Commentary for Genesis 45:26

וכי הוא משל — the word וכי is used here in the sense of אשר “that”: AND THAT HE WAS RULER.

‘VAYAPHAG’ HIS HEART. His heart passed away and ceased to believe; his heart took no notice of their words. The word vayaphag has the same meaning as the Mishnaic expression: “The fragrance of all spices m’phigin (escape).”⁶³Beitza 14a. Similar is the verse, Without any ‘haphugoth’ (intermission).⁶⁴Lamentations 3:49. The verse, And his scent is not ‘namar,’⁶⁵Jeremiah 48:11. is rendered in the Targum: “and his scent is not pag (passing away).” This is the language of Rashi. But it is not correct, for phugah is an expression of cessation and abolition, just as : give thyself no ‘phugath’ (respite).⁶⁶Lamentations 2:18. So also, Mine eye is poured out, and ceaseth not, without any ‘haphugoth,’⁶⁴Lamentations 3:49. meaning “mine eye pours out tears steadily without cessation or intermission.” And so likewise, “m’phigin (their fragrance)”⁶³Beitza 14a. means that the spices scatter the fragrance and it is voided. So also, Therefore the law is ‘taphug,’⁶⁷Habakkuk 1:4. that is, voided and ceased. In this verse also, ‘vayaphag’ his heart [thus means that the beat of] his heart was suspended and his breathing ceased, for the movement of the heart ceased and he was as dead. This condition is known when joy suddenly comes upon one, and it is mentioned in the books of medicines that old or feeble persons cannot withstand the shock, for many of them faint when joy comes to them very suddenly. The heart widens and opens suddenly, and its natural heat goes out and scatters throughout the outer parts of the body, and the heart thus ceases to function because of its coolness. Thus the patriarch fell as dead. Scripture says, for he believed them not, in order to relate that he remained in that condition a great part of the day, and he lay so without movement because he did not believe them.
Concerning such fainting it is known that people shout to the fainting person and accustom him to that joyful event gradually until he accepts it with a tranquil spirit. And this is the meaning of the verse, And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them, and when he saw the wagons [which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived],⁶⁸Verse 27 here. for they shouted into his ears the words of Joseph and brought the wagons before him. Then did his spirit return to him, and his breathing began and he was revived. It is this which Scripture says, And the spirit of Jacob their father revived. Now Onkelos translated: “The Divine Presence, [which had departed from him when he was in mourning], again rested upon him.” Onkelos added this because the thing is true, and he expounded this interpretation from the word ruach (spirit), since Scripture does not say, “and Jacob their father revived,” [but rather, and the spirit of Jacob their father revived]. He thus explained the verse here as being analogous to these verses: The spirit of the Eternal G-d is upon me;⁶⁹Isaiah 61:1. And now the Eternal G-d hath sent me and His spirit;⁷⁰Ibid., 48:16. A man in whom is spirit.⁷¹Numbers 27:18.

וכי הוא מושל, do not be afraid to come to him.

ויפג לבות, he passed out. His heart stopped beating briefly, something common when people have a fainting spell. This occurred at the moment Joseph’s name was mentioned by the brothers.

ויגדו לו לאמור. They told him, saying, etc.. The word ויגדו indicates the difficulty the brothers had telling their father what had transpired in Egypt. What was good news for their father involved a confession of the evil the brothers had perpetrated and how they had caused their father unnecessary anguish. It is also possible that the use of the word ויגדו [especially the missing letter י ] alluded to the ensuing exile of the Jewish people and the hard times their descendants would experience there eventually. We do indeed find that Jacob was afraid to travel to Egypt until reassured by G'd in a dream (46,3).

וכי הוא, and in addition to this he is מושל, the first word עוד in our verse performs a dual function, also applying to the portion relating to Joseph being a ruler.

ויפג לבו, “his heart stopped beating;” according to Rashi this means that his heart refused to accept this as true. According to Nachmanides the word is similar to the word ביטול, as in Lamentations 2,18 אל תתני פוגת לך, “give yourself no respite.” The word פוג always means that something active suddenly ceases to be so and becomes inert, like dead. Yaakov’s heart became cold and his blood circulation stopped. This is a well known phenomenon when someone suddenly receives unexpected good news and is overwhelmed by it. Yaakov fainted and lay on the floor as if dead. The Torah reports that it took Yaakov a long time to recover from his shock and to believe what the brothers had told him. The standard remedy used to bring someone who fainted at the receipt of good news to recover from his fainting spell, is to dance around him and make noise and display joy and elation. When the brothers repeated their conversation with Joseph, and when upon opening his eyes he beheld the carriages Joseph had sent, he began to believe them and to react accordingly.

