In the Footsteps of the Two Mashiachs
A royal silver goblet.
Yoseph was the firstborn son of Ya’akov from Rachel, his beloved wife, and Yehudah was the fourth son of the unloved wife, Leah. Both sons of Ya’akov would become progenitors of two separate royal lineages: Yehudah’s future descendants and ultimately haMashiach of the Eternal Elohim on account of their father’s merits would deserve to become the kings of Israel through the Davidic dynasty, while kings would come from the loins of Yoseph too, even though they all would be wicked. But until then, with his selfless speech before the governor of Egypt and after he offered himself to become a substitute for Binyamin the second son of Rachel, Yehudah deserved to become the new leader of the clan. His leadership in the family was recognized by none other than by his father, as we will see later in the dramatic story that follows in the Torah portion Vayigash, “He approached”, as we will walk in the footsteps of the two Mashiachs. Because of the obligation that is upon us, we will explain and interpret the Torah portion “He approached” with all due seriousness and in the best way we could. The obligation that is upon the reader is to weigh well what we will say in this matter, reflect upon it, compare it with the words of others, and give preference to that which is best.
In this introduction to our survey, we would like to clarify that complete repentance can be achieved only by being put in the same situation when one has sinned on a previous occasion. It all began with the multiple test Yoseph led his brothers through, when he was raised in the high position of being the governor of Egypt. And this was Yoseph’s goal for his brothers, namely, to create a scenario very similar to the event of his sale. And this is exactly what Yoseph planned and did to bring his brothers in the same situation in order to test them whether they would abandon Binyamin as they abandoned him long ago. Yoseph had his silver goblet planted in Binyamin’s sack with grain and sent his official (most likely Menasheh) to pursue them as soon as the brothers had left the city. When the goblet was found in Binyamin’s sack the brothers were detained and brought back before the governor of Egypt. Now, it was Yehudah who rose to the position of spokesperson of the brothers. Let us here compare the unthoughtful words spoken in haste by the brothers (see Genesis 44:9) that with whomever the goblet would be found, he should die and all of them should become slaves to Pharoah and the more thoughtful words of Yehudah which he spoke before the governor. He said,
What do we say to my lord? What do we speak? Or how do we clear ourselves? Elohim has found out the iniquity of your servants. See, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also with whom the goblet was found. (Gen 44:16)
There is no mention of death in Yehudah’s words. Yet, what he said was still harder than what the Egyptian said that the one with whom the goblet was found would become a slave and the rest would be free to go (verse 17). But why would Yehudah think that the governor would accept him as a slave in place of his brother?
And Yehudah came near to the Egyptian and said, (Note hereafter how the careful use of words throughout Yehudah’s plea helps tell the story of Yoseph and Yehudah),
O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh. (Gen 44:18)
This is how the speech that made Yehudah the new leader of the family began.
His plea before the governor of Egypt in Genesis 44:18-34 is the longest recorded speech by a single person in the Torah. Yoseph knew that Yehudah was the fourth born of the brothers, but it was surprising to him that he was speaking while his older brothers were keeping quiet. While Reuven was the eldest son of Ya’akov and the one who was expected to speak for all brothers, it was Yehudah who stepped in to make a fervent plea to defend the family. But why did Yehudah and no other come near to the Egyptian to plea for mercy?
If his words are analyzed carefully, this is what he was actually saying: “Governor, Egypt had announced to the whole world that everyone could come to buy grain. But my family had been accused of crimes and singled out by having to bring surety, a human being, when we came to buy grain. This is not fare! I accept the reality and will serve as a slave in his place, lest I bring evil upon my father when he sees that the boy is not with me, for I have pledged myself to become a guarantor for my brother”.
Proverbs 6 :1-2 reads, “My son, if you became a guarantor for your friend… you have been snared by the words of your own mouth”. Yehudah guaranteed before his father that he would bring back Binyamin to him. Now, because he was snared by his own words before his father, saying – “if I do not bring him to you, let me bear the blame forever” (Genesis 43:9), he had to deliver his brother before the governor.
When Yehudah said, “a word in my lord’s ears” he meant what was about to follow in verse 33: “let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my master, and let the boy go up with his brothers” for I cannot return home without him, lest my father dies” (v 22-23). In his speech, Yehudah would not relent from this stance before the Egyptian until he touched his heart to release his young brother. But at the same moment, a thought might have passed through his mind that if Binyamin would be detained as a slave in Egypt, his father would accept his fate that all sons of Rachel were destined to perish because of the curse he himself decreed years ago when Lavan accused him of stealing his idols that Rachel in fact took. Then, Ya’akov would blame himself that it was him who sent his favorite son, and he perished, and then he sent his other favorite son, and he perished too. And even worse, Ya’akov would have believed and die with the thought that Binyamin was a thief. That was something Yehudah did not want to cause to his father, because he (Yehudah) was the cause of everything that happened to Yoseph.
