the Temple in Binyamin’s territory would twice be destroyed. The reason that the neck of a person evokes the image of the Temple is that it is the highest part of his body and the Temple was also erected on a mountain. When Binyamin wept, he thought of the destruction of the Tabernacle at Shiloh which was situated in the territory of Joseph (Ephrayim), and which was also slated to be destroyed.

וינשק לכל אחיו ויבך עליהם, “he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.” He assured them that he not only harbored no ill feelings toward them but that on the contrary, he meant to treat them well. ואחרי כן דברו אחיו אתו; “after this his brothers talked with him.” Up until this moment he had been speaking and they had not had a chance to talk to him. Now their minds had been put at ease.

Tanchuma Vayigash 5 interprets the words וינשק את כל אחיו as meaning that every brother kissed Joseph and wept while doing so. Joseph did not reconcile himself with the brothers until they had wept. This is a lesson for future Jewish generations that G’d will not send the salvation until the Jewish people have wept in remorse for their sins. This is the meaning of Jeremiah 31,9: “They shall come with weeping, and with compassion will I guide them.”

.והקול נשמע בית פרעה , “the news was heard in the palace of Pharaoh.” All of Egypt was already aware that Joseph had prominent brothers as he had told them about it. Now, when they heard that the brothers had arrived this was very pleasing to the Egyptians seeing that originally they had felt ashamed to be ruled by a onetime slave. Now that Joseph had been able to establish that he never had been born a slave but was a member of a highly respected family they felt honoured.

Tanchuma Vayigash 5 takes an entirely different view of the meaning of the words “a voice was heard in the house of Pharaoh.” According to this Midrash as soon as the brothers recognised Joseph they wanted to kill him. An angel descended and scattered them to the four corners of his mansion. At that moment Yehudah raised his voice in a thundering tone so that all the walls in the public squares of Egypt collapsed; all pregnant women immediately had miscarriages from the sound of that voice. Joseph fell off his throne and the faces of the guards who surrounded Joseph’s throne turned gray in consternation. Tanchuma bases himself on Job 4,10: “The lion may roar, the cub may howl, but the teeth of the king of beasts are broken.” At any rate, the sound that was heard in the house of Pharaoh was that of Yehudah’s roaring like a lion.

ואכלו את חלב הארץ , “and you will eat the fat of the land.” Pharaoh prophesied without being aware that he prophesied. The same applies to verse 20 where Pharaoh said “the best of the whole land of Egypt is yours.” These remarks were allusions to what the Jewish people would do to the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus. We read there (Exodus 12,36) “they emptied out all of Egypt.”

ואתה ציויתה זאת עשו, “and you are under orders to do the following.” Pharaoh was well aware of Joseph’s modesty and loyalty and the fact that he would not send anything to his father and his brothers unless he had been given express instructions. This is why Pharaoh had to order him to do all this.

עגלות על פי פרעה, “wagons, at the command of Pharaoh.” Joseph sent his father a sign seeing that when he had parted from him he had studied with him the subject of how a murdered person whose murderer is not known is to be expiated. One of the needs to obtain forgiveness for possible indirect involvement in such a murder is the killing of an עגלה, a calf which had not yet been used to perform any work (compare Deut. 21.) [The Hebrew word for wagon עגלה is the same as for “calf.” This is why the sending of wagons was symbolic. Ed.] This explains also why Yaakov’s spirits revived as soon as he saw the wagons (verse 27).

ולבנימין נתן שלש מאות כסף, “and he gave Binyamin three hundred pieces of silver.” The number 300 is related to the indebtedness of the brothers. When ten brothers sold a slave they each have to pay 30 shekel ransom. This is the value of the life of a slave who has been killed [gored by an ox or otherwise] and the compensation payable by the killer according to Exodus 21,31. When a Jewish master sells his slave to a Gentile he may be required to pay punitive compensation of up to ten times the value of the slave, i.e. three hundred shekel silver (Gittin 44).

חמש חליפות שמלות, “five changes of clothing.” He hinted to him that eventually Mordechai would be descended from him who would be distinguished with five garments as mentioned in Esther 8,15.

.ולאביו שלח כזאת “and to his father he sent the following:” The word מנחה, “gift” is missing here. The meaning of the verse is that Joseph sent his father a gift consisting of the items mentioned in our verse. He sent both male and female donkeys just as Yaakov had done when he sent a number of gifts to Esau [though Yaakov had sent twice as many female donkeys as males. Ed.]

