Wednesday, December 28, 2016
- Miketz #2- Shimon?
It says in perek 42, pasuk 7 that Yosef recognized that the men before him were his brothers, but he could not differentiate between them. It then says in Pasuk 24, that he jailed Shimeon. How did Yosef know that it was Shimeon if before it mentioned that he couldn't tell which brother was who?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Enduringword.com says, when it says Joseph could not see the difference between the brothers, it was hinting that Joseph wanted to see if they changed from when they sold him, and he could not tell, and therefore could not differentiate between them. It also says Joseph recognized the brothers, but the brothers did not recognize Joseph, so therefore the Passuk can not be literal. This is why Joseph knew who Simeon was.
ReplyDeleteRashi comments and says that Yoseph knew who Shimon was since he was the one who threw Yoseph in the pit. He also was the one who said, "Behold the dreamer is coming". So Yoseph specifically remembered Shimon because of what he did to him.
ReplyDeleteRashi says another explanation is that Joseph intended to separate Levi and shimon incase they decide to plan to kill him. Therefore if Joseph wanted to separate them then they must have been standing next to each other like a pair, and therefore Joseph knew which one he was. Even though one can argue that he still had to differentiate between Levi and shimon. He was their brother and would remember which one threw him into the pit.
ReplyDeleteThe scandal suggest that Yosef figured out who Shimon was because after Rueben (who was the oldest) said "don't harm the child" the second son would speak (who Yosef new was Shimon), because it was the costume for younger siblings to agree with the older siblings, who advised the others not to harm their "missing brother". Because of this Yosef was able to figure out who Shimon was and put him in jail.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Bereishit Rabbah, the reason why Yoseph was unrecognizable to his brothers was due to his beard he grew. Additionally, when Yoseph saw his brothers he did not recognize them. The reason why he later recognized shimon was due to a divine moment from G-d who allowed him to recognize these men as his brothers.
ReplyDeleteRebecca Malech
ReplyDeleteRashi says Joseph did recognize his bothers as seen in וַיַּכִּרֵם וַיִּתְנַכֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם, however, his brothers didn't recognize Joesph because he wasn't fully bearded when he left unlike the rest of his brothers (not including Benjamin) They also didn't recognize him because Joseph was wearing royal raiment.
Rashi presents 3 reasons why it was simeon chosen.
1. Simeon was the one who threw Joseph in the pit
2. Levi and Simeon were like a pair and they plotted to kill before (city of shechem) So Joseph separated them.
3. Rashi brings Ibn Ezra: Logically Joesph would have jailed Reuben but in gratitude for Reuben trying to save Joseph when his brothers were plotting to kill him Joseph picked the second to oldest Simeon
- Rebecca M