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Mikeitz(Genesis 41:1-44:17)

Of Spies and Thieves



Yosef sends off a messenger with the following instructions:

And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his grain money. And he did as Yosef had spoken. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses. And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Yosef said to his steward, Arise, follow after the men; and when you do overtake them, say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this the cup from which my lord drinks, and whereby indeed he divines? You have done evil in so doing. And he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. (Bereishit 44:1-6)


* * *




And they said to him, Why did my lord say these words? God forbid that your servants should do such a thing; behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan; how then should we steal from your lord's house silver or gold? (Bereishit 44:7-8)



If any of your servants is found to have it, let him die, and we also will be my lord's slaves. (Bereishit 44:9)


And he said, Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my servant; and you shall be blameless. Then each of them quickly took down his sack to the ground, and each of them opened his sack. And he searched, and began at the eldest, and ended at the youngest; and the cup was found in Binyamin's sack. Then they tore their clothes, and each of them loaded his ass, and returned to the city. And Yehuda and his brothers came to Yosef's house; for he was yet there; and they fell before him on the ground. And Yosef said to them, What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can certainly divine? And Yehuda said, What shall we say to my lord, what shall we speak, or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found. (Bereishit 44:10-16)




Then Yehuda came near to him, and said, Oh my lord, let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant; for you are as Pharaoh.... Now therefore, I beg you, let your servant remain, instead of the lad, a slave to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that shall come on my father. (Bereishit 44:18, 33-34)


* * *



The entire episode seems like a wonderful lesson in how not to negotiate. We might better understand the brothers' conduct in this scene if we are sensitive to their spiritual or religious needs: They are not negotiating, they are seeking punishment. They are consumed with feelings of guilt for a crime they committed many years ago - the sale of Yosef. It is this guilt they express. Ironically, the one brother not involved in any way with that earlier crime is Binyamin, which makes his entanglement in this episode confusing. Be that as it may, the brothers have perpetrated a crime and are now seeking punishment. They are prepared to be enslaved.



* * *




And Yosef saw his brothers, and he knew them, but made himself strange to them, and spoke roughly to them; and he said to them, From where do you come? They said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. And Yosef knew his brothers, but they did not know him. And Yosef remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said to them, You are spies; to see the nakedness of the land you have come. And they said to him, No, my lord, your servants came to buy food. We are all one man's sons; we are honest men, your servants are no spies.12. And he said to them, No, to see the nakedness of the land you have come. (Bereishit 42:7-12)


And they said, Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is absent. And Yosef said to them, That is what I spoke to you, saying, You are spies. (Bereishit 42)

Yosef counters that this is exactly what he meant. The give and take is strange: What is the proper response to charges of this nature? The exchange is unclear. If we succeed in deciphering this passage, we may then gain insight into Yosef's thoughts, his motivation, his plan.


* * *



The easiest explanation is that in fact none of the dialogue makes sense: Yosef has decided to take revenge, and their attempts to defend or explain themselves are futile. Whatever they would say would be useless in the face of Yosef's power to entrap them. As readers, then, we should not look for deeper meaning in the dialogue.

Yet everything we know from the preceding narrative, everything we have learned about Yosef's personality, indicates that he is neither impetuous nor whimsical. He is a visionary; he considers long-term consequences and implications. When he resists the seductive advances of his master's wife, conquering momentary passion, he displays self-restraint that we might expect to see again in this new scenario. And when he meets Pharoh, he does not merely explain the monarch's dreams, he proceeds to formulate a fourteen-year economic plan, which will rescue the Egyptian economy from drought and recession.


Accusing the brothers of espionage may have been a preventive strike: Yosef is aware that his rags-to-riches story is well known in Egypt, and he has thought of the only way of preventing his brothers from hearing the details of his miraculous ascent to power. Once he has accused them of being spies, Yosef effectively prevents his brothers from asking the Egyptians, "Who is this Zafnat Paneach? Where did he come from?" Once they have been charged with spying, such inquiries would effectively prove them guilty, resulting in imprisonment or death. Outflanked, the brothers must now proceed in silence; they cannot ask probing questions about their inquisitioner.

There may be another reason Yosef chooses this particular charge with which to accuse the brothers, and the answer is almost too obvious. When he accuses them of being spies, he inwardly wants them to admit that they are in fact looking for something - or more precisely, for someone: their brother Yosef. Perhaps what Yosef wants more than anything is to hear these words from his brothers: They are searching for him, just as, so many years earlier, when Yosef met an anonymous man in the field who asked him what he was looking for, Yosef responded, "I seek my brothers". The words echo and haunt us. Despite all the enmity, jealousy and hatred, ultimately Yosef is only seeking out his brothers. He hopes that his brothers will ask the anonymous, unfamiliar man who stands before them, "Have you seen our brother?"

