Parasha: Miketz · Aliyah: Fourth (Netzach)

ותחילנה …כאשר אמר יוסף. The famine began just as Joseph had said. It was necessary for the Torah to repeat "as Joseph had said;" Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream was proven true especially after the seven years of plenty were followed by the famine. Had the famine not commenced at that time, people would have said that the seven years of plenty had nothing to do with Joseph's forecast.

Another reason for the Torah telling us the events in this manner maybe that the Torah emphasised a different aspect of Joseph's forecast. After seven years of abundant surplus it is most unusual to feel the onset of a famine immediately. The Torah therefore tells us "as Joseph had said," i.e. that the years of plenty would be completely forgotten, that people would eat but not be satisfied during the years of famine. This lack of satisfaction with the food one ate became evident already at the beginning of the first year of the famine.

ויפתח יוסף את כל אשר בהם, Joseph opened all (the granaries) in which grain was stored. The reason that Joseph immediately opened all the silos instead of only the ones which were immediately needed was to see which ones contained grain that was capable of indefinite storage and which needed to be sold first in order that it should not deteriorate.

Another reason why Joseph opened all the silos simultaneously was that he had arranged for the silos to be close to the various population centres. Had he opened only one silo at a time the people would have had to travel long distances to receive their rations. As it was, Joseph made sure the people knew that there was a supply of food close by. This made the famine a great deal easier to bear. Our rabbis have described this psychological fact by coining the phrase אינו דומה מי שיש לו פס בסלו למי שאין לו. "One cannot compare a person who has bread in his basket to someone whose basket is empty."

Joseph may also have wanted the population to see for themselves the huge grain reserves he had accumulated so that they would not become concerned that his supply would be inadequate. In spite of all these confidence building measures taken by Joseph the Torah testifies that the famine grew severe almost at once.

ונחיה ולא נמות. "so that we shall live and not die." The reason that Jacob repeated "so that we shall not die," was that negligence would be a capital sin for which an accounting would have to be given even in the Hereafter. On the other hand, if they made appropriate efforts to secure a supply of food, their lives in this world as well as in the Hereafter would be assured.

The verse might also be read thus: ונחיה, "so that we may live comfortably," ולא נמות "or at least not die." It would all depend on the amount they were able to buy in Egypt.

אחי יוסף, Joseph's brothers. The reason they are described as Joseph's brothers instead of as Jacob's sons is that at that time they were determined to perform the brotherly act of redeeming him out of slavery.

עשרה, ten. During famine, more than during any other time, people are extremely miserly and malevolent; they are apt to commit robbery and even murder to secure a piece of bread. This is why all the brothers went down to Egypt. If attacked, they could help one another. They also wanted to take Benjamin with them, but their father demurred. This is why the Torah makes a point of saying: "he did not send Benjamin." Had it not been for Jacob's concern that an accident would befall Benjamin he would have sent him along.

Besides, it appears that Joseph was selling a fixed amount of grain to each purchaser. He had two objectives in mind, an obvious one and a secret one. The obvious objective was to prevent speculating in grain if someone were to purchase an amount larger than for his own needs. Joseph's method was of benefit both to him and to the purchasers. By refusing to sell large quantities at one time, Joseph could take advantage of any rise in price when it occurred. The customers benefited by what he did since Joseph did not raise prices unreasonably. Joseph's secret objective was to force each of the brothers to make a trip to Egypt to provision himself as he only sold rations for one family at a time.

ויבאו בני ישראל…כי היה רעב, The children of Israel arrived…for there was a famine in the land of Canaan. The fact that there was a famine had to be repeated. This is to explain why the Torah first wrote בתוך הבאים. You should not ask where these הבאים have been mentioned previously so that the Torah could describe the brothers as "being amongst them." Once we are told that there was a famine in Canaan it becomes obvious that many other people from Canaan must have been going to Egypt to buy grain there.

The Torah also wanted to indicate that the brothers devised a clever scheme to disguise themselves "among the other travellers." They created the impression that they were in Egypt for the same purpose as all the other travellers from Canaan, whereas in reality they were searching for Joseph. In other words: the brothers' disguise was to appear as shoppers for grain. This ought to have been an easy way to camouflage their real purpose because of the famine in the land of Canaan.

הוא השליט על הארץ הוא המשביר לכל עם הארץ, he was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. Even though Joseph was the ruler, and it is not usual for the ruler to personally conduct the grain sales, especially when this involved so much effort, he did so himself in order to encounter his brothers eventually.

