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ויתנכר אליהם HE MADE HIMSELF STRANGE UNTO THEM — He made himself like a נכרי a stranger to them in his conversation, speaking harshly (Genesis Rabbah 91:7).

AND JOSEPH SAW HIS BRETHREN, AND HE RECOGNIZED THEM. Immediately as he saw them he recognized them, and he feared lest they recognize him. And he made himself strange (‘vayithnakeir’) unto them by putting a mitre upon his forehead and part of the face, thus disguising himself, just as it is said concerning the wife of Jeroboam, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam,¹²³I Kings 14:1. Ramban explains the word vayithnakeir in a physical sense. Joseph disguised himself by placing his mitre over his face. Further on, Ramban mentions a second interpretation. See Note 126. and it further says, For it will be, when she cometh in, that she ‘mithnakeirah’ (will pretend to be another woman).¹²⁴Ibid., Verse 5. It may be that the word vayithnakeir here means that he made himself strange by his words, speaking to them harshly and asking them in anger — as if it were not customary to come before him to purchase food — “From where do you come to appear before me?” And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. When they mentioned this to him, it then became clear to him that they were indeed his brothers. This is the meaning of the expression, And Joseph recognized his brethren,¹²⁵Verse 8 here. which is mentioned a second time to indicate an additional sense of recognition and knowledge of the truth with respect to them.
Now Rashi wrote in explanation of the word vayithnakeir: “He made himself like a nochri (stranger) in conversation by speaking harshly to them.” According to Rashi’s opinion, the word vayithnakeir signifies that he spoke to them as a man who is a nochri (stranger). But this is not correct.¹²⁶A stranger does not necessarily speak harshly. Hence Rashi’s interpretation is incorrect. Ramban’s second interpretation mentioned above, however, is based upon the word vayithnakeir having the same root as heker (recognition), except that the word here changes its meaning so as to indicate its opposite. See Rashi on Exodus 27:3, where he says that there are many such words in the Hebrew language. In the case before us, the word vayithnakeir would thus mean that Joseph made himself unrecognizable by speaking harshly to them. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 232.

מאין באתם?; he pretended not to know who they were.

ויכירם, he recognised them collectively as being his brothers, without being able to recognise who each brother was.

וירא יוסף את אחיו, Joseph saw his brothers, etc. When he saw them he felt as their brother and displayed friendliness towards them. It was only from the brothers' side that he appeared as a stranger. The Torah emphasises that he acted like this because the brothers did not recognise him. Joseph could speak to them sternly without the brothers taking offence as brothers. After all, he was a stranger to them. Joseph's whole purpose was to devise a scheme whereby also Benjamin would come to Egypt. He also wanted to test them to see how they felt now about what had transpired between them many years ago. He then became aware that they were sorry for what they had done to him and considered themselves as having committed a sin against him.

וירא יוסף...ויכירם, our sages explain that the fact that Joseph had left home when he did not have a beard yet, whereas his brothers already had beards accounts for the fact that whereas they did not recognise him, he recognised them. (quoted by Rashi) It is possible that they would have recognised him in spite of his having grown a beard if they had not seen the man confronting them dressed in the uniform of the highest ranking nobles of the land. They could not imagine that this man could be Joseph even if there had been points of resemblance. The idea that someone who had been sold into slavery had risen to such power was too mind-boggling for them.

ויתנכר להם, “he misrepresented himself to them.” According to Rashi, the word is derived from נכרי, “stranger, alien.” Nachmanides explains that as soon as Joseph spotted his brothers and recognized them, he was afraid that they in turn might recognize him; this is why he disguised himself with a different type of turban, one which covered most of his forehead; or, he disguised his manner of speech including his stern demeanor, so that they would not be alerted to his true identity. This is why he subjected them to the third degree kind of interview, acting as if they had been the first people ever to come from Canaan to buy grain. From their answers he became progressively more certain that they were indeed, his brothers. This is the reason why the Torah repeats: ”he recognized them.” According to Ibn Ezra, the first statement “he recognized his brothers”, refers to them collectively, whereas after questioning them he recognized each one individually.

He acted as a נכרי to them. I.e., ויתנכר means he acted like a stranger (נכרי).

