The Parasha starts by saying; “Yehuda approached him [Yosef] and said, ‘If you please, my lord, may your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and may your anger not flare up at your servant – for you are like Pharaoh.” Yehuda comes forward to Yosef, the viceroy of Egypt, and seeks a personal audience with him. Yehuda requests that Yosef’s anger not flare up against him, for he is like Pharaoh. What is Yehuda trying to accomplish by saying to Yosef that he is like Pharaoh? The Midrash [B”R 93:6] explains; Yehuda complained that Yosef’s judgement was totally corrupted and unjust. You demanded from us to bring down Binyamin, so you must carry the burden of your decisions. Rabbi Simon adds that Yehuda’s argument was that according to our laws, the repentance and remedy for a thief is to restitute what he stole, and unless if he fails and cannot compensate will he then be sold as a slave. Now, being that Binyamin can afford to compensate you, he shall be allowed to pay, and not be taken as a slave. Yehuda’s argument is striking, what made him think that the ruler of a decadent and impure country would accept the law of the Saint Torah? Impure people are impervious to the understanding of the Torah. Besides, despotic rulers have only one law, which is to satisfy their thirst for power and by imposing their will on others. The Midrash explains that the Torah’s implacable logic behind each law is irrefutable. The Torah instituted that a thief who cannot pay to be sold as a slave. It seems counter logical, as who would purchase a convicted thief? Who would bring a convicted thief in his home? Hence, the Torah requires us to think deeper, why did he steal? It was certainly out of necessity. He lacked the funds to purchase his basic needs and resorted to stealing rather than asking for help. While his action is surely not commendable, there is reason to believe that he is a pathological thief or suffers from kleptomania. All leads to believe that when provided the basics he will no longer steal. Therefore, by being sold the Torah ensures his basic needs are provided, and the lack of freedom will enable him to understand the seriousness of his act. However, this only applies to a destitute thief, as the Torah says only one who cannot pay is sold. One who can provide for himself and still steals, it means that it is in his nature to rob and will always steal. No one wants this type of thief in his home. Yehuda tells Yosef that the reasoning behind the Torah law is something that even he should understand. If Yosef was alleging that Binyamin did indeed steal the goblet, he needs to consider Binyamin’s financial standing. Being that all knew that Binyamin was wealthy, this means that if he indeed robbed, he is a pathological thief, which will always steal. So, why are you not concerned and seems so eager to bring him to your house? In conclusion, Yehuda was telling Yosef that even if Binyamin did steal the goblet, Yosef should not want him in his home, for he will steal again. By Yosef suggesting that Binyamin remain in his home as a slave, that proves that Yosef does not really believe that Binyamin stole the goblet, rather Binyamin was framed. Indeed, Yehuda informed Yosef, we are not gullible, it is obvious that the goblet’s appearance in Binyamin’s sack was a setup by someone from Yosef’s household. By ignoring that obvious fact, you are committing a grave injustice. The Alshich Hakadosh points out, that originally, after the goblet was found in Binyamin’s bag, he offered that they would all be slaves to Yosef, but when Yosef decided to only keep Binyamin as a slave, he threatened to destroy Egypt and to paint all the walls with blood? Tha Alshich explains that initially, Yehuda thought that if all the brothers needed to be slaves to Yosef, it had to be a punishment for their sin of selling their brother. Even though Binyamin did not sin, as he was not part of the selling of Yosef but being that he was with the brothers and part of the group, he was being punished along with them. However, once he saw that it was only Binyamin who was going to be enslaved, that meant that it was not a punishment for the sale of Yosef [for Binyamin was not even involved in the sale], and hence realized that Yosef was just tormenting them. Hence, he decided to put an end to it. Yehuda, at a critical time, knew what to do. He was saved he was a Torah scholar. People main struggle is when faced with a crossroad, they have no clue which direction to take. Thus, someone who learns Torah is illuminated and can read the slightest hints and clearly know which path to follow. The renowned Maggid, Harav Reuven Karelinstein, zt”l, related the following story: As a Yeshiva student, I had the privilege of learning for a year at the Yeshivah headed by Rabbi Chaim Aharon Turchin, zt”l, a talmid and confidant of the Brisker Rav. One of the students who learned there with me was a son of the renowned Benedict family of Bnei Brak. When he was still young, he lost his father, Reb Yechiel, zt”l, who passed away at the prime of his life. One day, the bochur’s sister got married, and of