Yosef's Motives

            We find a number of different approaches among the commentators to explain Yosef’s plan in what appears as his heartless and vengeful treatment of his brothers in Parashat Miketz.  After living their lives in wealth and prosperity, Yosef’s brothers now find themselves without any food, as a result of the harsh drought conditions that gripped the region.  They come to Egypt to purchase grain, and do not realize that the man before whom they stood was the brother they sold into slavery over two decades earlier.  Yosef baselessly accuses them of spying, imprisons Shimon, and commands them to bring Binyamin, the youngest brother who had remained in Canaan.  What was Yosef’s intent in subjecting his brothers to this ordeal?

            Among the more common answers to this question is that Yosef sought to lead his brothers toward complete and genuine repentance.  Professor Nechama Leibowitz cites in this context the Rambam’s famous comments in Hilkhot Teshuva (2:1), based on the Gemara (Yoma 86b), that complete teshuva is achieved when the violator encounters the same circumstances in which he sinned, and this time abstains from wrongdoing.  Yosef orchestrated a situation where the brothers had the opportunity to dispense with a son of Yaakov’s favorite wife, Rachel; this time, it would be Binyamin.  By placing the brothers in a position where they would have to put their lives on their line for Binyamin, Yosef ensured that the brothers’ repentance was complete.  Hence, the moment Yehuda offered to remain in Egypt as a slave in place of Binyamin, Yosef revealed his identity to the brothers.

            Others, however, objected to this approach, noting that one is not entitled to torment his fellow in order to lead him toward repentance.  And even if Yosef did view it as his responsibility to put his brothers through this ordeal for the sake of teshuva, how did he not think of his elderly father, and the grief this would cause him?  After having lost Yosef, Yaakov now endured the imprisonment of Shimon and was compelled to allow his youngest and most cherished son, Binyamin, to go to Egypt.  Was this justified, even for the sake of leading the brothers to repentance?

            We might therefore prefer considering variations of this approach.  Abarbanel, after suggesting that Yosef indeed intended to punish his brothers to lead them to repentance, proceeds to offer a different explanation.  He noted that Yosef wanted to support his family during the famine, but realized that he would be unable to do so by sending food packages to Canaan.  This system would undoubtedly be discovered, and his political adversaries would be quick to accuse him of conflicting loyalties to his family back in Canaan.  But Yosef also feared what would happen if he immediately disclosed his identity and invited his father and brothers to settle in Egypt.  Who’s to say that their attitude toward him had changed in the interim years?  Yosef had to be concerned that they might still resent him – and might still want to destroy him.  He therefore first ascertained that they had undergone a change of heart, and only then revealed his identity.

            A slightly different explanation emerges from the comments of Raboteinu Ba’alei Ha-Tosefot (42:1), in addressing the question of why Yosef did not contact his father upon ascending to power in Egypt:

He feared that had he informed his father, his brothers might hear and flee – some to the north and some to the south – out of terror, fearing that he might kill them, and his father would thus be distressed over them, and he will have thus caused his father immense grief.  He therefore waited until his brothers came to him and first disclosed his identity to them and appeased them with words, [and told them] that he feels no ill-will toward them…

According to this explanation, Yosef’s concern was not that his brothers would still seek to kill him, but to the contrary, that they would flee from terror, thereby dividing the family.  Raboteinu Ba’alei Ha-Tosefot posit this theory to explain only why Yosef did not contact his family before the famine, but not what Yosef had in mind when casting false accusations against the brothers.  Somehow, it seems, this scheme was intended to show “that he feels no ill-will toward them.”  We might speculate that the Ba’alei Ha-Tosefot viewed Yosef’s plan as seeking to demonstrate the control he exerted over his brothers as the Egyptian vizier, that he could have easily had them executed or denied them the food they so desperately needed.  They would then see and believe that he has forgiven them for their crime, and sincerely wishes for them to join him in Egypt and support them comfortably.

            In any event, it emerges that Yosef’s intent was not to inspire his brothers to repent, but rather to ensure the family’s unity.  He had to ascertain that the brothers would neither continue harboring resentment, nor feel such guilt as to be unable to remain part of his family.  The sequence of events he orchestrated resulted in the successful reconciliation between Yosef and his brothers, laying the groundwork for their peaceful family existence in Egypt.