Digital Maggid
Menashe said to them: “Theft is punishable by death. But my lord, Yosef, is warm and good-hearted, therefore he will take only the thief as a slave, and the rest of you can go back to your homes.” The brothers quickly took their sacks down from the donkeys and camels, and Menashe looked through their things until he found the cup in Benyamin’s sack. Although Menashe knew where the cup was, he first checked the sacks of the other brothers so that they would not notice that the situation was a set up and the cup had been placed in Benyamin’s sack.
When the cup was found, the brothers tore their clothing out of shame and disgrace and they shouted at their brother Benyamin that he had embarrassed not only them but their entire family. From now on, all would say that there were thieves in Yakev’s family. With heavy hearts the brothers packed up their things into their sacks and loaded them back on their donkeys and camels and they all headed back to Egypt. On the way back, the brothers scolded Benyamin and beat him, because they thought he really had taken the cup. Benyamin was afraid and wept and cried: “I swear to you that I did not steal the cup.” The brothers, who had never before heard their brother swear, believed him and oppressed him no more.
Because Benyamin was innocently beaten and shamed, he merited that the Shekhina would dwell in his portion and the Beis-haMikdash (holy temple) would be built in his inheritance. With great embarrassment and grief the brothers returned to the king’s palace. Their brother Yosef did not wish to shout or sentence his brothers in front of the Egyptian servants. So as not to embarrass his brothers, Yosef had them called into his chamber where no one would see them, and there he said to them: “Why did you all steal my cup? Did you not think that a man such as I, who knows many things, would know about the theft? Perhaps you wanted the cup because you knew that with it, you could find your long-lost brother? Now that you’ve been caught stealing the cup, your brother Benyamin, who was found to be the thief, will stay here with me as a slave, and you all are free to return home.” The brothers wondered and said to him: “You accuse us when we have not sinned. We have not, Gd forbid, stolen the cup, but we know that Hashem Yisboroch has brought trouble on us on account of our sin of selling Yosef.” Yosef said to them: “But your brother, Benyamin, wasn’t there when you sold Yosef, so why would he also be punished?” The brothers answered him: “Everyone who is with a thief when he is caught also gets punished. Therefore, Benyamin, who was found with us, also receives a punishment together with us.” Yosef did not listen to what his brothers were saying to him, and he said to them: “Do not omit to whom you have sinned and who punishes you. I relate to you as one must relate to every thief who gets caught, so go in health back to your father. You can say again what you once said: ‘The boy was devoured.’ If you could say this of your first brother who did no harm against you, then you can say it to your father of this brother, who has caused you anger and shame.”