ויפג לבו, “his heard went numb.” The word ויפג is related to Lamentations 3,49 מאין הפוגות, “without respite.” The meaning is that Yaakov’s tears went on flowing without interruption. The meaning of the expression here is: “his heart stopped beating, he became like dead.” It is not unusual for someone to faint when he is the recipient of unexpected good news. The physiological explanation is a sudden expansion of the arteries of the heart which causes the heat inside the heart to suddenly dissipate and to cover the outside of the body. As a result, the heart itself is left cold, or at least too cold to perform its task. This causes fainting. These phenomena are more common among the elderly and among people with a weak constitution.
The Talmud in Ketuvot 62, when discussing the frequency or otherwise of marital relations between Torah scholars and their wives, reports that after an absence of twelve years from his home, the wife of Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinai suddenly saw (according to Rashi thought she saw) her husband standing in the doorway. Her heart gave such a leap that she died from the shock. Her husband was stunned that this should be the reward of a pious woman who had enabled him to study Torah all these years. He prayed for her revival and she was restored to life.

That he is ruler. [Rashi knows this] because כי can mean אם, and אם can mean אשר (that). (Maharshal)

ויפג לכו. Aus der Analogie von מאין הפוגות (Klagel. 3, 49), Auf- hören wird das ויפג לבו gewöhnlich auch als: sein Herz stand stille, ging ihm aus, er ward ohnmächtig, natürlich vor Freude, verstanden, und findet man eine Bestätigung dieser Auffassung in dem dann folgenden ותחי רוח יעקב, das man als: "er kam wieder zu sich" erklärt. Es wäre auch an sich ganz natürlich, dass ein Greis von solcher Freude überwältigt worden, wenn nur nicht dabei stände: כי לא האמין להם! Wenn er ihnen nicht glaubte, so konnte er doch vor Freude nicht ohnmächtig werden. Es muss demnach das פוג anders zu fassen sein. פוג heißt: eine Bewegung, die zum Stillstand kommt, aufhört. ויפג לבו scheint daher: "sein Sinn wurde stutzig" zu bedeuten, sein Herz stand zweifelnd stille, denn er glaubte ihnen nicht; er konnte sich nicht so rasch in die ihm gewordene Nachricht hineinfinden.

ויפג לבו, “Yaakov’s heart was standing still, stopped beating; (as in Lamentations 2,18, פוגת לך) he could not even react as he refused to believe the brothers. He only reacted after seeing the carriages that Joseph had sent along. An alternate exegesis: the words: ויפג לבו, mean that he reacted joyfully, seeing that in the Talmud we see it used in this sense in tractate Yuma, folio 19, אישי כהן גדול עמוד והפג אחת על הרצפה, “my lord the High Priest, arise and demonstrate joy,” (according to Rashi there). [According to this the High Priest rejected the implication that he was going to sleep as ridiculous; Ed.] In our case, Yaakov considered the claims by his sons as ridiculous, not worth even thinking about. The latter explanation is supported by Onkelos, who writes: פיגו.

ויפג לבו AND JACOB’S HEART CONTINUED COLD — his heart passed away (נחלף) and ceased to believe — his heart took no notice of their words. The word ויפג has the same meaning as (Beitzah 14a) “all spices let their taste pass away (מפיגין)” (i.e. lose their taste) in Mishnaic Hebrew. Similar is (Lamentations 3:49) “without (הפגות) intermission”. The words (Jeremiah 48:11) “and his scent is not changed (נמר)” is rendered in the Targum by “and his scent has not את כל דברי יוסף.

ויפג לבו, his heart missed a beat, as he did not believe them. The meaning of the word is similar to Lamentations 2,18 אל תתני פוגת לך, “give yourself no respite.” [respite means stopping in that context. Ed.] The words וריחו לא נמר in Jeremiah 48,11 have also been translated as ”his bouquet has remained unspoiled,” [i.e. has never been disturbed, has remained inert, stationary. Ed.]

כי לא האמין להם. so that he had no chance to believe them. Therefore, ותחי רוח יעקב, once his spirit revived he never fainted again so that he was able to believe them. It had been the sudden joy that had been the cause of his fainting. Spirit has a habit of contracting when one suffers worry, etc., whereas it expands when one experiences joy, sometimes even beyond the boundaries of one’s body so that the body faints.

ויפג לבו, it became weak. The very mention of Joseph provoked such a reaction from Yaakov.