בר ולחם ומזון, “grain, bread, and food.” The word בר includes the five major cereals fit to bake into bread. The word לחם in this instance refers to kitniyot, pulses. The word מזון, refers to dried fruit such as figs, dates, raisins, etc. Whereas every kind of בר is suitable raw material to make into bread, the same does not apply to the term לחם. Similarly, whenever we encounter the word לחם, it is definitely a kind of food, whereas the word מזון does not necessarily refer to something which can be converted into bread.

וישלח את אחיו וילכו “he sent off his brothers and they went on their way.” All his brothers, Reuven, Shimon and the rest, including Binyamin so that Yehudah kept his promise to his father. Why then did the sages (Sotah 7) say that Yehudah was punished for his guarantee so that the bones in his coffin rattled during all the 40 years the Israelites wandered through the desert? The reason is that his vow and its fulfilment depended on the goodwill of others. It is sinful to make such promises unless the factors relating to fulfilment of the promise are all under the control of the person making the promise. Yehudah had known from the outset that it would depend on the ruler of Egypt if he could make good on his guarantee. Our sages (Makkot 11) used this incident to formulate a halachah concerning conditional excommunication, saying that the threat of excommunication even if conditional, requires a retroactive annulment even if in the meantime the party who had been threatened with such excommunication had fulfilled the conditions imposed upon him. This explains why Yehudah qualified for punishment for having guaranteed Binyamin’s safe return.

אל תרגזו בדרך, “do not become agitated on the journey.” The word may mean: “do not be afraid,” based on Deut 28,65 ולב רגז, “a trembling heart,” or on Deut. 2,25 ורגזו וחלו מפניך, “they will tremble and be anxious before you.” It is customary that during periods of famine people who are loaded with grain and food are constantly afraid of being attacked. How much more so would this apply when the whole clan of the Hebrews including all their chattels would travel to Egypt. This is also why Joseph told his brothers to rush home and not to have any fear at all as his reputation and the fact that they were under his protection would suffice to frighten off marauders. Thus far Nachmanides on the subject.

Our sages in Taanit 10 understand the words אל תרגזו בדרך, as an instruction not to get involved in halachic discussions while they were traveling as this would slow them down. He did not mean to stop them from discussing such matters; he only did not want them to go into them at depth as this would prove time-consuming. He could not in good conscience have told them not to discuss Torah as we have a statement in Sotah 49 that when even two Torah scholars travel together without discussing matters of Torah they deserve to be burned at the stake. Our sages base this on Kings II 2,11: “as they kept on walking (Elijah and Elisha), a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other.” They needed to be separated because they were engaged in Torah-discussions. Had they not been engaged in discussing Torah they would both have been burned to death.

ויפג לבו, “his heard went numb.” The word ויפג is related to Lamentations 3,49 מאין הפוגות, “without respite.” The meaning is that Yaakov’s tears went on flowing without interruption. The meaning of the expression here is: “his heart stopped beating, he became like dead.” It is not unusual for someone to faint when he is the recipient of unexpected good news. The physiological explanation is a sudden expansion of the arteries of the heart which causes the heat inside the heart to suddenly dissipate and to cover the outside of the body. As a result, the heart itself is left cold, or at least too cold to perform its task. This causes fainting. These phenomena are more common among the elderly and among people with a weak constitution. The Talmud in Ketuvot 62, when discussing the frequency or otherwise of marital relations between Torah scholars and their wives, reports that after an absence of twelve years from his home, the wife of Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinai suddenly saw (according to Rashi thought she saw) her husband standing in the doorway. Her heart gave such a leap that she died from the shock. Her husband was stunned that this should be the reward of a pious woman who had enabled him to study Torah all these years. He prayed for her revival and she was restored to life.

וידברו אליו את כל דברי יוסף אשר דבר אליהם, “they told him all the words Joseph had said to them.” According to Nachmanides what they told Yaakov was as follows: “Your son Joseph has said: ‘G’d appointed me as ruler over the whole land of Egypt, etc. etc. G’d has sent me to be the provider of my whole family, etc.’,” When they told Yaakov all this they failed to mention that Joseph had added the words “you who have sold me to Egypt.” Yaakov was never told of this. He was left under the impression that Joseph had lost his way at the time he tried to locate his brothers at or near Dothan, and that the members of some caravan who had found him had kidnapped him and sold him to Egypt. The brothers on their part did not tell their father about their part in the sale of Joseph as they did not want to incriminate themselves. In addition, they were afraid that if they would tell their father about their share in Joseph’s disappearance he would curse them as he did on his deathbed when he referred to the sins of Reuven, Shimon and Levi. Joseph, in his humility and dedication to maintaining peaceful relations with his brothers, never told his father either. This leaves us with the problem of why the brothers claimed after Yaakov’s funeral that the latter had asked them to tell Joseph to forgive them (Genesis 50,14). Actually, these words were proof that Yaakov had never known about who had sold Joseph. Had he known about it surely the brothers would have begged their father to intercede with Joseph while he was still alive and to beg Joseph personally to forgive his brothers. Surely Joseph would not have refused such a request by his father.

