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Parashas MiketzThe suspenseful story of Joseph and his brothers is reaching a fever pitch in this week's sedra. On Verse 42:23 it says: "And he (Joseph) turned away from them and wept and he returned to them again and spoke to them and then took Shimon from them and he bound him up in front of them." RASHI "Shimon": Rashi: He had thrown him into the pit etc. See the full comment there. Of course the big question is & this is what Rashi is dealing with: Why suddenly did Joseph grab Shimon of all brothers to put in jail? Notice that the Torah mentions Shimon by name. It wouldn't do that unless it had significance. In the whole story of Joseph and his brothers no brothers are mentioned by name except Joseph, Reuven and Yehudah. And now Shimon! Rashi's answer as to why Shimon was singled out is that he was the one who threw Joseph into the pit. But we can confirm this by seeing the verses immediately prior to this. It says that the brothers bemoaned their guilt for what they had done years ago to their brother, Joseph. Then Reuven says "Didn't I tell you then 'don't sin with the boy' but you didn't listen!" All the years Joseph was in Egypt he had blamed Reuven for all that happened to him. Because Reuven was the first born, he was the leader and responsible for the brothers' actions. Why hadn't he stopped them? he wondered. Now that he overheard Reuven's remark he realized that he had blamed Reuven unjustly. At that point Joseph looked to the next in line. Who was that? Shimon, the second oldest. why hadn't he backed Reuven's protest? So he chose him and threw him in jail. See how beautiful this logic is. See verse 27 where it says "one opened his saddle bag to feed his donkey" etc. Rashi says it was Levi. Why Levi? Let's begin with another question: Why only did only this brother find his money in his saddlebag? Didn't the others also have donkeys to feed? They did eventually find their money at the bottom of their bags when the got home to Jacob. see that only "the one" (who Rashi says is Levi) found his at the opening of his bag and not down beneath as the others did. Why was his at the top of the bag and the others at the bottom? Answer: Levi is brother number 3 !!! Joseph was going down the line of brothers. He made Levi worry longer than the others, because why hadn't he who was the third oldest brother spoken up on his behalf years ago and stopped the sale into slavery? The story isn't over. The next accusation about the stolen chalice seems to wake Yehuda up and he is number four!! Therefore "And Yehuda drew near" (next week's sedra). Shabbat Shalom
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