His heart was not swayed by their words... [Rashi is answering the question:] Why did Yaakov not believe that Yoseif was alive? He himself had suspected them of selling him! Rashi answers: They said Yoseif was the ruler, and it is implausible that a foreigner would become the ruler, especially in Egypt where a slave may not rule. [Yaakov reasoned:] since this [i.e., that Yoseif is a ruler] is not so, that [i.e., Yoseif is alive] is also not so. Therefore [Rashi says], “His heart was not swayed by their words, [i.e., all of their words].” (Nachalas Yaakov)

The reason the Torah uses the expression לאמור is to tell us that the brothers were astute in the manner they conveyed the good news to their father. It is well known that sudden good news may shock a person and cause cardiac arrest. The brothers therefore led up to what they had to say in stages; first they mentioned that they were the bearers of good tidings, ויגדו לו לאמור; after Jacob had been thus prepared they told him that Joseph was still alive. At that point this news was not liable to endanger Jacob's life.

כי לא האמין להם, he did not believe them as he could not fathom why they would make such a statement. Presumably, the brothers rushed in with the information, not having shown Yaakov any supporting evidence yet, such as the ten donkeys’ loads of food, the carriages etc. Once when the brothers elaborated and showed Yaakov what they had brought with them from Egypt, especially the carriages, he did believe them.

It is also possible that we should read the verse thus: ויגדו לו לאמר עוד, "they told him saying: furthermore," etc. They said: "Not only have we all returned safely but we still have more to say." Once they had conditioned Jacob's mind they informed him that Joseph was still alive. Having said this they added a little later that Joseph had achieved a position of great stature in Egypt.

I have been troubled by the fact that Joseph did not communicate with his father during all these years. Did he not realise that his father must have been in terrible anguish concerning what had happened to him? While it is true that as long as Joseph was a slave he may not have been able to communicate with his father, nonetheless during the nine years since his appointment as viceroy surely he could have done so? Why did he not at least write his father a letter to temper his father's pain and to stop him from mourning him? Not only this, why did he not at least send a message to his father during the year of famine when there was a constant stream of travellers between Egypt and Canaan? Who had given Joseph permission not to tell his father that he was alive after the brothers arrived in Egypt the first time?

Whereas we can understand why Jacob had to suffer twenty two years in order that G'd's plan could be executed, this is all well and good from G'd's point of view. Since Joseph was not aware of G'd's plans, who gave him the right to let his father suffer longer than necessary?

We have good reason to believe that Joseph had perfectly good reasons for preferring not to communicate with his father until he did. No doubt he would have liked to communicate with his father ever since he came to Egypt until he was appointed as viceroy.

Even assuming that an opportunity had presented itself prior to his sudden and dramatic promotion, he was afraid that as soon as his brothers would hear about his whereabouts they would try and murder him so that he could not testify against them. The brothers would therefore have a vested interest in disposing of Joseph if they heard that he was still alive somewhere.

It is also possible that as soon as Jacob would receive such a communication he would curse the brothers for what they had done to Joseph; as a result the brothers would die and he would indirectly be responsible for their deaths.

Once Joseph had been released from prison and become viceroy he no longer had to fear for his life if a letter from him would be intercepted or the brothers would attempt to kill him to prevent their father from learning the truth. On the other hand, he considered a statement by our sages in Baba Metzia 59 that it is preferable to be burned in a fiery oven than to cause a fellow human being to go pale with shame. Joseph was concerned for his brothers' dignity as human beings, something they would lose if their father would find out at that point what the brothers had done to his favourite child. He decided therefore that the anguish of one man, i.e. his father, was preferable to discrediting his brothers.

Besides, Joseph may well have felt that the brothers still wanted him out of this world and would confer how to bring this about. When Bereshit Rabbah 91 described the brothers as taking a great deal of money to Egypt in order to ransom Joseph, this merely means that they hoped to succeed in order to demonstrate that they were sorry for what they had done. Only then would they no longer feel threatened by him and plan to dispose of him.

Joseph, of course, was unaware that the brothers had undergone a change of heart until he had personally tested them in the presence of Benjamin. Only after that experience did Joseph realise that he was no longer in danger from his brothers. Until all the pieces of the puzzle came together at the time Joseph decided to reveal himself to his brothers it would have been premature to risk identifying himself. Until Joseph was able to put the brothers at ease by attributing all that had happened to G'd's planning, he would have been risking his life by revealing himself. You will recall that Yehudah had resorted to a confrontational stance when he found out that Joseph had included innocent Reuben in his treatment of the brothers. Tanchuma item 5 on our Parshah even reports the brothers as planning to kill Joseph [not in his capacity as Joseph, of course, but in his capacity of a ruler who had framed Benjamin, Ed.], and that it had taken an angel to save Joseph from their hands. Considering all the foregoing Joseph can hardly be faulted for allowing events to run their course without informing his father prematurely.