And when Yehudah said to the Egyptian, “let not your anger burn against your servant”, he meant, “do not be angry when I imply that you forced us into this predicament” (Sforno) even though you are a self-proclaimed God-fearing man (Genesis 42:18) who ignored out fears and instead demanded that we bring our brother to you”.
The opening his speech ended with the words: “for you are like Pharaoh”. This common translation is dubious and not faithful to Hebrew for the following reason. The repeated use of the prefix כ kaf is meant to draw a comparison between the two subjects mentioned: the governor and Pharaoh. The use of two letters caf in chamo’cha ke‘faro (literally, “like you [is] like Pharaoh”) is short for saying, “you are like Pharaoh and Pharaoh is like you”. Hence, what Yehudah was implying before the governor was that whatever he (the governor) would decide, it would be like as if Pharaoh had decided it. The intent is now clear; Yehudah raised the Egyptian to the rank of that of Pharaoh so that he would obtain mercy so much needed in that situation.
A knowledgeable person is aware of the existence of predicaments. A smart person knows how to get out of any predicament. A wise person does not get in any predicament. Navah
A wise man knows how not to get into any predicament. How? The brothers should have checked their sacks filled with grain when they were sent back home. Had they done this simple check, they would have found the goblet before they left the house of the Egyptian. And even before this incident, they should have checked their sacks with the grain they purchased even for the simple reason to verify that what they had paid for was what they had in their sacks. Had they done this, they would have found their own money in their sacks. Thus, they would have avoided the second predicament or would have given Yoseph more difficulties to come up with another test.
And we said to my lord: We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him. (Gen 44:20)
Yehudah told the governor that their father was an old man, and he had a little child of his old age (Binyamin), and his brother (Yoseph) was dead, because this was what the brothers had assumed when they did not find Yoseph in the pit. (Refer to the article New Reading of Who Sold Yoseph to Slavery in Egypt for a complete explanation) He indicated that his father was an old man because the Egyptian might have assumed otherwise in view of the fact that the oldest among them was only 45 years old. Yoseph (the governor) was at that time 39 years old. Ya’akov was 130 when he appeared before Pharaoh. Hence, Yehudah had to mention that their father was an old man to bring to the governor’s mind what would befall the old man, if he would not see his son home.
A careful reader will notice that when Yehudah said to the Egyptian that they told him at their last meeting that their brother was dead and that Binyamin was the only remaining son of their father from his wife (Rachel) there is no record in the Torah account of such a conversation have ever taken place between the brothers and Yoseph. The brothers never stated that one of their siblings was dead, but only that “one is not (with the father)” (see Genesis 42:13), and the governor had never asked, “Have you a father or brother?” in contradiction to what Yehudah said in Genesis 44:19. Yehudah even went on to state that they told him that Binyamin could not leave his father without causing his death (see Genesis 44:22), but in fact, it was their father who said those words to Yehudah (compare to Genesis 42:38). From these comparisons we can conclude that Yehudah was extremely confusing the facts in his appeal to the governor, because he might have been under emotional stress that Yehudah and his brothers were experiencing standing guilty before the Egyptian and waiting for his final verdict. Even though Yehudah was under extreme stress, his purpose was to appeal to the Egyptian in hope of obtaining mercy from him. But it was not only Binyamin who was in Yehudah’s plea but also his father, whose wellbeing he was most concerned about.
And you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, and let me set my eyes on him”. (Gen 44:21)
Here, Yehudah intentionally did not mention the imprisonment of Shimon and its pretext, “You are spies”, out of the fear of the Egyptian’s retribution. Yet, he reminded him that it was wrong for a ruler not to keep his word, as if saying, “You claimed you only wanted to be convinced of his (Binyamin’s) existence to verify our words”.
By now, the suspicion that what befell them was a conspiracy of the Egyptian might have already developed in Yehudah’s mind, but there was little he could do to counteract it. It is hard to accept that he and the brothers had believed that Binyamin had stolen the silver goblet. Such a thought would not have come to their minds. But Yehudah decided not to go into that wrong direction to argue with the viceroy of Egypt that would lead to nowhere or even worse–they might end up in a new predicament. But instead he chose the better strategy to plea for the Egyptian’s mercy and offer himself in servitude.
