The confrontation between Judah and Joseph in Egypt was not simply a family dispute. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads it as a cosmic collision between two forms of kingship.
The Zohar (I:206) identifies Joseph and Judah as two "kings" whose forces clashed. Joseph represents Kadosh Barukh Hu (קדוש ברוך הוא), the individual divine ruler. Judah represents Knesset Yisrael (כנסת ישראל), the collective soul of the Jewish people. When Judah approached Joseph and said, "Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word in your ears" (Genesis 44:18), it was the collective soul of Israel confronting God Himself.
The Talmud (Moed Katan 16) asks a bold question based on David's final words: who "rules" over God? The answer: the tzaddik (a righteous person), who has the power to nullify divine decrees. This is not rebellion. It is the highest form of relationship. God creates decrees. The righteous, through prayer and self-nullification, can overturn them.
Judah prefaced his plea with the word bi (בי), which is not merely "please" but an appeal beyond the strict letter of justice. The tzaddikim (the righteous) who live by the stringent standards of din (דין), divine justice, normally do not invoke mercy for themselves. But they will invoke it for others. Judah was not asking for himself. He was interceding for Benjamin.
The category of tzaddikim who possess this power of overturning decrees are those who relate to God from the vantage point of ayin (אין), "nothingness," the total negation of self. When a person has erased their own ego before God, their prayer on behalf of others carries absolute authority. Judah's speech made Joseph weep because it was the sound of a soul that had completely emptied itself, speaking with a power that even the viceroy of Egypt, even the divine attribute of justice itself, could not resist.