Miketz (Genesis 41:1-44:17)
OVERVIEW
The Joseph saga continues. Pharaoh has had two similar dreams and demands their interpretation. None of his advisors can determine their meaning, but his wine steward remembers Joseph from prison and his gift for dream interpretation. Joseph is brought from the prison before Pharaoh. Joseph interprets Pharaoh' dream as seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine that are about to fall upon Egypt. In addition, he suggests ways to manage the plenty to survive the famine. Impressed with his wisdom, Pharaoh appoints viceroy over all of Egypt. Joseph successfully implements his plan, and is married to the daughter of Potiphar and has two sons, Menashe and Ephrayim.
As the seven years of famine begin, Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt to seek food. They come before Joseph, who recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him. Joseph decides to wait before he reveals himself to them. He demands that they return and bring his youngest brother Benjamin back to Egypt, and to make sure they return, he has Shimon held as a hostage. The brothers do return home and tell their father what happened in Egypt. At first he refuses to allow the remaining child of his beloved Rachel to leave him, but as the famine drags on, he is forced to concede. This time all the brothers return to Egypt.
This time Joseph devises a final plot against his brothers. He sends them all back to their home with plenty of food and riches, but he has his personal chalice planted in the Benjamin's bag. After their departure, Joseph sends his steward to accuse them of the theft and bring them back. With a classic cliff-hanger, the parashah ends with the brothers fearfully confronting the angry Egyptian viceroy, not knowing he is their brother.
IN FOCUS
For though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. (Genesis 42:8)
PSHAT
Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt to seek food. It is Joseph, who as viceroy of Egypt, is responsible to dispersing food and other resources. Therefore, it is before Joseph that the brothers must come to request food. As soon as they enter his presence, Joseph recognizes who these ten men are (Benjamin has not come down with his brothers yet). Caught by surprise by his brothers that he has not seen since they sold him into slavery, Joseph tries to avoid detection, and disguises himself. He speaks with a gruff voice and asks questions to indicate that he does not know them. He relaxes somewhat when he realizes that the brothers do not realize who he really is.
DRASH
The commentators seem to express some surprise that brothers would not recognize each other, especially one whom they so mistreated, and offer a variety of explanations. It had been many years, and Joseph, now a married man with sons of his own and great power, has surely changed much in appearance. Rashi explains it simply by stating that when Joseph departed from his brothers, he was a young man without a beard. Now, he was a mature man with a beard, which masked his appearance. He, on the other hand, recognized his brothers, most of whom were older then him, bearded then and still bearded now.
Rashi also goes on to suggest that power helps change appearance as well. Acting towards the brothers with authority, Joseph was not recognizable to the brothers as their younger sibling. He was not behaving towards them in a brotherly manner. But Joseph could easily recognize his brothers who had not advanced much in life. They treated each other as they always had. He had changed greatly. They had remained pretty much the same.
Ramban explains the lack of recognition in terms of explanations. Joseph recognized his brothers easily since, in control of food distribution and aware of the effects of the famine, he expected at some point that his brothers would show up in his office. But the brothers had no idea what had happened to Joseph since they sold him to the passing Ishmaelites. They had no reason to expect that this revered man of power was the brother they sold into slavery. Expectations make all the difference.
Ramban also notes that Joseph had a new Egyptian name, indicative of his assimilation into Egyptian culture. Joseph the Israelite, even with a beard, would probably have seemed familiar to his brothers. But Tzafnat Paneach (Joseph's Egyptian name) was a horse of a completely different colour.
But most of the commentators seem to agree on one thing: Joseph, when he had his brothers in his power, recognized them as his brothers, and therefore acted compassionately towards them. But when the brothers had the young Joseph in their power, they did not recognize their brotherly obligations, and they sold him into slavery. Recognition is not just a matter of seeing and remembering who someone is. Recognition is also remembering how to act. Joseph recognized and acted mercifully. The brothers never recognized Joseph as a brother, even when he lived among them.
DAVAR AHER
"We are guilty..." (Genesis 42:21)
The brothers said, "We are guilty of having seen our brother's suffering and having ignored his cries as he lay in the pit."
On this Rabbi Bechaye comments that Tzaddikim (righteous people) recognize their faults and repent over them.