Then, Yehudah described (verses 24-29) the conversation that took place sometime after they returned to Ya’akov. From this account Yoseph was not surprised to learn that his father was adamant in his refusal to send the only remaining son of his favorite wife to Egypt but agreed only when their provisions of food were depleted. He desired to see his father as soon as possible, yet Yoseph knew that for his father he was gone forever, for Yehudah said to him,
Then your servant my father said to us, “You know that my wife bore me two sons, and the one went out from me, and I said, ‘Surely, he is torn, torn to pieces!’ And I have not seen him since. And if you take this one (Binyamin) from me too, and harm comes to him, you will bring down my gray hair with evil to She’ol (underworld)“. (Gen 44:27-29)
This description in verses 27-28 was not recorded in the account of what Ya’akov had actually said to his sons in Genesis 43 (see more specifically Genesis 43:6-7). This can be explained that either Torah was concise in one place and expansive in another, or Yehudah in his anguish said what he was not supposed to say. If we assume that Ya’akov had never said these words and they were only product of Yehudah’s anguish, then Yoseph also learned that the family had considered Yoseph killed by a beast and therefore his brothers had actually sold him to the traders. If such was the case, then when Yehudah said allegedly quoting his father, “my wife bore me two sons”, perhaps, that was projection on his mind that to his father they were his only sons. And with his brother Yoseph dead, Binyamin alone was the only son whom his father loved and had. At any rate, whether those were Ya’akov or Yehudah’s words, the only wife mentioned was his favorite one (Rachel) and her sons, and not the other (Leah).
And Yehudah concluded his speech before the Egyptian governor, pleading,
And now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. For how do I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would come upon my father? (Gen 44:33-34)
We should not miss the irony in this plea that it was Yehudah who conspired to sell his brother Yoseph into slavery (see Genesis 37:26-27). And now it was Yehudah himself who offered to become a slave to the very one he wanted to sell, thus taking the full responsibility for the sin he committed against his father and brother. We should recall one of the principles of justice in the Torah: measure for measure and the punishment fits the crime. Because it was Yehudah who had sold Yoseph into slavery, he now offered himself to Yoseph as a slave forever in the place of Binyamin. And when he said, “let your servant (himself) remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord”, perhaps, that was his well-intended goal to invoke reasoning in the Egyptian, namely, why he would keep and entrust a convicted thief as a servant in his household and not take him (himself) instead who was much stronger and more skilled than the youth, and who could even serve in his army. And this the end of Yehudah’s speech which he delivered before his brother whom he did not recognize.
Yoseph, now convinced that his brothers had truly repented of their animosity toward him after the tests he had them go through and especially Yehudah’s plea to save Binyamin from slavery, felt that the time of reconciliation had at last come. His brothers were now ready to discover the Egyptian’s identity. Yoseph ordered everyone of the Egyptians to leave but the interpreter, his son Menasheh. He was ready to reveal himself but could not bear to embarrass his brothers. Yet he had to do it; it was inevitable. He wept, and all those whom he made leave heard it, and the word quickly reached Pharaoh’s court. And Yoseph said to his brothers,
I am Yoseph, does my father still live?” (Gen 45:3)
But his brothers were unable to answer him, for they trembled before him.
These very words that Yoseph just spoke were the beginning of his speech, which the Torah saw fit to place side by side to his brother’s speech. After he revealed the identity of the Egyptian who gave them all those predicaments, he asked: “Does my father still live?”; that was his prime concern. And that was Yehudah’s concern when pleading for Binyamin’s freedom, namely, if the Egyptian would enslave Binyamin, his father would die. The shock and shame of the brothers at this moment was so intense that they were left speechless and said nothing to Yoseph’s revelation, when he said, “I am Yoseph” and defenseless to justify their misdeed. It is not that Yoseph doubted his brothers’ talk about their aging father. He did not doubt Yehudah’s compassion in his plea even though he did not show such a compassion, when they threw him into the pit. Yoseph was moved to tears and the only thing he said that could not be taken as a rebuke of his brothers was, “Does my father still live?” We do not know, after twenty-two years had passed since Yoseph was in Egypt, whether his dreams and the decree made in heaven to bring the family into Egypt became clear to the brothers at that moment, but it became clear to the readers of the story that it was so.
