ולא יכול יוסף להתאפק לכל הנצבים, “and Joseph could no longer restrain himself in the presence of all the courtiers around him.” According to Rashi what bothered Joseph was that all the Egyptians would become privy to matters which were private between him and his brothers. He did not want to shame his brothers publicly when he would reveal himself to them, and unavoidably their part in his having been brought to Egypt in the first place would come to light. Nachmanides makes the point that whenever the expression התאפקות occurs it denotes the strength of character of the person so described. The people surrounding Joseph had been so moved by Yehudah’s words that they appealed to Joseph to respond by releasing him. The pressure became so great that even steadfast Joseph could no longer withstand it. He therefore ordered everybody out of the hall in order to continue the dialogue with the brothers (Yehudah) in private. A soon as the Egyptians who had been present left the hall, Joseph broke out in tears, and weeping, something which the Egyptians now outside could not help overhearing. The meaning of the word ויקרא in our verse is not a simple ”reading” or instruction, without the subject raising his voice especially, but Joseph raised his voice angrily in ordering all the Egyptians surrounding him out into the courtyard.

העוד אבי חי?, “is my father still alive?” Even though he had asked them the same question already in 43,27 and the brothers had answered in the affirmative, his question now concerned the state of his health, not the mere fact that Yaakov was still alive. The word חי therefore has to be equated with בריא, healthy. It is also possible that he did not really ask this question in order to receive additional information, but merely to have an opening to speak to the brothers, instead of as until now, about “your father,” but about “my father,” i.e. their common father. This was a ploy to establish close personal contact with his brothers.

גשו נא אלי, “please come closer to me.” He now changed his demeanour and spoke to them as an equal, in a friendly manner. It is also possible that he did not want to remind them aloud of the fact that they had sold him, and therefore he made them approach him closely so that he could whisper to them. He did not want the people in the courtyard to overhear this part of their conversation. According toRashi, the reason he wanted them to approach him closely was to show them that he was circumcised, just like them, to prove that he was who he had just said that he was. I do not think this would have proved anything as all the male descendants of Yishmael were also in the habit of performing circumcision on themselves, albeit at the age of 13. Moreover, according to the Midrash, the Egyptians had adopted the rite of circumcision at the advice of Joseph.

כי זה שנתים הרעב, “for these two years of famine, etc.” He reminded them of the years of famine that had already passed, and that they had already consumed all their reserves although there were five more years of famine in store for the country. How could they have hoped to survive the next five years if G’d in His providence had not sent Joseph ahead of them to Egypt in order to be able to provide for his family?

וישבת בארץ גושן, “and you can reside on the province of Goshen.” Joseph knew full well that his father would not want to reside in Egypt proper, in the capital; this is why he assigned to province of Goshen to his family.

פן תורש אתה וביתך, “lest both you and your family will become impoverished.” When he had uttered the same concern to his brothers directly, he had phrased it more crassly, warning them of the imminent danger of dying from the famine. When speaking to his father, he used more diplomatic, inoffensive wording.” (compare verse 7 “in order to keep you alive.”)

כי פי המדבר אליכם, “that it is I who am talking to you.” He emphasized that as of now he was addressing them directly, in Hebrew, not through an interpreter, as he had been doing up until he had revealed himself. Nachmanides writes that the fact that Joseph suddenly admitted being able to speak Hebrew would not prove that he was their long lost brother. The fact that he mentioned his real name to them, plus the details of how he had been sold were far more potent arguments to establish his true identity in their eyes. Personally, (still Nachmanides writing) I believe that the true interpretation of what Joseph is saying in our verse is: “your own eyes as well as the eyes of my brother Binyamin are living testimony to my august position here in Egypt, and in my capacity of your brother and the de facto ruler of Egypt, I command you to move to Egypt and to join me here. The only reason I command you to tell our father of my position here and the esteem in which I am held, is to persuade you to come here so that I can provide for you during the remaining years of the famine. If I did not entertain feelings of love and fondness towards you, there would be absolutely no reason for me to speak to you in this fashion.”

באו אחי יוסף, “Joseph’s brothers have arrived;” he had always told Pharaoh that he had a number of brothers who occupied distinguished positions in the land of Canaan, and that he had been kidnapped from there. Now, when the people in Pharaoh’s entourage heard about the arrival of Joseph’s brothers, they rejoiced, as it confirmed Joseph’s status prior to his appointment, something that had been somewhat clouded up until now.

טענו את בעירכם, “load your beasts.” Rabbi Joseph Kimchi claims that this must not be understood as a command by Pharaoh that the brothers should load their beasts, after all, had he not himself specifically provided the brothers with wheeled transportation, wagons which could transport much more at a time than their beasts? What Pharaoh meant was that the brothers should prod the beasts pulling the wagons to proceed with all possible speed. The expression טענו occurs in connection with people who have their swords girded around their waist in Isaiah

ואתה צוית, “and you, Joseph, consider yourself commanded, etc.” The reason Pharaoh used such imperial language was that he was aware that Joseph would never take any liberties with property which was not legally his own; he was afraid that Joseph would not want to send anything to his father which belonged to the Egyptian state. By instructing him to take these wagons he would remove any doubt in Joseph’s mind that he was exceeding his authority in allocating these carriages as vehicles to transport his family.

ועיניכם אל תחוס על כליכם, “do not begrudge any chattels you leave behind.” He knew how frugally his father lived, and how he would not let anything go to waste. This is why he instructed his brothers to ignore such considerations when it came to their moving their belongings to Egypt.

