Teshuvah and Destiny
Commentaries on Miketzparshat Torah, November 30, 2013, Chapter 44-45:5
Prepared by Jane LeGrange
Rashi(11th century) on 44:16
God has found: We know that we have not sinned, but this has come from the Omnipresent to bring this upon us. The Creditor has found a place to collect His debt. — [from Gen. Rabbah 92:9]
Rabbi Mychal Springer, JTS, contemporary
This week’s parashah has much to teach us about forgiveness. Near the end of our parashah, we come upon the words of Judah, spoken to his brother Joseph. It is a late moment in the story, after the brothers have sold Joseph into slavery, after Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, after there’s been famine in Canaan, and afater Joseph’s brothers have been sent, twice by their father to Egypt to bring back food. At this moment, Joseph has said that he will enslave Benjamin, his full brother and that all the other brothers are free to go. In this moment Judah does not yet know Joseph’s true identity. The goblet has been found in Benjamin’s bag and Judah will do everything in his power to protect Benjamin. “Judah replied: ‘What can we say to my lord? How can we plead, how can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered the crime of your servants.’” (Gen. 44:16)
Judah recognizes that he and his brothers are being repaid midahk’negedmidah (measure for measure) for their sin against Joseph when they sold him into slavery. Instead of seeing the ordeal of the goblet as random and whimsical, Judah sees the justice in the scenario. Regardless of how the goblet wound up in Benjamin’s bag, Judah sees God’s hand in the event. In this moment, he takes responsibility for all his actions by recognizing that his actions had enduring significance, shaping the seemingly unconnected events that unfolded down the road. That’s one theology present in the biblical story.
But Joseph presents an alternate theology. Joseph has carefully constructed this scene in order to determine whether his brothers have done true teshuvah whether, when faced with the same situation, they would act in the same way again. The brothers appear to pass the test and Joseph discloses his identity and reconciles with his brothers. At that point, Joseph says, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you.” He continues, “So, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (45:4-5)
Aviva Zornberg (contemporary)
He (Joseph) is talking about his personal perspective on his own life, and he is doing so in order to provide his brothers with the only stratagem that will help them to scotch their own shame… Joseph has discovered a vocabulary in which to articulate his life.
Jewish Agency (contemporary) with references to other commentaries
What is this that God hath done unto us?
An even more intense realisation of their guilt and more profound sense of remorse overcomes them on the third occasion, when the cup is discovered.
Judah surely knew that they had not stolen the cup, neither they nor the man with whom it had been found. He was quite aware that they had been wrongly accused, but he was not confessing to this crime, though this was how it was meant to be understood by the Egyptian Governor. But he was confessing to the iniquity, not which the Egyptian had found in him but that: god hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.
For this reason he and his brothers accepted any punishment and any fate, realising that they deserved it. This ambivalency in Judah'' words is referred to in the following Midrash.
What shall we say unto my Lord? referring to the first money (in Benjamin's sack). What shall we speak? –referring to the second money (in Benjamin's sack), or how shall we clear ourselves?—with the cup.
What shall we say unto my Lord? referring to the incident of Tamar, What shall we speak?—referring to the deed of Reuben (see Genesis 35, 22), Or how shall we clear ourselves?—refferring to the deed of Shechem (see Genesis 34).
What shall we say unto my Lord? what shall we say to father in the land of Canaan regarding Joseph? What shall we speak?—with reference to Simeon, Or how shall we clear ourselves?—regarding Benjamin.(Midrash Rabbah)
The Midrash sees a triple implication in the above verse, explaining the words my lord in three different ways: (1) as the Egyptian governor standing in front of them, (2) as the Lord of the Universe who knows their guilt, (3) as their aged father in Canaan against whom they had sinned.
The Midrash unearths for us the nine different sins recalled by the text, showing us how the brothers repented not merely of the one wrongdoing but emulated the true baalteshuva (penitent) who sees his guilt and sin in every step and turn, a thought which is expressed instructively in the following phrase occurring in the psalms (51):
And my sin is ever before me
After his brothers had reached his level of penitence, remorse, and sense of sin, Joseph can then make himself known to them.