And my silver goblet you shall place at the opening of the bundle of the small one, as well as the money he paid for his produce, and he fulfilled Yosef ‘s words as he had said.
This story is a troubling one. What did Yosef really want from his brothers? He was willing to eat and drink with them, and obviously was not angry with them any more. Why did he perform this seemingly cruel trick on them, scaring them almost to the brink?
The Ohr Hachaim enumerates three purposes for Yosef’s actions. First, he wished to cause them to be forgiven for the sin of having sold him into slavery. Secondly, he wished to see if they had truly repented and were willing to risk their lives for their brother Binyamin. Third, to hint to them his true identity.
By causing them the embarrassment of an accusation of theft, they would be forgiven for having stolen Yosef and sold him. Embarrassment from an aveira is a powerful way to achieve forgiveness for it.
When he saw how strongly they advocated for Binyamin, he saw that they had truly repented and wished to live in true brotherhood. That ensured that they would be fully forgiven.
And when they saw that they were being falsely accused of stealing, they would make a personal reckoning of their actions to see what caused them this pain. Perhaps they would then realize that it was Yosef they were dealing with, and they would ask his forgiveness. Indeed, Yosef offered them many hints along the way as to his identity and how much he knew about their activities.
