Yosef recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him (Bereshis 42:8)

How could Yosef do such a thing to his father? Ten of his brothers come down to Egypt to buy some food. The verse tells us that he recognized them but they did not recognize him. Why didn’t he immediately reveal himself to his brothers and tell them to get his father. Yosef knew his father was suffering not seeing him. How could he play this game where he took away another brother, Shimon (which would cause more pain to his father), and not tell his brothers who he was?

Yosef had two dreams in last week’s parsha and through prophecy, he realized the first dream needed to come true before the second could come true. In his first dream, his eleven brothers bowed down to him and in his second dream, his brothers, father, and mother bowed down to him. The RAMBAN points out that Yosef saw ten of his brothers, but he realized he also needed Binyomin to be able to have his first dream fulfilled. Therefore, it was not the right time to quickly get his father because first he needed his eleven brothers to come without Yaakov. Therefore, Yosef did something which would force the brothers to return with Binyomin. Then, he could reveal himself and tell his brothers to quickly get Yaakov.

We no longer have prophecy but there is still a lesson we can learn from this. Have you ever seen someone do something to make you suffer? Has anyone made you upset? When this happens, we need to remember this episode from this week’s parsha. Yosef did not want to upset his father, but he had no choice. He did what he did for a good reason. The same thing is with other people. There are many times that they do something for a good reason. Their goal is not to make you suffer, but they have no choice. If a person thinks this way when someone else does something they dislike, it avoids many problems.

Good Shabbos!
-y.e.s.
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