ויכרם ויתנכר וגו׳. Scheinbar zwei entgegengesetzte Bedeutungen einer und derselben Wurzel, נכר: Erkennen und Fremdsein. Jedoch nur scheinbar. נכר im Hiphil: הַכִיר heißt nichts anderes als: Fremdmachen. Alles "Erkennen" ist ein "Fremdmachen". Wir erkennen einen Gegenstand nur dann, wenn wir ihn fremd zu machen verstehen, ihn aus allen übrigen Dingen auszuscheiden vermögen. Je mehr Unterscheidungsmerkmale wir von einem Gegenstande kennen, desto spezieller erkennen wir ihn. Mit jedem neuen uns bekannt werdenden Merkmale machen wir ihn allen andern Reichen, allen andern Gattungen, allen andern Arten, endlich allen andern Individuen derselben Art "fremd", d. h. scheiden wir ihn von allen andern aus, und erkennen ihn als den einen, einzigen, von allen andern Unterschiedenen. Auch unser deutsches Unterscheiden, das mit Erkennen verwandt ist, ist in ähnlicher Anschauung gebildet. הכיר heißt also, einen Gegenstand aus allen andern durch seine Besonderheit herausheben. Demgemäß ist נכרי nicht der Unbekannte — er kann uns jahrelang bekannt und doch נכרי sein — sondern der Andersseiende, der durch sein Leben und Wesen irgendwo nicht Hingehörende, nicht zum Anschluss Geeignete. Der andere Ausdruck für fremd: זר, heißt auch nicht unbekannt, sondern eigentlich das Fremdgewordene, das zu einem andern Kreise gehören könnte, aber wegen seiner Eigentümlichkeit von diesem, oder aus diesem ausgeschieden worden, von זור: ausscheiden, ausdrücken. Daher זורר: Nießen. התנכר heißt daher wie in גם במעלליו יתנכר נער, sich von allen andern unterscheiden, sich in seiner Eigentümlichkeit zeigen, oder, wie hier und Kön. I. 14, 5: sich in einer anderen Eigentümlichkeit darstellen, als man wirklich ist. Er zeigt sich ihnen anders, als er wirklich war, indem er sie hart anfuhr und auch als נכרי in einer fremden Sprache durch Vermittelung eines Dolmetschers mit ihnen sprach; dadurch gelang es ihm, dass הם לא הכירוהו.

And recognised them. Because he was searching for them, if they came because of the famine, since it's the way of the patriarchs to come to Egypt because of the famine. See for example "And there was famine in the land, and Avram descended Egyptwards" (Bereishit 12:1), and so too with Yitzchak until the Holy Blessed One said to him "Don't descend Egyptwards" (Bereishit 26:2). And they weren't looking for him and thinking he would be king! And my teachers have explained that the brothers had beards when they sold him, and now were unchanged, but Yosef didn't have a beard and had since grown one, so he looked different.

ויתנכר אליהם, “he acted like a stranger to them.” His reasoning was that if he would reveal his identity, they would say to him: “if you expect us not to reveal your true identity, you are also sworn not to reveal our true identity.” Alternately, his reasoning was that he would frighten them into trying to flee. As a result, he would cause his father untold additional anguish. It would therefore be better that they would appear before him because they had no choice not to do so, as they needed the supplies that only he could provide. This would provide him with the chance to force them to bring Binyamin down to Egypt and he would detain him there. As a result, the fact that he was Joseph would become known.

ויתנכר אליהם, he adopted a manner totally uncharacteristic of him, by speaking arrogantly, masking his true voice, etc, apart from the fact that he spoke to them in Egyptian having everything he said translated into Hebrew by an interpreter.

ויתנכר, Joseph moreover deliberately misrepresented himself to prevent their suspecting that it might be him.

And made himself strange to them. He thought, if I reveal myself to them immediately, since they are embarassed to have sold their brother and pained their father, they will say to me "silence! You're already under oath not to reveal us." And he said to them "harshly" (Bereishit 42:7), "you are spies" (Bereishit 42:9)! And he pushed them off until they brought him Binyamin, and put the goblet in his pack, and told a servant to delay them. And when he saw that, under pressure, they were afraid to sin against their father, he revealed himself, for then he knew that against their will they themselves revealed that they wouldn't hold Binyamin back.

קשות, so that they would not recognise his voice.