"Joseph said, put my cup, the silver cup, at the top of Benjamin's pack. Scarcely had the
brothers left the city, Joseph said to the men that were over his house, Get up and run after these men. Catch them and say
to them, Why have you repaid good with evil? Is this not the cup from which my Master drinks." Genesis 44:2-5
Why did Joseph plant the silver cup in Benjamin's sack?
Joseph understood his dreams to be a form of prophecy (divine communication) that Jacob and his eleven
sons were to bow down to him. The dreams also hinted that Joseph must not make himself known to his family, because if they
knew that he was their brother as well as the governor of Egypt, the act of bowing down would be a farce. The reason Joseph
would not reveal his identity to his brothers when they came down to Egypt on the first occasion was that the eleventh star
was missing. When the 'eleventh star' – Benjamin - much against his father's wishes, joined the other ten on the second
descent to Egypt,
Joseph once again kept his identity to himself. The silver cup was put into Benjamin's sack as a pretext
for taking Benjamin captive, because the father (the sun) had to be brought down to Egypt as well. The anguish caused by the
detaining of Benjamin would ensure that Jacob would descend to Egypt and bow to Joseph. Because of the emotional speech made
by Judah, Joseph was no longer able to hold himself back, and he revealed his true identity. Indeed, Jacob did find himself
bowing to Joseph, but only at a much later stage, shortly before his own death. (Genesis 47:31)
How was his cause and that of the future Israelite nation advanced by this action?
Joseph needed to know if his brothers truly repented for selling him into slavery
twenty-two years earlier. Real repentance only takes place when a person is put in the same situation as before, and this
time he does not repeat his sin. Thus Joseph's special attention to Benjamin, and his giving him a much larger portion than
his other brothers was to promote jealousy amongst the brothers. Those were parallel conditions that caused the brothers to
sell Joseph. Would they come to hate Benjamin? Would they make any attempt to rescue him if he were captured after landing
them all in trouble?
The heartrending plea of Judah in the presence and on behalf of all the brothers convinced Joseph that they
had indeed repented. This was underlined with the concluding words: "For how can I go up to my father
and the young man is not with me, lest I see the grief that will befall my father." Genesis 44:34
Joseph’s dreams were indeed prophecy in that they told Joseph what was going to happen. The dreams,
however, did not tell Joseph to become actively involved in ensuring their fulfillment. Moreover, his method caused prolonged
anguish to his old father who had done him no harm.
Why was Joseph chosen to bring the brothers to repentance?
Joseph had suffered considerably over the previous twenty-two years. Did he have to undergo further personal
suffering to cause the brothers' repentance? The suffering in this case would be his knowledge of the pain he would have brought
to his father and to Benjamin, none of whom had harmed him in any way.
The Torah tell us not to suppress prophecy. Joseph had witnessed the dreams of the gentiles (first Pharaoh's
prisoners and then Pharaoh himself) come true. This added more meaning to his dreams, raising them to the level of prophecy.
Moreover, on the first visit to Egypt, the brothers themselves had not bowed down to Joseph through any move on his part,
but of their own accord. Thus Yahveh had already shown Joseph the direction in which the prophecy (dreams) was to be fulfilled.
Joseph had a choice to suppressed the prophecy or to bring it about so that it would have meaning.
As to the pain it brought to his father, by faith he knew that "As the heavens are above the earth, so
my ways are above your ways, and my thoughts are above your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9
Why was Joseph chosen for this unpleasant task?
One suggestion would be that he was not blameless either. First, he brought negative reports about his brothers'
behavior to their father. (Genesis 37:2) Although he was sincere in his faulty evaluation, he should have reported the facts
only and not drawn conclusions. Second, his lack of tact in the way he displayed the 'coat of many colors' coupled with the
way in which he revealed his dreams to his brothers, caused jealousy. In such a situation of being not entirely blameless,
the Rabbis offer the following insight:
"When you build a new house you shall build a fence for your roof, so that you will
not cause blood in your house if the fallen one falls from it." Deuteronomy 22:8 The term fallen one implies the person
who died deserved to fall for some previous sin, but it should have not been through the house-owner. That he fell from the
homeowner's own roof reflects to some degree on that homeowner.
Joseph, therefore, was the 'liable' in this case. Like the house-owner, the fact that he was chosen to be
the pained reformer of the brothers reveals that he was not entirely guiltless himself. This can be taken further: his having
to execute Divine justice through the guidance of the dreams was in itself an act of putting his own character in order. Where
previously he showed impetuosity, he now had to practice restraint, and not make himself known to his brothers.