לכלם נתן לאיש חליפות שמלות, “he gave each one of them a change of clothes.” This was in replacement for his having been the cause of their rending their garments.

ולבנימין נתן שלוש מאות כסף, “and to Binyamin he gave 300 pieces of silver;” seeing that the penalty for someone who sells his slave to a gentile outside the land of Israel is subject to a fine of up to 10 times the value of the slave in question, Binyamin was entitled to be 300 pieces of silver better off than his brothers, seeing that an average slave is worth 30 pieces of silver. Although Joseph assessed his brothers a penalty of 300 pieces of silver each, all of which should have gone to Binyamin, he gave Binyamin only 300 pieces of silver.

וחמש חליפות שמלות, “and five changes of clothes.” (new outfits). One outfit matching what he had given to the other brothers. The other four were gifts (as opposed to compensation), one outfit each from himself, his two sons and his wife.

ולאביו שלח כזאת, “and to his father he sent the following:” Rashi explains that the word כזאת here is short for כחשבון הזאת: “the following amounts.” What did these “amounts consist of?” 10 donkey loads, etc., etc. Nachmanides feels that the word כזאת refers to the food for the extended family of Yaakov, which would sustain them on the journey to Egypt. He had, after all, provided his brothers with rations to sustain them on their homeward trip, also. (verse 21). The Torah mentions to Joseph’s credit that he did not only give them the supplies in question but also the means of transporting them, i.e. donkeys and she asses. According to Ibn Ezra the word כזאת refers to the quality of the new clothes Joseph handed out, i.e. the best quality available in Egypt. Some commentators claim that Joseph did not send Binyamin back with the other brothers, and they prove their point by the fact that he sent only ten donkeys to his father and not eleven. In other words, Joseph gave each of the ten brothers a donkey that would be led by him; if Binyamin had also returned to Canaan he would have had to give them eleven donkeys. Some say that this is no proof as Joseph simply did not want to burden Binyamin with the task of leading a donkey all the way back to Canaan.

אל תרגזו בדרך, “do not engage in recriminations while on the journey.” He told them not to be concerned over the fact that they, as opposed to everyone else, traveled in style, equipped with luxuries at a time when the rest of the population had to make do with a very austere lifestyle due to the famine. He assured them that potential robbers and men of violence would be in awe of him when they found out that they traveled under Joseph’s special protection.

ויפג לבו, “his heart stopped beating;” according to Rashi this means that his heart refused to accept this as true. According to Nachmanides the word is similar to the word ביטול, as in Lamentations 2,18 אל תתני פוגת לך, “give yourself no respite.” The word פוג always means that something active suddenly ceases to be so and becomes inert, like dead. Yaakov’s heart became cold and his blood circulation stopped. This is a well known phenomenon when someone suddenly receives unexpected good news and is overwhelmed by it. Yaakov fainted and lay on the floor as if dead. The Torah reports that it took Yaakov a long time to recover from his shock and to believe what the brothers had told him. The standard remedy used to bring someone who fainted at the receipt of good news to recover from his fainting spell, is to dance around him and make noise and display joy and elation. When the brothers repeated their conversation with Joseph, and when upon opening his eyes he beheld the carriages Joseph had sent, he began to believe them and to react accordingly.

וירא את העגלות, “he saw the carriages, etc.” then he believed the brothers as he told himself that no one else but a ruler would have been able to send these carriages out of Egypt, and all these precious gifts of food, etc. in the midst of a famine, except if it had been with the full consent of the government. Once he felt joy in his life once more, the holy spirit that had been absent since Joseph’s disappearance overcame him again According to the Midrash which understands the gift of carriages as a reminder by Joseph to his father that after all these years he had not forgotten that the last subject in which his father had instructed him had been the subject known as עגלה ערופה, the heifer which is killed by the judges of the Supreme Court in expiation of any indirect guilt in a unresolved murder on holy soil, we must understand our verse in terms of the two principles known as יש אם למקרא, ויש אם למסורה, that (normally) the unusual spelling of a word draws attention to a double meaning intended by the author. No one would argue that the carriages had not been sent for transporting Yaakov and family. But these “carriages” had an additional significance. This is why the Torah, instead of describing them as having been sent by Pharaoh, describes them as having been sent by Joseph, a slight but significant inaccuracy. It was to alert Yaakov that his son had not forgotten, in spite of his position at the Egyptian court, what had been the last lesson his father had taught him before he had sent him on the errand to see how his brothers were doing in Shechem. [in this instance it is not the spelling but the change in the description of the sender of the carriages. Joseph had actually sent heifers, עגלות, also, a double entendre of the word עגלות. Clearly, these had not been intended to pull the carriages. Ed.] Some commentators believe that the brothers did not transport grain in carriages but on their donkeys, [in small quantities. Ed] for if they had transported wagon-loads of grain, it would have looked as if they were depleting Egypt of its reserves of grain. In order to do this, special permission from Pharaoh himself was needed.

רב, עוד יוסף בני חי, “it is much; my son Joseph is still alive!” Seeing that at first he did not want to believe them, he asked after the original owners of the עגלות, only to be told that just as a ship is steered by a captain, so the owner of these carriages, i.e. Joseph, is still very much alive. [who else but the “captain,” i.e. Joseph, could have sent all this to Yaakov? Ed]