ותחי רוח יעקב אביהם, “the spirit of their father Yaakov revived.” Onkelos renders this as ושרת רוח נבואה על יעקב אבוהון, “a prophetic spirit came to rest on their father Yaakov.” The reason Onkelos added this dimension to the meaning of the word is clearly that the Torah could have simply written: “their father Yaakov revived.”

ויאמר ישראל, “Yisrael said.” As long as his prophetic spirit had not been restored to him, the Torah referred to him only as Yaakov. Now that he had regained this additional spiritual dimension he is once more referred to as Yisrael. We have 18 instances from here until the end of the Book of Genesis where Yaakov is referred to as ישראל, such as 46,1; 46,5; 46,8; 46,29; to name but a few. The reason that G’d called him “Yaakov” in 46,2 whereas the Torah (G’d Himself) had referred to him as ישראל in the same verse was because the journey to Egypt was a voluntary exile on the part of Yaakov and it was not appropriate that the name Yisrael which denotes authority, victory, etc., should be applied to someone who exiles himself and subordinates himself to a human ruler. Once G’d had called him by the name Yaakov, it is not surprising to see that the Torah reverts to use of that name (compare 46,5, 46,6, 46,8, 46,19, 46,26, 46,27, etc.). When the Torah (46,5) nonetheless speaks of וישאו בני ישראל את יעקב אביהם, “the sons of Israel carried their father Yaakov, etc.,” the message of the Torah is that Yaakov’s descent to Egypt involved both his names, i.e. although at this stage he had become an exile, ultimately, -through the exile experience in Egypt- he (his people) would be redeemed there and would emerge as more deserving of the name בני ישראל than before. This is the reason that in the verse mentioned the sons of Yaakov are referred to as בני ישראל rather than as the בני יעקב. The Torah could have simply written that “Yaakov’s sons carried him, etc.” We have this concept repeated at the beginning of the Book of Exodus where the Torah speaks of: “these are the children of Israel who came down to Egypt.” The same verse goes on naming them as “Yaakov and his sons.” These are the very ones who in the future would be called “the children of Israel.”

רב, עוד יוסף בני חי, “it is indeed great! My son Joseph is still alive!” According to the plain meaning of the text the two separate exclamations by Israel refer to the two separate pieces of information that the brothers had brought with them. 1) The information that Joseph was alive. 2) The news that he occupied such a lofty position in Egypt. When Israel exclaimed רב!, he meant that the news that Joseph was alive was already sufficient good news. The fact that he occupied such a lofty position was an added bonus to the principal news that he was alive.

A Midrashic approach to this verse is that the exclamation רב, was meant to acknowledge Israel’s satisfaction at having been granted such a reward in his life on earth, whereas the second exclamation עוד, “in addition,” refers to the meta-physical dimension of this news, i.e. that his standing in the world to come would remain unimpaired, not as he had been afraid that the fact that he lost a child during his own lifetime was a sign that he had forfeited his claim to that world. Technically speaking, the use of both these exclamations in this sense is found in Psalms 31,20 מה רב טובך, whereas the word עוד in this sense is found in Psalms 84,5 עוד יהללוך סלה, “forever (even in the hereafter) they will praise You.”

I believe that this is also what Onkelos alluded to when he translated סגי לי חדוא , “great joy for me.” This kind of joy is of a type reserved for the hereafter. Joy in this life is something finite and only in the hereafter do we encounter something enduring. This in spite of the fact that Yaakov had experienced more than his fair share of disappointments during his life on earth [ — Compare his own words in Genesis 47,9. Ed.] Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 76,2 state that “promises made to the righteous by G’d are not ironclad as to their validity during the terrestrial life of the recipient (my translation).” When Yaakov had thought that he had lost Joseph and had said (37,35) “for I will go down to my grave mourning for my son,” this expressed his fear that he had forfeited eternal life. He had come to believe that both Joseph and he himself were slated for purgatory due to sins they had committed. Now that he heard that Joseph was alive he was certain that both he and his son would merit life in the hereafter.