"Yisrael said, 'Why did you do such a terrible thing to me, telling the man that you had another brother?' The brothers replied, 'The man kept asking about us and our family. He asked, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? We simply answered his questions.'"
וַיֹּאמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל לָמָה הֲרֵעֹתֶם לִי לְהַגִּיד לָאִישׁ הַעוֹד לָכֶם אָח.וַיֹּאמְרוּ שָׁאוֹל שָׁאַל הָאִישׁ לָנוּ וּלְמוֹלַדְתֵּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַעוֹד אֲבִיכֶם חַי הֲיֵשׁ לָכֶם אָח וַנַּגֶּד לוֹ עַל פִּי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הֲיָדוֹעַ נֵדַע כִּי יֹאמַר הוֹרִידוּ אֶת אֲחִיכֶםBreisheit 43:6-7
Is that true? Were the brothers 'caught' by Yosef and had no choice but to share the details about the family? Or were they presenting a fabricated story to their father?
Initial Conversation
When looking back at the initial encounter between Yosef and his brothers, the conversation that actually occurred was quite different.
"Yosef recognized his brothers as soon as he saw them. But he behaved like a stranger and spoke harshly to them. 'Where are you from?' he asked.
'From the land of Canaan to buy food,' they said.
Yosef recognized his brothers but they didn't recognize him. He remembered what he had dreamed about them. 'You are spies!' he said to them, 'you have come to see where the land is exposed to attack!'
'No my lord,' they replied, 'We are your servants who have come only to buy food. We are all the sons of the same man. We are honorable men. We would never think of being spies.'
''No! You have come to see where the land is exposed.'
'We are twelve brothers your servants,' they pleaded, 'We are the sons of one man who is in Canaan. Right now the youngest brother is with our father, and one brother is gone.'"
Breisheit 42:7-13
Strangely enough, there was no cross examination by Yosef of his brothers, quite unlike they had told their father, rather Yosef confronted them with the accusation of being spies. Why accuse the brothers of being spies? Why not put another accusation on the table that would put the brothers on the defensive? And still upon being accused of spying, why did the brothers quickly divulge that another brother was still alive with their father?
Being Spies
Rashi comments on the verse "You have come to see where the land is exposed" (Breisheit 42: 12) by adding the following to the narrative "Behold you entered through the 10 gates of the city, why didn't you come in through one gate?"
The Siftei Chachmim explains Rashi's comment, saying "Yosef would have known that his brothers came to collect food, since it was an obligation for the gate guards to write down both them and their father's name for those came to the city, and then show the list to Yosef. And 10 gate guards came to Yosef, and presenting [the names] Reuven the son of Yaacov, Shimon the son of Yaacov, etc and that is how Yosef would have known that his brothers came in through 10 separate gates."
But the Siftei Chachamim asks, so then why didn't Rashi use this explanation on the earlier verse ('you have come to see where the land is exposed to attack!' 42:9)?
The Siftei Chachamim explains Rashi's decision to use this explanation here saying that this is a better verse since the brothers reply with 'We are twelve brothers your servants' (42:13).
12 Brothers
And what is the point of this response by the brothers, when they are being accused of being spies? Rather we must say that at the beginning of the conversation, Yosef said to them:
'Behold you have entered through 10 city gates!'
And then they responded 'We are twelve brothers your servants,' they pleaded, 'We are the sons of one man who is in Canaan. Right now the youngest brother is with our father, and one brother is gone."
Breisheit 42:13
It is because of the missing brother that they were motivated to enter through 10 gates, to scatter their forces and increase their own chances of survival. In case they were attacked at a gate, then the brothers wouldn't all be in one spot.
At this point, the Torah continues with Yosef's response to his brothers.
"I still say that you are spies, said Yosef"
Breisheit 42:14
Rashi comments on this verse saying "I still say - that which I said that all of you are spies, this is the truth and is correct, as related according to the simple meaning of the verse."
The Siftei Chachamim points out the difficulties with Rashi's response here.
What was the issue that motivated Yosef to accuse them of being spies?
Furthermore, how would bringing Binyamin to Egypt disprove this claim?
The Answer
The answer, according to the Siftei Chachamim, comes when Yosef could have said: 'Behold you have entered through 10 city gates!' as Rashi says.
The brothers reply to this with "We are the sons of one man who is in Canaan.'' since it is well known that one man would never send all of his own sons to spy, lest they all be caught and executed.
To which Yosef says to them: All the more so, you are really spies since no man would send all his sons to spy UNLESS he kept one or two sons at home to help him.
And so that was why Yosef repeated his accusation and said again, "I still say that you are spies."
Out of the fear that they might get caught, they didn't want to put themselves at risk, and that is why they went in through 10 gates.
And this is how they ultimately came to point that they had to admit that there was another brother at home with their father, and so if they were to bring the other brother down [to Egypt], then they would remove the suspicion that they are spies. This is why the brothers responded 'We are twelve brothers your servants.'
To account for the 12, we learn that they had shared the detail about the other brother still at home. The commentary continues saying, 'They went in through 10 gates in order to investigate the disappearance of they brother [Yosef].'
And Yosef had responded to them 'it' after they said "and our brother was lost."
Yosef could say to them 'that was many years ago, and only now you are investigating the disappearance. You must be spies. If you are lying about the brother with your father, then you are definitely spies.''
The Actual Conversation
So if we look at the conversation between Yosef and his brothers, now with the added information from the commentaries, it looks like this.
"Yosef recognized his brothers as soon as he saw them. But he behaved like a stranger and spoke harshly to them. 'Where are you from?' he asked.
'From the land of Canaan to buy food,' they said.
Yosef recognized his brothers but they didn't recognize him. He remembered what he had dreamed about them.
'Behold you entered through the 10 gates of the city, why didn't you come in through one gate? You are spies!' he said to them, 'you have come to see where the land is exposed to attack!'
'No my lord,' they replied, 'We are your servants who have come only to buy food. We are all the sons of the same man. It is well known that one man would never send all of his own sons to spy, lest we all be caught and executed. We are honorable men. We would never think of being spies.'
'All the more so, you really are spies since no man would send all of his sons to spy UNLESS he had kept one or two sons at home to help him. No! You have come to see where the land is exposed!'
'We are twelve brothers your servants,' they pleaded, 'We are the sons of one man who is in Canaan. Right now the youngest brother is with our father, and one brother is gone. We came in through 10 gates in order to investigate the disappearance of our lost brother. '
'That was many years ago, and only now you are investigating the disappearance? You must be spies! And if you are lying about that there is another brother with your father, then you are definitely spies!'"
Breisheit 42:7-13
When the additional narrative fills in between the lines in the Torah, the picture comes together and puts into perspective how the brothers related to their father when they requested to return to Egypt with Binyamin. They had responded to their father with 'We simply answered his questions.' And that in fact appears to be want happened, as Yosef interrogated them and drove them down a line of questioning, they were left with no choice but to either admit to being spies and face certain severe punishment OR bring Binyamin down to Egypt and exonerate themselves.
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