“He asked them regarding their wellbeing, and he said: Is all well with your father? Is the elder whom you mentioned still alive?” (Genesis 43:27). “They said: All is well with your servant, with our father, he is still alive; they bowed, and they prostrated themselves” (Genesis 43:28). “He asked them regarding their wellbeing…They said: All is well…” – Rabbi Ḥiyya Rabba saw a certain Babylonian: He said to him: ‘How is Father?’9Rabbi Ḥiyya lived in the land of Israel and his father lived in Babylonia.
He said to him: ‘Your mother inquired after you.’ He said to him: ‘I said this to you and you said that to me?’ He said to him: ‘One asks about the living, and one does not ask about the dead.’ So, “is all well with your father?” – this is Jacob; “the elder that you mentioned” – this is Isaac.
“They said: All is well with your servant, with our father.”10They answered about Jacob, who was alive, but not about Isaac, who was not. “He lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and he said: Is this your youngest brother whom you mentioned to me? He said: God be gracious to you, my son” (Genesis 43:29). “He lifted his eyes, and saw…” – Rabbi Binyamin said: Because we have heard grace [mentioned] regarding the eleven tribes,11Jacob said of them: “The children with whom God has graced your servant” (Genesis 33:5).
Binyamin had not yet been born at that time. but did not hear grace regarding the tribe of Benjamin. Where did we hear it? We heard it here: “God be gracious to you, my son.” “Joseph hurried, because his mercy was aroused toward his brother and he sought to weep; he entered the chamber, and wept there” (Genesis 43:30).
“They sat before him, the firstborn according to his seniority, and the younger according to his youth, and the men wondered to one another” (Genesis 43:33). “Joseph hurried…They sat before him…” – he took the goblet and created the false impression that he was smelling the goblet. He said: ‘Judah, who is king, sits at the head. Reuben who is the firstborn, will sit alongside him,’ and likewise regarding them all.
He said: ‘I have no mother and Benjamin has no mother, when his mother bore him, she died. Therefore, let him come and place his head alongside mine.’ That is why, “the men wondered…” “He gave gifts from before him, and Benjamin's gift was five times greater than the gifts of all of them. They drank, and became inebriated with him” (Genesis 43:34).
“He gave gifts from before him…” – Joseph gave him, Asenat gave him, Manasseh gave him, Ephraim gave him, and [he received] his portion with his brothers. That is what is written: “Benjamin's gift was five times greater than the gifts of all of them.” “They drank, and became inebriated with him” – with him, they drank, but other than with him, they did not drink, as Rabbi Levi said: All twenty-two years that he did not see them, he did not taste the taste of wine.
They, too, did not taste the taste of wine until they saw him. That is what is written: “They drank, and became inebriated with him” – with him, they drank, but other than with him, they did not drink.