How would the story have ended if the brothers had confided in Zafnat Paneach: "Yes, long ago we had a twelfth brother, who was last seen when he was taken down to Egypt as a slave. Our elderly father thinks that he is dead. We were young and impetuous, and didn't consider the long term implications of our actions. We didn't realize that we would break our father's heart. We didn't consider the moral and ethical considerations. Now we are indeed searching - not spying. We are looking for something precious, someone whose value we failed to appreciate when he was in our midst. It is our brother we seek."

Had the brothers admitted to being "spies", would the charade have continued?


...and one is absent.And Yosef said to them, That (of He) is what I spoke to you, saying, You are spies; (Bereishit 42:13-14)

The accusation of being spies is specifically in regard to the one missing brother! He is telling them, perhaps inwardly pleading with them; "You are looking for your lost brother." We can image Yosef, his heart racing, hoping, praying, that it is true that the brothers are looking for him. But they shatter that sweet illusion and deny any spying. Therefore, Yosef sets an alternative plan in motion: He seeks to jar their memories. He will force them to remember what they have buried away deep in their collective memories. He will remind them that there was once a twelfth brother, that his name was Yosef - and that Yosef is still looking for his brothers.

So, the alternative plan begins: They are all arrested and thrown into prison. Yosef forces them to relive his own experience, in an attempt to jolt them into recognition. Interestingly, various words are used to describe the imprisonment of Yosef and now the brothers. All of these are connected to the "original sin" of the sale of Yosef, who is cast into a pit by his brothers before he is sold. Later, when Yosef tells his life story to a fellow prisoner, he describes his imprisonment "in the pit", referring either to the Egyptian prison in which they are languishing, or perhaps the pit into which his brothers cast him - or both (Bereishit 40:15). When he is released from prison and brought before Pharoh, the narrative describes his release "from the pit" (Bereishit 41:14). Linguistically, thematically, and apparently emotionally, Yosef's prison experience is linked with his initial indignity - when he was thrown into the pit by his brothers. The brothers' prison experience, though engineered by Yosef to hark back to his own trauma, is described in different terms. They are placed under guard, but not in the pit.



They remember, and they acknowledge that punishment is due. They accept their guilt and believe they should be punished. Yet they take no action to rectify the situation. They do not make any inquiries regarding Yosef's fate or whereabouts. They do not admit their wrongdoing to Yaakov.



* * *



Eventually, the brothers return to Egypt. The money which they discover in their sacks is returned, and more provisions are purchased. A joyous reunion takes place with their brother who has been absent because he was thrown into prison - Shimon. Yosef watches the brothers rejoice in their regained unity, as they celebrate their family being "whole" again. Of course, there is still one brother missing, one brother unaccounted for, one brother who does not even seem to be missed: Yosef.



Their bags are packed and their money is returned, and Yosef's goblet surreptitiously placed in the bag of Binyamin. Yosef's master plan requires that one more episode be relived.


And it was told to Lavan on the third day that Yaakov had fled. And he took his brothers with him, and pursued him seven days' journey; and they overtook him at Mount Gilead... And Lavan went into Yaakov's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he did not find them. Then he went out from Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat upon them. And Lavan searched all the tent, but did not find them. (Bereishit 31:22-23, 33-34)


And now that you are surely gone, because you so long for your father's house, why have you stolen my gods? (Bereishit 31:30)



Years later, when the brothers recommend a death sentence for the culprit, they are mimicking their father's response to a similar situation: Yaakov had responded to the theft of Lavan's idols,4 and the cup which they have been accused of stealing, is reported to be used for "divination." 5

The brothers are not negotiating. They are under extreme pressure, and they revert back to a time when they were frightened and vulnerable. They recall their father's reaction, and respond likewise.

Later, when Yehuda speaks up, he, too, imitates his father's response to that earlier scene:

And Yaakov was angry, and chided Lavan; and Yaakov answered and said to Lavan, What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me? (Bereishit 31:36)

Yosef is trying to jar their memories, and he takes them back to the most traumatic episode of their childhood: They are hastily removed from their grandfather's home, the only home they know. They will soon face the threat of Esav and his henchman. Between these two pressure points, they are chased down on the road, stopped and searched. And they respond exactly as their father did: "Let the thief be put to death."

