창세기 44:32의 주석

כי עבדך ערב את הנער FOR THY SERVANT BECAME SURETY FOR THE LAD — Should you ask why I enter into the contest (champion his cause) more strongly than my other brothers — then I tell you: I have more to lose; they all stand outside the matter (are less concerned with it than I am), but I have placed myself under a firm bond to be an outcast in both worlds.

FOR THY SERVANT BECAME SURETY FOR THE LAD. Judah is saying that his father will go down with sorrow to the grave²⁹Verse 31 here. on account of the lad, for “despite all that we have said to him, the aged father did not want to send him until I became surety for him, and he trusted me. Therefore, let thy servant, I pray thee, abide³⁰Verse 33 here. in his stead.” And if the explanation of the verse, And thy servants will bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father…to the grave,¹¹Verse 31 here. is in line with the plain meaning thereof, [namely, that the responsibility will fall upon the brothers, as opposed to Ramban’s previous interpretation that “thy servants” is a euphemism for Joseph,³¹See Ramban above, Verse 19. then Judah] is saying that “we will have caused the death of the aged father by sorrow, for I was surety for the lad.”

כי עבדך, the reason why I speak up more than my brothers is that I guaranteed his safety. Therefore I will take his place as your slave.

כי עבדך ערב, the reason why he would die as soon as the lad did not return without even asking what happened to him is because I have guaranteed the safe return of the lad. As soon as he would notice that that I did not bring him back, he would automatically assume that something fatal had happened to him, and that I had been unable to make good on my vow on account of that.

כי עבדך ערב את הנער, I have guaranteed him; if you now do not want to forgive his presumed guilt, take me in his stead because I am more useful to you as a slave than he is.

כי עבדך ערב את הנער, “for, I, your servant, have guaranteed the safe return of the lad.” He explained to Joseph that their father, although all of them were in danger of starving, had been holding out, not giving his permission for Binyamin to travel until Yehudah had guaranteed his safe return. This would explain why he, more than the other brothers, had taken it upon himself to now be the spokesman of all of them. Alternately, he wanted to explain that there was no element of trickery in his wanting to substitute himself as slave for Binyamin, such as that he thought he would be more capable of escaping from Egypt than his younger brother.

By accepting to be outcast in both worlds. You might ask: Rashi said before (43:9) that “I will have sinned to you for all time” meaning in the World to Come. Why does he say here that it means, “In both worlds”? It seems [the answer is:] Here Yehudah is telling [Yoseif] what he said to his father, so it should say מעם אבי לאמר אם לא אביאנו אליך וחטאתי לך כל הימים. [Why does it say וחטאתי לאבי כל הימים?] Perforce, וחטאתי לאבי means in this world, while my father is alive. And [כל הימים means] also in the world that is completely יום, i.e., the World to Come. We need not ask: Why did Yehudah, in order to explain himself, find it necessary to say that he was liable of being an outcast in both worlds, [whereas to Yaakov he spoke only of being an outcast of the World to Come]? For the answer is: He thought Yoseif might not believe in the punishment meted out in the World to Come, so he mentioned also the punishment of this world. But Yaakov believed in the punishment meted out in the World to Come.

אם לא אביאנו אליך, “if I will not bring him back to you.” He did not now add the words: “and I will place him before you in an upright position,” as he had said to his father at the time. Had he mentioned this aspect of Yehudah’s guarantee, Joseph might have challenged him saying: how did you know that he would be alive at the time of your return? To his father he had said at the time that seeing they were fulfilling the commandment of honouring their father’s wishes, their mission was bound to be crowned with success, as we have a tradition that emissaries engaged in fulfilling a commandment will not be harmed either on their way out or even on their return journey.