Комментарий к Берешит 43:14

ואל שדי AND GOD ALMIGHTY — Now you lack nothing except prayer, and therefore I pray for you (Genesis Rabbah 91:11).

THAT HE MAY SEND AWAY YOUR OTHER BROTHER, AND BENJAMIN. In line with the literal interpretation of Scripture, it would seem that Simeon was not a favorite of his father because of the Shechem affair.¹⁷⁷Above, 34:25-30. This was why he did not say, “My son Simeon, and Benjamin,” as he would not mention him by name, and as he left him in Egypt for a long time. Indeed, had there been food in his house, he would not yet have sent Benjamin, and he would have left him [Simeon] in Egypt.
Now Rashi wrote, “The other one: the spirit of prophecy was enkindled within Jacob so as to include Joseph.” In Bereshith Rabbah¹⁷⁸92:3. they also said: “That he may send away your brother: this refers to Joseph. The other one: this refers to Simeon.” This is correct, for at the moment of prayer, Jacob directed his heart to pray in a general manner for the other one [Joseph] also, for perhaps he is still alive.
There in Bereshith Rabbah,¹⁷⁸92:3. the Rabbis expounded on the verse in yet another way, saying, “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi interpreted the verse as alluding to the exiles: And G-d Almighty give you compassion before the man — this is a reference to the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, The Eternal is a man of war,¹⁷⁹Exodus 15:3. and it is written, And He gave them compassion before their captors.¹⁸⁰Psalms 106:46. That he may send away your brother — this alludes to the Ten Tribes exiled by the Assyrians.¹⁸¹II Kings 17:6. The other one, and Benjamin — this refers to the exile of Judah and Benjamin. And as for me, bereaved by the First Destruction [brought about by the Babylonians], I am bereaved by the Second Destruction [caused by the Romans], but no more will I be bereaved.”¹⁸²Following the redemption from the Roman exile, there will no longer be a destruction. See Ramban’s work, Sefer Hage’ulah (Book of Redemption) in my Kitvei Haramban, Vol. I, where he expounds this theme at great length. This is the language of the Rabbis, may their memory be blessed.
The intent of this text is to suggest that Jacob’s going down to Egypt alludes to our present exile at the hand of Edom, as I will explain,¹⁸³See the beginning of Seder Vayechi. and the prophet [Jacob] saw this matter at its very inception, and so he prayed about it in a general way, which was applicable to the moment as well as to the future.¹⁸⁴See Ramban above, 12:6. This verse, according to their interpretation, contains a great mystic thought. Jacob was saying: “And G-d Almighty, by the Divine attribute of justice, give you the compassion that is before Him,” meaning that “He should direct you upward from the Divine attribute of justice to that of compassion.” The student versed in the mystic teachings of the Torah will understand.

כאשר שכולתי שכלתי, an expression parallel to Esther’s saying when she risked her life appearing uninvited before the king, saying: כאשר אבדתי אבדתי, “if I have forfeited my life, so be it.” (Esther 4,16)

ושלח, he will release Shimon to you from his imprisonment.

ושלח לכם את אחיכם אחר, “so that he will release your other brother to you.” According to Bereshit Rabbah, 82 the word אחיכם in our verse refers to Joseph, whereas the word אחר refers to Shimon, seeing that while praying, Yaakov had avoided concentrating on a specific one of the brothers, thus leaving open the possibility that Joseph might still be alive. Nachmanides, approaching the verse by concentrating on the plain text, פשט, writes that the words are all meant to apply to Shimon. The reason that Yaakov did not refer to him by name was that he was out of favour on account of his having initiated the killing of the male population of the city of Shechem and the plundering of it. It seems clear that if Shimon’s family had not needed bread desperately, Yaakov would not have allowed Binyamin to travel to Egypt and he would have made no attempt to obtain his release at this time. Bereshit Rabbah 82 also sees allusions to the eventual exile in this verse, and when Yaakov speaks about the “G’d Shaddai invoking the attribute of mercy when the brothers would face the האיש,” this is a veiled reference to the Almighty. After all, one of the attributes of G’d is that He is איש מלחמה, “a Man of war.” The words ושלח לכם את אחיכם would refer to the return from exile of the lost Ten Tribes, whereas the words אחר ואת בנימיןrefer to the tribes of Binyamin and Yehudah. The words ואני כאשר שכולתי שכלתיrefer to the destruction of the first and the second Temple, respectively. The thrust of the whole episode, according to the Midrash, is that what is being narrated here is a preview of the Jewish historical experience in years to come, i.e. מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, the experiences of our forefathers, the patriarchs and their families, foreshadow the course of Jewish history, and their exile, especially by the descendants of the Edomites.

