According to Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews, the brothers were so consumed with malice that they decided to finish their meal before carrying out their deadly plan. A chilling detail, isn’t it?
They finished eating, and then, incredibly, they tried to say grace – birkat hamazon, the blessing after meals. But Judah, one of the brothers, stopped them. Can you imagine the scene? The tension, the barely concealed hatred, and then Judah’s voice cutting through it all.
“We are about to take the life of a human being, and yet would bless God?” he asked, as recounted in Legends of the Jews. “That is not a blessing, that is contemning the Lord.” Strong words. It seems even in their darkness, a flicker of conscience remained.
Judah, perhaps motivated by a sliver of guilt or maybe a more practical concern, offered an alternative. "What profit is it if we slay our brother?" he argued. "Rather will the punishment of God descend upon us." He suggests a different path, a path of calculated cruelty rather than outright murder.
He pointed out a traveling company of Ishmaelites passing by, on their way to Egypt. "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites," Judah proposed, "and let not our hand be upon him. The Ishmaelites will take him with them upon their journeyings, and he will be lost among the peoples of the earth." A fate worse than death, perhaps, to be utterly lost and without connection.
Judah even justified their actions with a twisted sense of tradition. "Let us follow the custom of former days, for Canaan, too, the son of Ham, was made a slave for his evil deeds, and so will we do with our brother Joseph." This appeal to precedent, however warped, is a disturbing glimpse into their mindset.
Think about that for a moment. They were willing to sell their own brother into slavery, to erase him from their lives and cast him into the unknown, all while clinging to a semblance of moral justification. It's a stark reminder of how easily even family bonds can be shattered by envy and hatred. What do you think motivated Judah? Was it a genuine desire to avoid bloodshed, or something else entirely?