The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

Shalom, Shalom v’ein Shalom. “And you shall go up to your father in peace”. With those words Yosef concluded last week’s parashah. Everything looked hopeless. After having sworn their innocence on the life of the purported thief, the brothers were horrified to see the goblet emerge from Binyamin’s sack. They were drags back to Egypt, presumably to witness the execution of their father’s last precious son from his beloved wife, Rachel. Yehuda seeks to avert this worst of all outcomes by pledging the servitude of all the brothers in exchange for commuting the death sentence of Binyamin. The viceroy, however, is not interested in multiplying his servants, but in justice. On the surface, then, everything works out fine – he will spare the life of the goblet thief, allowing him to remain his servant, while all the other brothers are free to go. Yehuda has made his plea, and this is the verdict: so let it be written, so let it be done!! Of course, peace is the l...

"Oh, Abba, you're stopping right at the metach" - this is inevitably the claim of our kids when we've read them bedtime stories over the years - we stop right at the height of the action, the tension (the literal translation of metach). Never mind that ANYWHERE we'd stop our reading would be "right at the metach" for kids who don't want to go to bed - everyone know that a good storyteller knows how to leave his/her reader in the creative suspense of a moment, a dilemma that must be resolved in one of (usually) two ways, each one leading the characters on very different paths. That's what the Torah does when we come to the end of last week's Parashah, Miketz, when Yosef has planted his "divining" goblet in Binyamin's sack, and, after the brothers have departed, sends his chamberlain after them with accusations of theft. The brothers swear they didn't take anything, and vow the thief should be executed. When it's found in ...