Why the Brothers Struck Benjamin and the Shekhinah Rested on Him

"Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and from which he indeed divines?" (Genesis 44:5). "And they rent their garments, and each man loaded his ass, and they returned to the city" (Genesis 44:13). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: You caused your father's garments to be rent over a worthless matter; so too shall you rend your garments over a worthless matter. "And each man loaded his ass" (ibid.) — not one of them had need of his ass. And they stood and beat Benjamin upon his shoulders and said to him: "Hey, thief, son of a thief! You have shamed me. You are your mother's son. Thus did your mother shame our father" — "And Rachel stole the teraphim" (Genesis 31:19). By virtue of those blows with which they struck him upon his shoulders, he merited that the Shekhinah rested upon his shoulders, as it is said: "And He dwells between his shoulders" (Deuteronomy 33:12).