Then Yoseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” And when they came near, he said, “I am Yoseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be grieved nor angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for Elohim sent me before you to preserve life. (Gen 45:4-5)
Yoseph saw how Yehudah was willing to give up his freedom for Binyamin, and this showed him that he had repented. But he also saw that the brothers tremble before him in fear. He called them to come closer to him but he also said twice that they were the ones who sold him into Egypt. Note that the phrase “you sold me” appears twice in the verses quoted, and we need to understand the reason. Certainly, the reason is that Yoseph believed during those twenty-two years that it was his brothers who sold him to the Ishmaelites. He could not have known that they had nothing to do with the selling, for they had planned even worst: they wanted to abandon him in the pit and let him die there. From this perspective the Ishmaelites were his saviors.
Now, with this appeal to them Yoseph wanted to comfort his brothers after they became horrified at the revelation. Yet his words had just the opposite effect as they sounded to the brothers as a severe rebuke: “I am your brother whom you sold into Egypt”. What comfort did Yoseph mean to convey with these words? Yoseph made it clear that they were the ones who committed injustice to him, for in his mind Yoseph indeed believed that they were those who had sold him to the traders; he did not know that the traders had found him in the pit, while the brothers were eating away from the pit. The only thing Yoseph knew was that they indeed wanted to sell him, but he did not know that they had nothing to do with the actual sale. So, why did he rebuke them in the presence of Binyamin when he was attempting to comfort them? Especially considering the fact that Binyamin was unaware of that, for he was not present and too young to remember. And now Yoseph ashamed them in front of him?! Besides, why was there the need to identify himself again, saying “I am Yoseph, your brother”, since he had already done it in verse 3? What is even worse, did he think that they had forgotten the story? And even if he wanted to use this as evidence to prove that he was indeed Yoseph their brother, why did he say it, the way he said it? Was there someone else who would know their story and speak Hebrew, for he now was speaking to them directly without the interpreter? This is why.
The words “I am Yoseph your brother whom (אֲשֶׁר) you sold into Egypt” in Hebrew can also be translated as, “I am Yoseph your brother, because (אֲשֶׁר) you sold me into Egypt” (for the same expression in Hebrew see Genesis 22:16, Genesis 30:18, Genesis 34:13, Genesis 34:27, where אֲשֶׁר asher is translated as “because”). When we keep these considerations in mind that the word asher can be interpreted to mean both “whom” and “because”, we will understand the deep meaning of what Yoseph might have meant to say, namely, his brothers had changed to new persons, but he had changed too. Their mistake, by having abandoned him in the pit, which led to his enslavement in Egypt, made Yoseph a new person. He was not the immature and privileged youth who was reporting them to his father. But if the reader prefers the traditional translation of this passage, there is no objection.
Alternatively, or rather in addition to this, his intent might have been to bring to their minds the fulfillment of his dreams, not to scare them but to make them remember that the descendants of Avraham were destined to go in exile in a foreign land for four hundred years. And when he said, “I am Yoseph your brother” (verse 4), it was not merely a repetition of the previous statement, but reassurance to them that he was still their brother despite what had happened expressed in the emphasis “your brother”.
And indeed, if Yoseph were sold into slavery by his own brothers, he had every reason to feel wronged and even bitter. Yet, Yoseph told his brothers that they were not responsible for what he had gone through, for he indicated very clearly to them that it was Elohim who sent him there, not they. Later in Gen_50:20, Yoseph said that although they had evil intention to sell him, Elohim prevented it by sending the traders. He thus intended it for good and reversed it at the end to preserve life and save them from committing even greater sin.
At the conclusion of his speech, Yoseph said something that raises question before the careful reader. We read,
And Elohim sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to give life to you by a great escape. (Gen 45:7)
After Yoseph reiterated that he was sent before the family in order to preserve them from the famine and to fulfill what was decreed in heaven that the descendants of Avraham would be aliens in a foreign land, he added something new; he said, “to give life to you by a great escape”. What “great escape” did Yoseph refer to? The family foreknew of the decree and the patriarch Ya’akov feared that that would happened in his life but he also knew that his posterity would return to the land. Was the “great escape” the Exodus Yoseph had foreseen perhaps in another dream, or it was his reasoning that the descendants of Avraham would return to the land according to the promise?
Dreams are the vehicles of prophecy. Yoseph’s dreams became true, and what his brothers interpreted to be nothing more than reflections of his fantasies that were born from his preferential treatment in the family, his father, even though he dismissed them, took them seriously. And now Ya’akov was about to experience it in his descent to Egypt.
