וַיִּפְתַּ֨ח הָאֶחָ֜ד אֶת־שַׂקּ֗וֹ לָתֵ֥ת מִסְפּ֛וֹא לַחֲמֹר֖וֹ בַּמָּל֑וֹן וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־כַּסְפּ֔וֹ וְהִנֵּה־ה֖וּא בְּפִ֥י אַמְתַּחְתּֽוֹ׃
L’un d’eux, ayant ouvert son sac pour donner du fourrage à son âne, dansune hôtellerie, trouva son argent qui était à l’entrée de son sac.
Rabbeinu Bahya
ויקח מאתם את שמעון, “he took from amongst them Shimon.” He kept Shimon in jail longer than the other brothers in order to keep him apart from Levi. He remembered that when it came to killing the males of the town of Shechem, Shimon and Levi had acted as a team. Yaakov referred to the matter on his deathbed when he said (Genesis 49,5-6) “Shimon and Levi are brothers (comrades), violence is their stock-in trade.”
When the Torah writes in 42, 27: “The one opened his sack,” the words “the one” are a reference to Levi the other half of that team of brothers. Seeing the brothers had not been prepared to select one of their number who should remain behind as a hostage that they would return with Binyamin, Joseph had to make the selection himself. From this incident our sages derived an important ruling, i.e. that when Gentiles demand from Israelites that they hand over one of their number without specifying which person they are to hand over, that the Israelites must not make such a selection but must rather all face death than to condemn someone in their midst. (If however, the Gentiles selected a particular individual from amongst the Israelites and they threaten to kill all the Israelites unless that individual is handed over, the Israelites (in order to save their lives) must hand over the individual demanded from them) (Jerusalem Talmud Terumot 5,4).
There is a well known example in Samuel II 20, 1-22 when Sheva ben Bichri, a rebel against the regime of King David, happened to be trapped amongst other Jews and David had given orders to liquidate this Sheva ben Bichri as a dangerous rebel. His commander-in-chief Yoav and his brother Avishai had surrounded the town in which Sheva ben Bichri found himself. A woman in that town saved the other townsfolk by persuading them to hand over the rebel and thus to save the inhabitants of the town from becoming victims of Yoav’s army. [This was during the period of Avshalom’s uprising against his father. Ed.]
When the Torah writes in 42, 27: “The one opened his sack,” the words “the one” are a reference to Levi the other half of that team of brothers. Seeing the brothers had not been prepared to select one of their number who should remain behind as a hostage that they would return with Binyamin, Joseph had to make the selection himself. From this incident our sages derived an important ruling, i.e. that when Gentiles demand from Israelites that they hand over one of their number without specifying which person they are to hand over, that the Israelites must not make such a selection but must rather all face death than to condemn someone in their midst. (If however, the Gentiles selected a particular individual from amongst the Israelites and they threaten to kill all the Israelites unless that individual is handed over, the Israelites (in order to save their lives) must hand over the individual demanded from them) (Jerusalem Talmud Terumot 5,4).
There is a well known example in Samuel II 20, 1-22 when Sheva ben Bichri, a rebel against the regime of King David, happened to be trapped amongst other Jews and David had given orders to liquidate this Sheva ben Bichri as a dangerous rebel. His commander-in-chief Yoav and his brother Avishai had surrounded the town in which Sheva ben Bichri found himself. A woman in that town saved the other townsfolk by persuading them to hand over the rebel and thus to save the inhabitants of the town from becoming victims of Yoav’s army. [This was during the period of Avshalom’s uprising against his father. Ed.]