Vayikash

When last week’s parsha  ended with Binyamin getting caught with Yosef's goblet in his bag and the brothers brought before Yosef who admonishes them for stealing the goblet, Yehuda says to him, " what can we say? How can we justify ourselves? Hashem has found our sin, we're ready to be slaves to you.” Then Yosef magnanimously says that I would never do that.  I won't enslave all of you; just the one in whose possession the goblet was found, will be my slave & the rest of you are free to go.    

This week’s parsha, however, begins on a whole different tune. ויגש אליו יהודה,  Yehuda approaches Yosef & starts speaking tough to him, recounts the whole story of why they came down & how Yosef made them bring Binyamin against their father’s wishes.  The midrash tells us about Yehuda's  ‎strength & how the brothers were ready to destroy the whole Mitzraim. 

What changed?  Initially, even Yehuda agreed that they would all remain slaves‎ to Yosef & then when he said they could all go except Binyamin, everything changed. 

I saw two answers to this question in the name of the Bais Yisroel who said that the Shevatim knew that there was supposed to be a four-hundred-year exile, so when they were all going to be enslaved, they thought that the galus was starting & they accepted Hashem’s decree. However, when they realized that it was only Binyamin who was to be enslaved, they understood that this wasn't the start of the galus, so‎ Yehuda got tough. 

The Nachlas Yaakov‎ answers a little differently. He says that the brothers thought that all the bad things that were happening to them with Yosef were the hand of Hashem punishing them for the sale of their brother years before. Therefore, even though they had the power to destroy Mitzraim & get out, they accepted their punishment because they felt it was Hashem's retribution for what they had done. However, once Yosef said they could all go except Binyamin, they knew that this couldn't have been a punishment for what they had done since Binyamin wasn't involved at all in the sale of Yosef.  Once they felt that Yosef was just ‏harassing them, Yehudah got tough. 

The sefer לב אליהו adds that this demonstrates the emuna of the brothers. When they saw something happening to them & knew that they had some sin, they admitted right a‎way אבל אשמים אנחנו we are guilty. על כן באה אלינו הרעה הזאת , this is why this anguish has come upon us. 

The brothers realized that the only reason something bad would befall them was if they had done something wrong.. There had to be a reason that this was happening to them.

There's a story told about רב אליהו לאפיאן that shows that he, too, lived this way. Once, on arrival at the yeshiva, he was walking up the steps, tripped & fell. He didn't get up, but remained sitting on the steps. People came running over to see if he was ok & he said he felt fine but he still didn't get up. The people asked, “if you’re feeling fine why won't you get up?” They thought that he had broken something or was at least in a lot of pain but didn't want to bother them. 

He answered, “I am sitting & trying to figure out what I did wrong that caused me to fall. A person doesn't fall for no reason. If I fell, I need to make an accounting of all my deeds to find what I had done wrong.

The לב אליהו continues that this teaches us that if anything bad happens to a person, he has to know that the world is not a free for all.  There is a cause and effect for everything; one should take an accounting of his deeds to see what could be the cause of his problems. As Chazal say, “one doesn't stub his finger down here unless it was decreed up there first. Nothing happens by itself!”