The Emes Parsha Sheet
Volume V Issue #10 Parshas Mikeitz, 27 Kislev, 5785
Written by Rabbi Yair Hoffman December 28, 2024
– Sponsored anonymously for the Refuah Shleimah of Yair Nissan Ben Sara –
Reb Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik ZT”L (“Reb Velvel”) raises the following question on this week’s Parsha: “The brothers bought food from Yosef in Egypt during the famine in Eretz Yisrael. Yosef detained Shimon and sent the rest of the brothers on their way back to Yaakov with a request to bring Binyamin to Egypt. Why did Yosef then place the money back in the brothers’ sacks that they rightfully used to pay for the food that they bought?” Reb Velvel answered, “Because Yosef wanted to ensure sure that the brothers would return to Egypt.”
Someone present at Reb Velvel’s Shiur asked him, “Wouldn’t Yosef’s brothers come back to Egypt anyway? Considering the famine, their need for more food would surely cause them to return. And besides, wasn’t their brother Shimon taken captive? They would surely return to redeem him?”
Reb Velvel answered that the brothers, who were to be the future forebearers of the tribes of Israel, had an unfathomable level of faith in Hashem (Bitachon). Yosef knew this and thought that perhaps the brothers would not return to Egypt and decide to ride out the famine, using the great level of Bitachon that they had to trust that Hashem would save them. Similarly, they would use their Bitachon to trust that Hashem would bring about Shimon’s release from prison. However, Yosef was certain of the honesty and integrity of the brothers and knew one thing for sure: They would certainly come back to Egypt to return what they believed to be an ill-gotten gain. Therefore, he placed the money back in their sacks to ensure their return.
We also find later in the Parsha (42:13-14) the following exchange: “And they [the brothers] said, ‘We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is gone.’ And Yosef said to them, ‘This is just what I have spoken to you, saying, 'You are spies.'”
The Siach Yaakov (Rav Blau) quotes a Rashi who cites the Midrash Rabbah (91:7) and says that there was additional dialogue between Yosef and the brothers as follows: Yosef said, “And if you were to find him [the one that was gone], and his captors would demand an extraordinarily high ransom to release him, would you pay it? They answered, “Yes.” Yosef continued, “And if his captors would respond, ‘We shall not return him for all the money in the world,’ what would you do?”
The brothers responded, “We would either kill or be killed [to get him back].” Yosef responded, “This is what I have been telling you. You have come to kill the residents of this city. I have divined with my magic cup that two of you alone [Shimon and Levi] have destroyed the entire city of Shechem.”
The response of the brothers is rather perplexing. Why would the brothers tell the governor and ruler of Egypt what they had planned to do, “Kill or be killed?” Such a response would quite likely cause them to be further suspect in the eyes of Egypt’s governor to prove his allegation that they are, in fact, spies (and this is indeed what happened). Why did the brothers need to admit their true intentions?
The brothers were holy individuals, and the Middah (character trait) of Emes (truth) permeated their very essence. Although they must have assuredly tempered their words to Yosef with, “You seem to us to be a just ruler who would not do such a thing,” they would not lie and therefore continued with, “...but if we were to encounter such a situation, we would either kill or be killed.” The brothers felt that they had to be truthful despite the subsequent consequences that would occur with revealing their true intentions.
