Commentaire sur La Genèse 43:27

השלום? is he well (healthy) in body? Physical health consists of opposite forces in the body being in perfect balance with one another. [hence the word שלום, “being at peace, being in perfect harmony,” is an acceptable word for describing physical health. Ed.]

וישאל להם לשלום. He asked them how they were, etc. Joseph first enquired how the brothers were before he enquired after their father's wellbeing. One first greets the people present before enquiring after those who are not present.

השלום אביכם?, “is your father well?” Joseph referred to Yaakov.

השלום אביכם ist viel mehr als השלום לאביכם, welches nur die Frage nach dem harmonischen Zustimmen der äußeren Verhältnisse ausdrückt, wobei noch ein inneres Zerknicktsein möglich wäre. Die Frage העודנו חי nach der Frage nach seinem Wohlsein, verrät so ganz das ängstliche Sohnesherz. Indem er sich nach des Vaters Wohlsein erkundigt, überfällt ihn die Angst: Gott, wenn er inzwischen gestorben wäre! und rasch fügt er hinzu: er lebt doch noch?

?השלום אביכם הזקן אשר אצרתם, העודנו חי “is your aged father of whom you have spoken well, is he still alive?” From the order in which Joseph asked, it is clear that the “old father” whom he spoke of was a reference to his grandfather, to Yitzchok. The brothers, answering about their father being alive did not want to mention the negative event of their grandfather having died. We find something similar in the Talmud, tractate Pessachim, folio 4, where when Rav was asked if his father was still alive he responded by saying that his mother was alive. He avoided having to spell out that the person he had been asked about had actually died.

אביכם הזקן אשר אמרתם, I am asking, seeing that it is not frequent that aged people are in physically good health. Our sages already stated that “the lips of the aged have a tendency to become worn out and their ears to become hard of hearing.”

הזקן, “the old man?” This was a reference to Yitzchok [who had been alive when Joseph had been abducted. Ed.]

השלום אביכם הזקן, is your aged father well? How could Joseph enquire after the wellbeing of the brothers' father before he had even ascertained that Jacob was still alive as he did at the end of the verse? If the enquiry after their father's wellbeing meant if he was still alive , why did Joseph ask about this twice? The brothers' reply is difficult also. They too first answered that their father was well and then added that he was alive. What news did they add by confirming that their father was still alive?

Perhaps Joseph wanted to know if Jacob's wellbeing had been affected by his aging or whether he was as spry as ever. Perhaps this is why he added the word עודנו, i.e. is he as well as when you came here the last time? This is why Joseph was clever in asking first about their father's welfare before asking if he was still alive. The question then was not whether Jacob was actually alive, but whether he was as alive as the last time. An aging father could have been described as being well even if his mental and physical alertness had declined somewhat with age.