Judah's Plea as Threefold Appeasement and the Oath for Benjamin

"My lord asked his servants, saying" (Genesis 44:19). Know that you are coming against us with a pretext: how many countries have come down here to buy food? Did you question them as you have questioned us? Were we seeking your daughter, or are you seeking our sister? "And we said to my lord" (Genesis 44:20). Is it possible that a man like Judah would say a thing of which he was not certain, that his brother was dead? Rather, thus said Judah: if I say to him that he is alive, he will say to me, bring him to me, just as he said concerning Benjamin; therefore he said "and his brother is dead." Said Rabbi Chiya bar Abba: all the words you read that Judah spoke to Joseph until "and he could not restrain himself" (Genesis 45:1) contained appeasement for Joseph, appeasement for Benjamin, and appeasement for his brothers. Appeasement for Joseph: see how he gave his life for the sons of Rachel. Appeasement for his brothers: see how he gave his life for his brothers. Appeasement for Benjamin: just as I gave my life for your brother, so I give it for you. "And your servant our father said to us" (Genesis 44:27). Ten times the sons of Jacob said to Joseph "your servant our father," and Joseph heard this and was silent, and silence is like consent; therefore ten years were cut off from his life, as it says, "and Joseph died, and all his brothers." "And you would take this one also" (Genesis 44:29-34). He said to him: at first, when Benjamin was with me, my mind was at ease, but now it seems to me as if you have taken all three of them in one day. To what is Jacob compared? To a lamp with three wicks: once the last is extinguished, all are extinguished. "And harm should befall him": he said, woe to me, lest a decree has been issued against the seed of Rachel. She died on the road, and his brother died on the road, and now he is going on the road; he will surely die, and I too will die of grief after him. Joseph said to him: Judah, why are you so talkative? Are there not older ones among your brothers than you? He said to him: even so, they all stand outside the storm, but my insides are wrenched within me like a rope. He said to him: why? He said to him: because I am surety for him. He said to him: if it is silver or gold, I will give it to you. He said to him: not for silver and not for gold; rather, thus I said to my father, I will be under a ban in this world and in the world to come, which is called "days," as it says, "if I do not bring him to you, etc." He said to him: why do you seek Benjamin? If for greatness, I am greater than he; if for strength, I am mightier than he; better that I be a slave in his place than that I see my father's grief. Joseph said to them: I wish to know only this, of Benjamin: who advised him to steal? Perhaps you advised him. Benjamin said: they did not advise me, and I did not touch the goblet. He said to him: swear to me. He swore to him by the separation of Joseph my brother from me: I did not touch it, neither in the sending of the arrows that were shot at him, nor in the stripping with which they stripped him, nor in the casting into the pit into which they threw him, nor in the sale by which they sold him to the Ishmaelites, nor in the dipping by which they dipped his tunic in blood. He said: who will tell me that you swear truthfully concerning your brother? He said to him: by the names of my sons you can know how greatly I cherish him, for I brought out their names according to what befell him. He said to him: and what are their names? He said to him: Bela and Becher, etc. "Mupim," I learned from his mouth Torah that he learned from his father; "Chupim," because he has been covered over to this very day; another interpretation, because I went barefoot mourning over him; "and Ard," "for I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol" (Genesis 37:35). I beg of you, do not bring my father down in grief to Sheol, for thus Judah says, "for how can I go up to my father, etc." When they told him of his father's grief, immediately "Joseph could not restrain himself."