ושלח לכם את אחיכם אחר ואת בנימין, “and so that he may release to you your other brother as well as Binyamin.” The reason that Yaakov did not mention Shimon by name may have been that he was out of favour with his father ever since the killing of the males in Shechem. Otherwise he would have said “so that he will release your brother Shimon.”
Bereshit Rabbah 92,3 understands the word אחיכם, “your brother” as a reference to Joseph, whereas the word אחר, is understood as a reference to Shimon. When Yaakov offered the prayer he also had in mind Joseph in case the latter was still alive.

Now you are lacking nothing except prayer... I.e., Yaakov said to them: If on his own he grows angry and harasses you, it is a natural occurrence. Appease him with these fruits which are the best of the land. And if this does not appease him, it is surely caused by Hashem. Then, prayer alone is lacking — and “I, hereby, pray for you...” (Maharshal)

לפני האיש. Gehet nur hin, im Vertrauen auf den Allgenügenden, allem, und auch meinen Leiden zur rechten Zeit das Ziel setzenden Gott; in dem Momente der Gefahr, in dem Augenblicke, wo ihr euch לפני האיש befinden werdet, wird Gott euch Erbarmen zuwenden. — רחמים bezeichnet jene Zuneigung Gottes zu seinen Geschöpfen die die allgemeinste und unverlierbarste ist, und die ebenso den Grundzug im Verhältnisse der Geschöpfe zu einander bilden soll. Es ist die Verwandtenliebe, die Liebe des Vaters zum Kinde, die Liebe der Kinder zu einander um des gemeinsamen רהם willen, aus dem sie stammen. Man ist geneigt, רחמים mit dem populären רחמנות zu verwechseln und Mitleid darunter zu verstehen. Und doch ist Mitleid noch tief unter dem, was das wahre רחמים bedeutet. Was ist seltener, was adelt den Menschen mehr, Mitleid, oder Mitfreude? Sehr wenige Menschen gibt es, die nicht mit den Schmerzen des andern Mitleid empfinden. Allein bei weitem nicht alle, die heute einen Armen bemitteiden, werden sich in gleichem Maße mit ihm freuen, wenn er über Nacht das große Los gewinnt und morgen in einer Karosse mit den Seinen an ihnen vorüberfährt. רחמים, das Gefühl, das wir ererbt haben sollen, bedeutet mehr als Mitleid. Es stammt von רֶחֶם, mit welchem die tiefste, aufopferungsreichste Energie eines Wesens für die Entstehung eines anderen Wesens, die Hingebung alles Blutes und aller Kraft, um ein anderes Wesen entstehen und sich vollenden zu sehen, bezeichnet wird; 1־ֶnֶö ist der Herd der tiefsten Hingebung. Und auch nachher, wenn das Wesen da ist, entstammt dem רחם nicht bloß Mitleid mit dem Weinenden, sondern noch innigere Mitfreude mit dem Lächelnden. Ein Lächeln des Kindes auf dem Schoße entschädigt für jahrelangen Kummer und schlaflose Nächte. Von diesem רחם ist רחמים gebildet und leidet somit nicht nur mit dem andern, sondern ruht nicht, bis es ihn glücklich sieht. — ואני und ich — ich will mich inzwischen auch darauf vorbereiten, dass, wenn ich mit eurem Fortgange meiner Kinder beraubt sein sollte, ich auch darauf im vorhinein gefasst bin.

