1. (43:16-34) For a second time Joseph receives his brothers with great honor, and arranges a feast for them.
2. (44:1-17) Joseph tests his brothers again with the accusation that Benjamin has stolen his silver goblet.
Celebrate Your Progress
And he had portions passed to them from before him, and Benjamin’s portion was five times more than the portion of all the rest, and they drank, and they got drunk with him.(Genesis 43:34)
|
A. |
Rabbi Yossiben Rabbi Hanina said: “From the day that Joseph left his brothers, they had not tasted the taste of wine, as it is written, ‘And they drank and became inebriated with him,’ the implication being that until then they had not drunk.” (Talmud Tractate Shabbat 139a)
|
B. |
We understand why Joseph drank wine — because he had found his brothers. However, as the brothers still did not know it was Joseph, why did they drink wine? We can answer that Joseph had earlier accused them of being spies, and a spy must always remain sober, let he give away any secrets. Now, if the brothers would reject his invitation to drink with him, it would cause suspicion that they were indeed spies. That was why they drank wine now. (HaDrashv’HaIyun, Rabbi Aaron Lewin of Reisha, 1880-1941, Poland)
|
C. |
They still did not know that the Egyptian lord before them was their brother Joseph. Therefore Joseph was still lost to them. Why, then, should they have drunk wine on that day? They saw that Benjamin had received larger portions of food than they, and yet they were not jealous of him. Hence they realized that they had already ridden themselves of the sin of envy that had led them to sell Joseph into slavery, and consequently they felt that they might drink wine again. (KavHen, Rabbi Noah of Korav, d. 1895)
|
D. |
What constitutes complete repentance [teshuvah]? If the sinner has the opportunity of committing once again the sinful act and it is quite possible for him to repeat it and yet he refrains from so doing because he has repented — for example, a man cohabited unlawfully with a woman and after a time found himself alone with her again and he still loves her and is still physically capable as ever and it takes place in the same province in which he had previously sinned with her and yet he refrains from repeating the transgression — he is a true penitent…. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, HilchotTeshuvah, 2:10)