GENESIS XLIV:18-XLVII:27

IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PAIN OF OTHERS

The younger brother, Binyamin (Benjamin), was accused of stealing Yosef’s (Jospeh’s) cup  and was to be imprisoned for it. Yehuda (Judah) took up the defense of the young man and implored for his fate, even offering to personally carry out the punishment imposed on Binyamin, because he had guaranteed his father’s safety. The older brother, Reuven (Ruben), had wanted to take responsibility for Binyamin, placing the lives of his own children as insurance. Yaakov (Jacob) rejected Reuven’soffer because he could not avenge any accident that occurred with Binyamin by doing harm to his own grandchildren.

Why does Yaakov agree  to entrust Yehuda with the security of Binyamin? Yehuda offers no security other than his own honor: to be a sinner in front of his father for the rest of his days. The Midrash suggests that Yehuda promises his portion in the Hereafter if anything should happen to Binyamin. Returning to the biblical narrative, we read that when the brothers inform the elderly father Yaakov that they must bring Binyamin next time as proof of the truth of their words, the patriarch asks why they informed the Egyptian hierarch about their brother? Were not the difficulties and misfortunes that had befallen him so far enough? Alai hayu kulana, “everything has fallen on me,” Yaakov exclaims. 

The word “alai” had been used by Rivkah (Rebecca) when she induced her son Yaakov to disguise himself as Esav (Esau). When Yaakov replied that if the father discovered the stratagem, disaster might occur, to appease him, Rivkah said to him: alai kilelatecha beni, “may the curse be turned away to me.”

Like the mother, Yaakov also uses the word “alai,” and considering that he had lost his favorite son Yosef, now that he hears that he must risk Binyamin, the word “alai” highlights his anguish and deep pain.

The Midrash suggests that the word “alai” is spelled with the letters “ayin,” “lamed”, and “yod”, a reference to three characters who caused Yaakov anxiety: Esav, Lavan (Laban), and Yosef. 

The rivalry with Esav is well known, a competition that began when the brothers were still in their mother’s womb. Hatred and confrontation generally occur between people who are close and live together, but at the same time they produce suffering.

In the home of his uncle Lavan, Yaakov had to learn to defend his interests, because from the first day he was deceived. First, when they changed his wife, placing Leah in Rachel’s place. Then his uncle tried to cheat him out of the remuneration for his work. The deception that Yaakov had perpetrated against his father Yitschak (Isaac) and that which he had plotted against his brother Esav, in a symbolic way, were being settled. Lavan was the brother of his mother Rivkah, and although Yaakov would have preferred to have an affectionate family relationship with his uncle, he suffered from not being able to do so.

The greatest pain for a father is the loss of a child, it goes against nature. That is why Yaakov never forgot Yosef’sdisappearance. He probably had doubts about what happened, because it was an ironic act when the brothers presented Yosef’sbloody robe to the father so that he could recognize it. It was the same robe that had produced the zeal among the brothers for the preferential treatment that Yosef received from the father. “Surely he was devoured, a bad beast swallowed him,” was the father’s reaction. But one cannot underestimate the whirlwind of doubts that overwhelmed the patriarch. Perhaps it crossed his mind that the brothers themselves were to blame for Yosef‘s disappearance. Therefore, there was no consolation. Who could identify with the pain of the loss of a child?

Yehuda could relate to Yaakov’s grief because he had lost two sons, Er and Onan, who, married successively Tamar, and died for sinning before God. According to Bible commentators, in his intimate relations with Tamar, Er prevented her from  becoming pregnant so that the pregnancy would not disfigure her. Onan did the same, because he thought that the son that Tamar would have would  be considered the son of her deceased brother.

Yaakov entrusted the care of Binyamin to Yehuda, because he thought that he was the only son who had empathy for him and could feel his inconsolable grief over the loss of Yosef.