창세기 42:18의 인용 해설

ויהי ה' את יוסף , “and the Lord was with Joseph;” the Midrash sees in this line a lesson for us to compare G–d’s method of befriending us to how human beings befriend their masters or superiors. As long as their superiors are successful and amass glory the underlings surround the king and flatter him nonstop. As soon however, as the king or master falls on hard times, his former “friends,” and flatterers abandon him as they would a ship about to sink. The reverse is true of Hashem. As soon as Joseph fell on hard times, G–d went out of His way to show him that far from having abandoned him, on the contrary, He now went out of His way to make life easier for him. He supported him when he became viceroy of Egypt for 80 years, as well as when he was still a slave in the house of Potiphar, and even when jailed for supposedly having tried to rape his wife. It is remarkable that also Joseph’s way of responding to the way the brothers had treated him were quite different from the way ordinary people would have reacted to this given the chance. Normally, poor people display some fear of G–d, as He is the only one from whom they can expect help. Joseph, even when in a position of power, repeatedly refused to do something that G–d would not approve of (Compare Genesis 42,18 as well as 39,9) An alternate interpretation of the line: ויהי ה' את יוסף. Imagine someone blessed with ten children, each one of whom lives in a different country. Instead of visiting them all in rotation, he concentrated on spending time with the youngest, as he was less well endowed than his brothers, and depended more on advice and assistance from his father. Take another parable illustrating our subject. A wine merchant had loaded ten donkeys with barrels of wine and began to lead them on the public highway. Suddenly one donkey veered and entered the house of a pagan. Right away the owner abandoned all the other nine donkeys out of concern that a pagan might touch the wine on the back of the last mentioned animal and make it unfit for Jews to drink from. Similarly, as soon as G–d saw that Joseph had been brought to the house of an Egyptian who was now his master, He hurried to supervise his fate to protect him from harm. He was afraid that unless He did so, Joseph might learn to copy the lifestyle of his master.

The Torah wants us to understand that Amalek’s pirate-like existence did not emerge as a fluke, but rather was deeply rooted in their approach to life more generally, i.e., in what the Torah calls “not fearing God.” On the face of it this is a strange claim, for which pagan nations of the time could actually be described as God-fearing? And yet Amalek is the only one the Torah singles out as not fearing God. It is important to note that from among the few times the concept is mentioned in this form is when Avraham says Avimelech’s country was devoid of the fear of God (Bereshit 20:11) and when Yosef, posing as an Egyptian, reassures his brothers that he fears God (Bereshit 42:18). As these references are dealing with non-Jews, it appears that even if almost all of the nations of the time were idolatrous, there was nevertheless an expectation that they should be – and, in fact, often were – “God-fearing.”

AND HE PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER INTO A WARD THREE DAYS. This he did in order to frighten them and to make them believe that it is G-d he fears,¹⁴⁹Verse 18 here. meaning that it is because of his fear of G-d that he is releasing them lest the people of their households perish from hunger. This is the meaning of his words, The rest of you, go and take grain home to your starving households.¹⁵⁰Verse 19 here. Besides, they would not have consented to leave the one [Simeon]¹⁵¹See Verse 24. behind except for the purpose of saving all their families.