וירא יוסף את אחיו, Joseph saw his brothers, etc. When he saw them he felt as their brother and displayed friendliness towards them. It was only from the brothers' side that he appeared as a stranger. The Torah emphasises that he acted like this because the brothers did not recognise him. Joseph could speak to them sternly without the brothers taking offence as brothers. After all, he was a stranger to them. Joseph's whole purpose was to devise a scheme whereby also Benjamin would come to Egypt. He also wanted to test them to see how they felt now about what had transpired between them many years ago. He then became aware that they were sorry for what they had done to him and considered themselves as having committed a sin against him.

ויכר יוסף את אחיו. Joseph recognised his brothers. Joseph had no trouble recognising his brothers since they all wore beards when he left them. Although it is normal for acquaintances who have not seen each other for a long time to recognise one another, i.e. that as soon as one person recognises the second person, he in turn suddenly is able to recognise the first person also, this was not the case here. Normally the heart communicates secrets as we know from Proverbs 27,19 "man's heart will be reflected by his counterpart;" the Torah reveals that in this instance this phenomenon did not work. The reason was that Joseph's exalted position stifled any glimmer of recognition there might have been on the part of the brothers.

ויזכור יוסף את החלומות, Joseph remembered the dreams, etc. Inasmuch as he had really dreamt what he claimed to have dreamt and they had accused him of telling lies because he wanted to become superior to them, he now intended to let them atone for their sin by in turn accusing them of something they had not been guilty of. He accused them of coming to spy.

ויאמרו אליו לא אדוני, They said to him: "No sir, etc." They said; 1) There is no reason to suspect us of spying even if we had come without a specific purpose. [I believe the author derives this from the tone-sign tipcha under the word באו; we would have expected the tone-sign mercha Ed.] 2) "In fact your servants have come to purchase food." They presented the purpose of their presence to buy food as the most natural explanantion for their journey to Egypt.

כלנו בני איש אחד, "we are all the sons of one man." There is no reason to suspect us of being spies. Spies are always from different branches of a community. Moses sent out spies from all the twelve tribes; even the two spies Joshua despatched were not sons of the same man. It is in the nature of things that spies should be representative of the people on whose behalf they spy. It would not make sense to appoint ten members of the same family as spies. They added: כנים אנחנו, "we are honest men," meaning that after we have identified ourselves it should be obvious that we are honest. Spies would never identify themselves voluntarily.

לא היו עבריך מרגלים, "your servants have never been spies." They chose the past tense to indicate that they had not even been spies before they had been identified. Naturally, now, that they were known, they could not be spies even if they wanted to.

ויאמר אליהם לא. He said to them: "NO!" "Your words are not convincing since your actions contradict what you have said. You have demonstrated by your actions that you were searching for weak points in the land. I know this because you have each entered the country by a different border point (compare Bereshit Rabbah 91,6). The only reason for this is that you wanted to spy.

ויאמרו שנים עשר עבדיך אחים, They said: "Your servants are twelve brothers, etc." They explained that they had split up in order to locate the missing brother. They added that the youngest brother remained at home with his father. They volunteered this information as it was something that could be proved and would help establish their credibility.

הוא אשר דברתי, "This is precisely what I have said (you came to spy)." Joseph meant: "I do not retract a single word from what I have said before." The word לאמור here means "I continue to say what I have said all along."

It is also possible that Joseph meant: "When I accused you of spying this is exactly what I had in mind. You came to look for something you had lost. You yourselves have only confirmed it. The Midrash there describes the discussion about what the brothers were going to do if they located their brother and the owner would refuse to release him The word לאמור is an allusion to what the brothers had said they would do in such an event.

בזאת תבחנו, "You will be tested as follows:" Joseph expressed readiness to put their words to the test by the yardstick they themselves had provided, although this was not sufficient proof for their claim that they had come to Egypt to obtain the release of their brother.

Alternatively, Joseph meant that if their younger brother would confirm that all his brothers had come to Egypt to locate and free their lost brother, he, Joseph, would believe all they had said.

שלחו מכם אחד, "Despatch one of you, etc." They did not do this as they were concerned that their father would worry needlessly about the fate of all the remaining brothers.

Furthermore, they were convinced that if only one brother would arrive back in the land of Canaan their father would never allow Benjamin to travel. We only need to look at the strenuous efforts Yehudah had to make to obtain permission for Benjamin to travel even though all the brothers except Shimon had returned home. If all the brothers were in jail in Egypt there would be no chance at all of Jacob allowing the last of the brothers to risk his life also.

It may also be that the brothers did not even consider being separated. The only reason that they eventually agreed to leave Shimon behind was that Joseph had made this a test of how they could establish their credibility. I shall explain this in greater detail in my commentary on verse 19.