Parashat Vayigash opens with Yehuda's impassioned plea to Yosef that he allow Binyamin, who was charged with stealing the viceroy's silver goblet, to return to Canaan. The parasha opens, "Yehuda approached him and said, 'Please, my lord, let your servant speak something in the ears of my lord, and do not be angry with your servant… '"
The opening word "vayigash," after which the parasha is named, has caught the attention of some commentators, already from the time of Chazal. Yosef and his brothers had stood in the same room all along; what does it mean that Yehuda "approached" Yosef? This word prompted the Midrash to interpret the term as an expression of hostility. They thus view Yehuda's appeal as a belligerent attack against the Egyptian viceroy (as opposed to the straightforward implication of the verses, which give a far more submissive impression of Yehuda).
A particularly interesting explanation, however, is cited in the name of the work "Gelilei Zahav." Although Yosef's brothers spoke some Egyptian, they followed the customary protocol which dictated that foreigners speak to government officials in their native tongue through a translator. It was considered disrespectful to address a member of the country's royalty with broken, inarticulate and grammatically incorrect speech.
At this point, however, as Binyamin stood on the brink of slavery in Egypt, Yehuda felt compelled to appeal to the viceroy directly, without the filtering process of the translator, in order that the full force of his emotion penetrate the ruler's heart. He therefore "approached" Yosef to speak with him directly, in Egyptian, rather than through a translator. This also explains Yehuda's request, "let your servant please speak something in the ears of my lord." He asks permission to speak straight "into the ears" of Yosef, without any intermediary. Recognizing the violation of royal etiquette involved in speaking in his broken Egyptian vernacular, Yehuda then adds, "do not be angry with your servant." He begs Yosef to temporarily suspend the rules to allow him to properly convey the fervor and emotion of his appeal.