Now that the twenty-two years had passed, Yoseph urged his brothers to bring his father to Egypt without delay, so that the whole ordeal of separation could end. He said to his brothers,
Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, “Thus says your son Yoseph, ‘Elohim has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay'”. (Gen 45:9)
Every additional moment Ya’akov would spend mourning for his son Yoseph and worrying about Binyamin could prove fatal. For this reason, Yoseph wanted to hasten their departure and go up to his father without delay. There is no doubt that Yoseph realized that he and his father had been separated from one another for exactly twenty-two years, as Ya’akov was separated from his father for the same period of time. It thus became clear to him that this too was decreed in heaven to rectify his father’s failure to honor his parents during the twenty-two years he was in Charan. Yoseph might have seen his own failure and blamed himself for not finding a way to contact his father, while he was in Egypt. Besides there were five more years of scarcity of food still to come.
Now that the brothers hear him speaking in their tongue, they had no longer doubt that the governor of Egypt was their brother Yoseph. And indeed, what other Hebrew would be in Egypt at that time? But now they feared even more, for they felt that he had the whole power of Egypt to revenge his enslavement.
They were so horrified that they did not say a word in response to his revelation: “I am Yoseph your brother”. Perhaps, what horrified them was not only a fear of retribution but the inner remorse for what they had caused to him. Their fear must have been far greater than the well-deserved punishment for their crime. It was more than just fear, if that was not bad enough, but it was the feeling of the tragic error they had made.
Yoseph sent his brothers to his father in the land of Kena’an with a lot of gifts. Upon arrival, they without delay told their father, but he did not believe them. But when his sons told him all Yoseph had spoken to them, and when he saw all the wagons with gifts Yoseph had sent to him, he believed and his ruach was revived from heaven. And Ya’akov ordered the family to prepare for their descent into Egypt. Thus, the prophecy given to Avraham began its fulfillment.
On his way to Egypt the patriarch stopped at Be’ersheva and offered peace offerings to the Elohim of his father. Ya’akov might have come to the conclusion that because he had shown preferential treatment toward Yoseph, which had led to all those events that brought him to travel to Egypt, he now needed to bring peace offerings, in order to achieve atonement. Or perhaps, because he was aware of the decree that Avraham’s descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, which now turned out to be Egypt, he offered the peace offerings, for he feared that the exile had already began, and he feared what would happened to his family. Ya’akov feared, but how could he not go into Egypt? Yoseph was there.
You do not tell someone “Fear not, unless he is fearful”. However, as the time had now arrived to fulfill the decree, Elohim spoke to Israel in the visions of the night,
I am the El, the Elohim of your father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again. And Yoseph shall put his hand upon your eyes. (Gen 46:3)
This would be the first exile of Israel in foreign lands. Now, Israel departing for the exile in Egypt with all his family and with all the possessions, left behind only graves and sorrows. This is how the decree to Avraham began to be implemented. Although the name of the land was not revealed in the prophecy, Ya’akov now realized that Egypt was meant.
On the way to Egypt, Ya’akov sent his son Yehudah before him to Yoseph to show the way to the land of Goshen, which Yoseph had promised them (Genesis 46:28). With this act of authority, Ya’akov chose Yehudah to be the new leader of the family, because he lived up to his vow to bring Binyamin back to him. The family was finally reunited in the foreign land of Egypt. There would be 210 years of assimilation, sorrows, and slavery until the Great Exodus, Yoseph foresaw.
These were the missions, the roles, and the footsteps of the first mashiach (anointed one), Mashiach ben Yoseph, who was chosen to prepare the descent of the family in exile, according to the decree, and of Mashiach ben David, Yehudah, who brough Israel into it: the two different aspects of the seeds of Rachel and Leah. The reader’s mind will settle on the matter of two mashiachs when we resort to the esoteric work, which describes the process of the future redemption according to the vision of the Vilna Gaon, and with which we will end our survey. In the words of Kol HaTor 2:39:
“Yoseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him (Genesis 42:8) — This is one of the traits of Yoseph not only in his own generation, but in every generation, i.e., that Mashiach ben Yoseph recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him. This is the work of the Satan, who hides the characteristics of Mashiach ben Yoseph so that the footsteps of the Mashiach are not recognized and are even belittled because of our many sins. Otherwise, our troubles would already have ended. Were Israel to recognize Yosef, that is, the footsteps of ben Yoseph the Mashiach which is the ingathering of the exiles etc., then we would already have been redeemed with a complete redemption”.
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