ואל שדי יתן לכם רחמים לפני האיש, “and may G–d Almighty give you mercy before the man what prompted Yaakov to single out the attribute of G–d known as shadday when blessing his sons before they commenced this journey? It teaches you that Yaakov had already endured many trials in his life. These had commenced already when he was still in his mother’s womb and Esau fought with him to become the firstborn. (Compare Genesis 25,22, when his mother was distraught and asked G–d what was going on inside her womb.) The sages concluded that the two as yet unborn children had already struggled for possession of two worlds. Esau tried to kill Yaakov already as soon as he was born as is evident from Amos 1,11, על רדפו בחרב אחיו, “when he pursued his brother with the sword (simile for trying to kill him). He had to flee to Lavan to save his life, and had endured many problems while with his “uncle” for 20 years. As soon as he left there Lavan pursued him. He lists them during the encounter with Lavan. (Genesis 31,40) Esau then came towards him in order to attack him, As a result he lost a great deal of the wealth he had acquired by buying him off with a gift. Next his best loved wife died on the way and he could not even bury her in the ancestral gravesite. Next his daughter Dinah was raped, and then his beloved son Joseph was lost. When he felt that finally he could settle down to a normal life in one place, (Genesis 37,1) the problems with Joseph began. During the brothers’ first trip to Egypt Shimon, his second oldest son was incarcerated and he now had to Shimon being incarcerated and his sons forced him to allow Binyamin to travel to Egypt in order to secure the release of Shimon. He could have said, as did Job in Job 3,26: “I had no repose, no quiet no rest; trouble came.” (Based on Tanchuma on our portion, section 10.) In light of all this, Yaakov now called on that attribute of G–d to signal that he felt he had undergone sufficient tribulations, i.e. די, to warrant a favourite response to his blessing/prayer.

אל שדי God שֶׁ-דַּי who gives plenteous mercy and in whose hand is sufficient power to give — may He give you mercy. This is the real meaning of the words. A Midrashic explanation is: He who said to the Universe, “Enough!”, may He say “Enough!” to my troubles. I have had no rest since my youth — trouble through Laban, trouble through Esau, the trouble of Rachel, the trouble of Dinah, the trouble of Joseph, the trouble of Simeon, the trouble of Benjamin (Genesis Rabbah 92:1).

AND AS FOR ME, AS I AM BEREAVED, I AM BEREAVED. “And as for me, until you return I shall be bereaved because of doubt. As I am bereaved of Joseph and Simeon, I am bereaved of Benjamin.” These are the words of Rashi.
The correct interpretation is that Jacob is saying that “you can no longer add to my bereavement as I am already bereaved.” He thus consoled himself about everything that came upon him by his great suffering for Joseph. In a similar sense is the verse, And as I perish, I perish,¹⁸⁵Esther 4:16. meaning “I have already perished,¹⁸⁶By being separated from my people. (Abraham ibn Ezra, ibid). and if the king will slay me he will not add to my destruction.”

כאשר שכלתי שכלתי, seeing the subject matter is being repeated, Yaakov changed the wording he used, something that is standard procedure in Scriptures, as we pointed out previously. (21,1) The first word shakolti is from a passive mode, whereas the second word shakalti is an active mode. What he meant was: “what can I do if some mishap will befall one of you, just as I have already had to endure the bereavement of Joseph having been lost. I may have to make peace with the idea of losing anyone of you due to whatever mishap will befall him. [The first word refers to the past, when it had never occurred to Yaakov that something might happen to Joseph; hence it is described as something in which Yaakov views himself as having been totally passive. If something were to happen now, he could not view himself as a totally passive bystander, seeing he had agonised about the very fact that it might happen. Therefore, according to the author, the active mode is justified here. Ed.]

אני כאשר שכולתי שכלתי, “and as for me, as I have been bereaved, I shall be bereaved.” Rashi comments that what Yaakov meant was that he would feel conditionally bereaved of Binyamin until the brothers’ safe return from Egypt just as he was feeling bereaved concerning Joseph and Shimon. Nachmanides writes that Yaakov, resignedly, said that the brothers could not make him feel any more bereaved than the feelings of bereavement he had already experienced and suffered. If fate were to cause him further bereavement, he would not have to come to terms with it as a novel experience.

Until your return, I will possibly be bereft of children. [This is how Rashi knew that] it does not mean, “Now I am bereft of children”: because if so, why did he say, “May the Almighty, Shaddai, grant you compassion...”?

ושלח לכם means AND MAY HE RELEASE UNTO YOU, as the Targum renders it — may He release him from his bonds. It has the same meaning as (Exodus 21:26) “He shall let him go, יְשַׁלְּחֶנוּ (Piel) free”. It would not have been correct to translate it in the Targum by “and may he send to you your other brother”, because, as a matter of fact, they were going there where he was.

את אחיכם YOUR BROTHER — This refers to Simeon.

אחר THE OTHER ONE — The spirit of prophecy was diffused upon him so that he included Joseph also (Genesis Rabbah 92:3).

ואני AND AS FOR ME — until you return I shall feel myself bereaved of my children being in constant suspense.

כאשר שכלתי means EVEN AS I AM BEREAVED of Joseph and of Simeon

שכלתי I SHALL BE BEREAVED of Benjamin.