course, he traveled to Bnei Brak to attend the wedding. A few days later, his mother was scheduled to make a sheva brachos in their home, and he again asked for permission to travel to Bnei Brak for the simcha. At the time, it was customary to not leave the Yeshivah without asking permission from the Rosh Yeshivah. So, that afternoon, before Mincha, the student went over to Harav Chaim Aharon and asked for permission to travel again to attend the sheva brachos. stressing “My mother is working very hard to prepare the seudah and I know that she wants very much for me to come.” He was thus very surprised when the Rosh Yeshivah refused to give him permission, and said, “you already went to the wedding. You don’t need to go again.” The bochur heard this and accepted it; it didn’t enter his mind to argue. If the Rosh Yeshivah had instructed him not to go, he wouldn’t go!  About half an hour before Maariv, Rav Chaim Aharon came up to him and said, “Benedict! Go!”. A few moments passed, and when Reb Chaim Aharon noticed that the student had not yet left, he went up to him again and asked, “Why aren’t you leaving?” “I prefer to pray before traveling,” the boy replied. “Who knows if by the time I get to Bnei Brak I’ll find a Minyan.” But the Rosh Yeshiva was insisted “You leave right now!”, and the bochur had no choice but to comply. Then, the trip from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak was long and tiresome. Bnei Brak itself was still just a town, with a small population. There was no direct bus from to Bnei Brak. Passengers needed to go to Jaffa Road and catch a sherut taxi or a bus traveling to Tel Aviv, and from there, take a bus to Bnei Brak. After Benedict arrived in Tel Aviv, he was lucky to find a taxi immediately. After a while, he looked out the window and was surprised to discover the familiar Bnei Brak scenery. He imagined that for some reason, the driver had changed his route, and they had already reached Bnei Brak. He asked the driver to stop and to drop him off. After a short walk he realized his mistake he was definitely not in Bnei Brak… The houses looked similar to those in Bnei Brak but this was definitely not his home town. Now he was stuck in the middle of a dark road, near the town of Be’er Yaakov. What was he to do now? Should he walk to town, or try to catch a ride? As he was pondering, a van stopped, and a familiar face leaned out of the window. It was a family acquaintance, Rav Drabkin, from Bnei Brak, who was returning from Be’er Yaakov where he was giving classes. It was remarkable Hashgachah pratis that he was driving by just then. “Benedict, what are you doing here?” he asked. “I got off the sherut taxi because I thought we were in Bnei Brak, and only realized my mistake after I got off…” “I guess it wasn’t a mistake,” Rabbi Drabkin smiled and invited him into the van. “We’re traveling to Bnei Brak in any case, so we’ll take you all the way home…” He arrived home on time for the Sheva Brachos. Thus, instead of the joyous atmosphere he expected, everyone was panicked. “What happened?” he cried. One of the girls explained that their mother had somehow ingested an olive pit, and she was struggling to breathe, and all our efforts were unsuccessful, and their mother began turning blue. But he did know what to do. Someone had once explained what needed to be done to expel a foreign object from the windpipe. He hurried over to his mother and within a few seconds, the pit was out. After everyone calmed down, the Benedict recounted how he made it home, had he not “mistakenly” gotten out of the Sherut and met Rabbi Drabkin, he would have never arrived on time. It was a real Miracle! Since the moment the Dean ordered him “go, now!” everything fell into place exactly as Hashem ordained them so that he should home, precisely at the right moment to save his mother. The next morning, he returned to the Yeshiva and immediately went to the Rosh Yeshivah’s office. After briefly describing what had happened, he asked excitedly: “I must know, how did the Rabbi know that I needed to travel exactly at that moment to save my mother? And furthermore, why did the Rav changed his mind and allowed me to go? Rav Chaim Aharon thought briefly and then replied slowly: “By Hashem goodness, it has always been my privilege that when I pray, I am never disturbed by distracting thoughts. Yesterday, in the middle of Mincha, after I refused to let you go, while reciting the Shemonei Esrei, your name would not stop flashing in my head. All my efforts to push the though aside failed. I realized it had to be a message from Above, and I decided to review the matter and try to figure out why I was reproved. After a thorough introspection I arrived at the conclusion that the decision to prevent you to go was not the correct one. So, I hurried over to tell you to go right away. “This story did not captivate me because of the unbelievable miracle…” Reb Reuven concluded the story. “It helped me realize what tremendous light has a person that learns Torah. He sees light where people see pitch black obscurity.”

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