Yosef throws it back in their faces. His response seems to shout: "If you identify with your father so completely, so automatically, that you mimic his words, why do you treat him as you do? Why have you let him mourn all these years? If you want to be like your father, why don't you reach out to your estranged brother as he reached out to Esav? Why, in your minds, is Yosef dead and forgotten?"

Time after time, bit by bit, in one subtle act after another, Yosef works on their memory. He replicates harsh experiences in order to achieve catharsis. As a therapist working with a patient, Yosef forces them to revisit some of the most horrific episodes of their lives, with one goal: to remind them, to wake them up - "Haven't you forgotten something? Aren't you looking for someone? Aren't you really spies?"

Only when Yehuda presses on and finally speaks of his father's pain and loneliness, does Yosef relent.

And 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 in pieces; and I have not seen him since; and if you take this (son) from me as well, and harm befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol. Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life; it shall come to pass, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die; and your servants shall bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For I, your servant, am collateral for the lad to my father, saying, If I bring him not to you, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I beg you, let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest perhaps I see the evil that shall come on my father. (Bereishit 44:27-34)

His father's pain was never Yosef's desire; quite the opposite. It was his father's misery which tormented him. Yosef relents at this juncture, for Yehuda has shown heroism. It would have been easy for Yehuda to reason that Rachel and her sons were all tainted by the same evil: Rachel had stolen the terphim years ago, Yosef her son was no better, and now the younger son Binyamin has proved his own moral turpitude - by stealing like his mother and being selfish and self-centered like his brother. In fact, this was the direction in which Yosef was leading him, and would have been the easy way for Yehuda to resolve his own dilemma. But Yehudah displays leadership and responsibility. He is willing to be enslaved so Binyamin can go free. Yehuda is unwilling to cause or endure his father's pain.

To Yehudah's heart-wrenching plea - Yosef has the ultimate response.

And Yosef said to his brothers, I am Yosef; does my father still live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were shocked by him. (Bereishit 45:3)

Yehuda explains that Yaakov's life is intertwined with Binyamin's; he tells this "stranger" that Yaakov had a wife whom he loved and that if this last remaining son were to be wrested from him Yaakov will die. Yosef asks: "I am Yosef - is my father still alive? Are you really so concerned about Yaakov's well-being that you claim he will die if his beloved son is taken from him?" He challenges and chastises: "I am Yosef. Could my father be alive? Can he have survived what you have already done?" 6

To this there is no answer. To this there can not be an answer. All of their neat explanations are gone. No justifications will work. The stark truth of Yosef's existence stares them into silence. They have no words, only guilt.


Apparently, what Yosef seeks is not revenge; that could have been easily achieved, given his position of power. Instead, he takes his brothers on a tour - an emotional guilt trip. He does not seek their humiliation; that was never his objective. He wants to remind them of the past, to remind them that there is someone they have forgotten.

And he said, It is my brothers that I seek (37:16)





2. It unclear if Yosef did succeed in arriving at the end, when Yosef reveals himself, the text attests that "Yosef could not contain himself" any longer, it sounds that he did wish to contain himself at least bit longer. See Bereishit 45:1.

3. Bereishit 43:34 ...And they drank, and were merry with him.


5. See Bereishit 44,5: Is not this it in which my lord drinks, and whereby indeed he divines?

6. See the commentary of the Seforno, 45:3.

7. Midrash Tanchuma Vayigash Warsaw edition siman 5, also see Kli Yakar, and Rabbenu Bachya.


Published: December 20, 2008

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Visitor Comments: 2

(2) alex, December 14, 2012 8:28 PM


i never i mean never cease to shed tears whenever vayigash is read. this story is so profound, so prohetic, impossible to contain emotionally,it is as there is nothing to say and so much to listen to. sometimes its as if no words where actually spoken only inserted later on by sages! i believe the story of Messiah son of Joseph will not be any different except it will not be 11 bros but the whole nation of Yisrael before the Messiah. The question is ben Yosef is seeking his brothers are we? are'nt our circumstances as a nation being strategically engineered by him so we seek him? where is Yehuda to nagash? Ha Massiach is seeking his bros the Jews are they seeking him?

(1) Adrian, December 5, 2010 8:48 AM


This is meaty, perhaps a little to heavy for many but I thrive on this sort of teaching. There is much to learn from this which is so important to us in this era if we are willing. Judging from the lack of comments on these articales about Yosef, either our people are not interested or don't understand the implications of this story in our time or in our everyday lives. Wake up my people! Time is short......

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