After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he sends them back home to get Yaakov to bring him and the rest of the family to Egypt. While the Torah tells us that he sends them with wagons to bring everyone back, it then says that Yosef gave everyone a change of clothes ולבנימין נתן שלש מאות כסף וחמש חליפת שמלת, but to Binyamin he gave five changes of clothing and three hundred pieces of silver.
The Gemara in Megillah poses the question: why would Yosef, who, because of his brothers’ jealousy, had all these bad things happen to him as Rava says, “because of the weight of two coins of fine wool that Yaakov gave Yosef over his brothers, the Jewish people ended up in Egypt” give Binyamin more than all the other brothers to possibly start another cycle of jealousy?
The Gemara answers that he did it to hint that in the future, one of his descendants, Mordechai, would leave the presence of the king dressed in royal clothing and save the Jewish people. However, the question still remains. At that moment, if he gave Benjamin more clothing, then the brothers could get jealous even if he is hinting at something. The בינה לעתים answers that what the Gemara means is that Yosef only gave a hint. He didn't actually give him the clothing, but just hinted at future events.
However, that only answers the question of the clothing. What about the three hundred pieces of silver? רבינו בחיי has a fascinating answer. The Gemara tells us that someone who sells a Jewish slave to a non-Jew is fined up to ten times the amount that he's worth. Parshas Mishpatim tells us that the standard price for a slave is thirty silver coins, therefore ten times the amount is three hundred silver coins. The brothers who sold Yosef were each obligated to redeem him for three hundred silver coins. Now that Yosef was no longer a slave, they no longer had to redeem him. Since they didn't have to spend the three hundred silver coins, each one benefited three hundred coins. However, Binyamin wasn't in on the sale, so why should he lose out on a gain of three hundred coins? Therefore, Yosef gave him the coins to even out the gain so there was no room for jealousy, for they all benefited the same.
However, we could ask, “that's really just a perceived benefit for the brothers, whereas Binyamin's was actual; how could he be sure they wouldn't be jealous?”
The גר"א once had a very interesting case. A woman was left by her husband, who came back many years later. However, even though he said the right things and he looked like her husband, she wasn't convinced so she asked the גר"א what to do. He told her that, on Shabbos, when the man comes to shul, have the gabbai tell him to go to his old seat. When the gabbai did, the man became all flustered and embarrassed for he didn't know where it was and finally admitted that he was an imposter!
When they asked the גר"א how he knew that the man wouldn't know that, he said that someone who would try to pose as a woman's husband must be a very wicked person. He must have met the husband somewhere and asked many questions so that he would be able to trick everyone. Someone who was so wicked would never think to ask about anything holy, so I knew, if he were an imposter, he wouldn't know anything in shul.
We see from this story that a person is where is mind is. A person like this imposter, with his mind in the gutter, certainly is not thinking holy thoughts. However, by the brothers, the opposite was true. When they came to Egypt, their resolve was to find Yosef at all costs. Then, when they thought that Yosef was going to keep Binyamin and send them back, the midrash tells us they were about to start a war until Yosef saw he had no choice but to tell them who he was. The brothers’ mindset now was togetherness. They were back together; they were a unit; there was no way they wouldn't interpret what Yosef did for Binyamin the right way and be jealous. This teaches us to try to always look at things the right way, to know that whatever happens, there has to be a good reason for it's all from Hashem. Since there are always two ways to look at events, let's try to be like the brothers who didn't get jealous and looked at it the right way. We, too, should always be able to see things in the right light!
The Gemara in Megillah poses the question: why would Yosef, who, because of his brothers’ jealousy, had all these bad things happen to him as Rava says, “because of the weight of two coins of fine wool that Yaakov gave Yosef over his brothers, the Jewish people ended up in Egypt” give Binyamin more than all the other brothers to possibly start another cycle of jealousy?
The Gemara answers that he did it to hint that in the future, one of his descendants, Mordechai, would leave the presence of the king dressed in royal clothing and save the Jewish people. However, the question still remains. At that moment, if he gave Benjamin more clothing, then the brothers could get jealous even if he is hinting at something. The בינה לעתים answers that what the Gemara means is that Yosef only gave a hint. He didn't actually give him the clothing, but just hinted at future events.
However, that only answers the question of the clothing. What about the three hundred pieces of silver? רבינו בחיי has a fascinating answer. The Gemara tells us that someone who sells a Jewish slave to a non-Jew is fined up to ten times the amount that he's worth. Parshas Mishpatim tells us that the standard price for a slave is thirty silver coins, therefore ten times the amount is three hundred silver coins. The brothers who sold Yosef were each obligated to redeem him for three hundred silver coins. Now that Yosef was no longer a slave, they no longer had to redeem him. Since they didn't have to spend the three hundred silver coins, each one benefited three hundred coins. However, Binyamin wasn't in on the sale, so why should he lose out on a gain of three hundred coins? Therefore, Yosef gave him the coins to even out the gain so there was no room for jealousy, for they all benefited the same.
However, we could ask, “that's really just a perceived benefit for the brothers, whereas Binyamin's was actual; how could he be sure they wouldn't be jealous?”
The גר"א once had a very interesting case. A woman was left by her husband, who came back many years later. However, even though he said the right things and he looked like her husband, she wasn't convinced so she asked the גר"א what to do. He told her that, on Shabbos, when the man comes to shul, have the gabbai tell him to go to his old seat. When the gabbai did, the man became all flustered and embarrassed for he didn't know where it was and finally admitted that he was an imposter!
When they asked the גר"א how he knew that the man wouldn't know that, he said that someone who would try to pose as a woman's husband must be a very wicked person. He must have met the husband somewhere and asked many questions so that he would be able to trick everyone. Someone who was so wicked would never think to ask about anything holy, so I knew, if he were an imposter, he wouldn't know anything in shul.
We see from this story that a person is where is mind is. A person like this imposter, with his mind in the gutter, certainly is not thinking holy thoughts. However, by the brothers, the opposite was true. When they came to Egypt, their resolve was to find Yosef at all costs. Then, when they thought that Yosef was going to keep Binyamin and send them back, the midrash tells us they were about to start a war until Yosef saw he had no choice but to tell them who he was. The brothers’ mindset now was togetherness. They were back together; they were a unit; there was no way they wouldn't interpret what Yosef did for Binyamin the right way and be jealous. This teaches us to try to always look at things the right way, to know that whatever happens, there has to be a good reason for it's all from Hashem. Since there are always two ways to look at events, let's try to be like the brothers who didn't get jealous and looked at it the right way. We, too, should always be able to see things in the right light!
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