The story of Joseph and his brothers after they come down to Egypt raises many questions. Why did Joseph, the second most powerful man in Egypt with an aging father not make any contact for all the 20 years he is in Egypt ? And why did he put his brothers through all the trials and tribulations only to welcome them down to Egypt to settle?
Several commentators explain the initial encounter as Joseph acting so that his dream of his brothers bowing down to him would come to pass. But, as others point out this is a bit of a dubious explanation. We have few if any other examples of characters taking actions to bring to fruition their own prophecies.
A more interesting explanation sees Joseph as testing to see if his brothers will truly do teshuvah for their betrayal of him in the desert all those years earlier.
The episodes in this week parsha in which the brothers are "framed" and imprisoned before being released and sent home in order to bring back their brother Benjamin provide an interesting example of the principle of meedah cneged meedah or measure for measure or the symmetry that often exists in biblical story.
It seems that the tribulations placed by Joseph on his brothers are a type of test. When placed in a situation similar to that of twenty years ago when they put Joseph in the pit how will they behave when put to the test.
And what does this test involve: how they will behave when faced with dealing with the fate of their father’s most beloved son, the one that is (they all believe) the only surviving son of Rachel. Will they try to protect their youngest brother or will they readily sacrifice his fate for their own physical survival ?
Nehama Leibovitz sees the events as the true test of the brothers doing teshuvah and taking responsibility for their action. She cites the Rambam’s definition of complete teshuvah in his mishneh torah : When one is presented with the same circumstances in which one erred in the past but takes the opposite course of action, not out of fear, or weakness of spirit but out of a sense of teshuvah.
As the story progresses we find that the brothers themselves recognize that there is a linkage between their current predicament and their actions towards their brother Joseph those many years ago. They also seem to understand that the forces they are dealing with are larger than even the second most powerful man in Egypt.
Three times in the parsha do we find an acknowledgment of guilt from the brothers. Even though they are wrongly accused by Joseph of being spies they still express a sense that they are being justly punished for something else.
In 42:21 after three days in prison: " we are being punished on account of our brother because we looked on his anguish yet paid him no heed as he pleaded with us"
This first time the brothers related their problems to their actions with Joseph at the pit.
The second time, they see larger implications to their situation:
42:28 " What is this that God has done to us." They seem to have a sense that all this trickery and ill fate is not by chance or the whim of the Egyptian court. Something much larger is going on.
This is even more clear the third time guilt is mentioned:
44:17 " What can we say to my lord (adoney)…. God has uncovered the crime of your servants"
The midrash interprets "adoney" as a threefold expression of teshuvah
Adoney: The adon (leader) of Egypt who is before us
Adoney: Our Lord in Heaven who knows our sins
Adoney: Our aged father in Canaan who we have sinned against us.
At this point at the end of our parsha the brothers have shown that they have acknowledged their sins and done teshuvah. Thus it is not surprising that they will meet Rambam’s test of teshuvah: how they will behave when placed again with similar circumstances, the endangering of Rachel’s other son.
Thus the stage is set for Judah to plead with Joseph to let himself stand in place of his brother Benjamin in next week’s parsha.
So one can see this week’s encounter between Joseph and his brothers as a needed closure to the story of the brothers that began 20 years ago. Only with the brothers facing the past can they move forward.
One can also see it as a larger lesson in teshuvah. The lesson is twofold: full teshuvah means an acknowledgement of one’s errors on both the earthly and heavenly levels. And only when taking a different path when faced with near identical circumstances where one fell short, can one truly complete teshuvah.