by Ari Gross

The weekly Parashot of Mee'kaitz and Vayeegash turn on a single charged moment: Yehuda steps forward and confronts Yosef. But what gave Yehuda the right — or the leverage — to do so at exactly that point? Ari Gross, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland's Computer Vision Lab, found the answer in an unlikely place: a Talmudic principle from tractate Gittin about ambiguous plural commands.

Gross presents a teaching from the Chatam Sofer's Torat Moshe that resolves a textual puzzle: Yehuda initially accepted that all the brothers would become Yosef's slaves, but only threatened Yosef with exposure to Pharaoh after Yosef said the guilty party alone would remain. Why there, and not earlier? The answer rests on the precise meaning of Yosef's oath "chay paroh im taitzu mee'ze" — and whether a plural verb necessarily includes every individual. This is Torah commentary as legal analysis: precise, rigorous, and illuminating.

The Chatam Sofer in his sefer Torat Moshe offers this vort on our parsha Mee'kaitz:

Yehuda tells Yosef at the end of the parsha "hinnenu avadim laadoni gam anachnu...." The medrash comments on the first pasuk of next week's parsha Vayeegash "vayeegash ailav yehuda vayomer bee adonee....davar beaznei adoni....." — Yehuda intimated secretly to Yosef that he would tell on him to Pharaoh since he (Yosef) swore falsely on Pharaoh's name when he said "chay paroh" ("chay paroh ki meraglim atem"). The medrash is perplexing. Why does Yehuda originally reconcile himself to the fact that all the brothers will become slaves to Yosef; why does he only threaten Yosef (that he'll tell Pharaoh that he swore falsely by his name) when Yosef says that he only wants the culprit (Benjamin) as a slave — "ve'atem alue leshalom el avichem"?

Now concerning the oath that Yosef made of "chay paroh ki meraglim atem" — that in and of itself is not to be considered a false swearing since Yosef conditioned it on them not bringing the youngest brother back with them. The only point at which Yosef could have been accused of swearing falsely by Yehuda was in his words "im taitzu mee'ze.... ki im bvoh achichem hakaton...." since in truth he let the brothers all go back home, with the exception of Shimon, before Binyamin came down to Egypt. Now whether this could be considered swearing falsely or not depends what Yosef meant when he said "im taitzu mee'ze" — did he mean "im taitzu koolchem (all of you) mee'ze" or not? If he meant "all of you" may not leave until Binyamin is brought here, then Yosef did not swear falsely since he kept Shimon in Egypt until the brothers returned. But if Yosef meant "not a one of you" may leave until... then he did transgress his oath.

In Gittin, beginning of perek ha'omer, we find: "One who says to ten people 'kees'vu u'tenu' [concerning giving a get] .....". On this the gemara inquires, does he mean all ten people have to write and sign it or are two of them alone sufficient? So apparently, in a case like this, we're not sure what the person's intent is — does he mean all of the people present or only some of them?

In any event, being that using a plural form of the verb can mean "all of you," Yosef could have argued that "chay paroh .. im taitzu mee'ze" meant "I won't let all of you leave" and that he didn't break his promise since he made Shimon stay behind. But when Yosef said "asher neemtzah hagaveeah beyado hoo yeeyeh lee le'eved ve'atem alu le'shalom..." it was clear that he used a plural form of the verb (ve'atem ALU) even when he didn't mean to include everyone. This then meant that when Yosef said "chay paroh im taitzu mee'ze" he didn't mean to include all of them, but rather he meant to say "not a one of you shall leave until your youngest brother comes to Egypt" — an oath we know he broke since, with the exception of Shimon, he let them all return to Canaan before Binyamin was brought down to Egypt. Therefore, only at this point in time was Yehuda able to go over to Yosef and threaten him that if Yosef didn't let them all go he would tell Pharaoh he had sworn falsely in Pharaoh's name. Thus, only after Yosef said "ve'atem alu le'shalom" did it become appropriate for the verse "va'yee'gash ailav Yehuda...."

Shabbat Shalom and a happy Chanukah to everyone.

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Ari Gross was affiliated with the Computer Vision Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. This D'var Torah appeared in net.religion.jewish on December 11, 1985. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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