וישב ראובן אל הבור. פירש"י שהיה עסוק בשקו ובתעניתו על בלבול יצועי אביו. ותימא דבמס' מכות מסיק מי גרם לראובן שיודה יהודה וגו' מכלל דלא הודה ראובן עד לאחר שהודה יהודה על מעשה דתמר שהיה אחר מכירת יוסף. וי"ל דלא הודה בפרהסיא עד שהודה יהודה אבל בצנעה חזר בתשובה והיה לובש שק: וישב ראובן אל הבור, “when Reuven returned to the pit, etc.” Rashi, in answer to the question we should have asked about where Reuven was in the interval, answers that he had been preoccupied with trying through fasting and wearing sackcloth, to obtain forgiveness for his indiscretion in removing evidence of Bilhah sleeping with his father. [one of two explanations which Rashi suggests, the more likely correct one. Ed.] This explanation is difficult, seeing that the Talmud in tractate Makkot folio 11, arrives at the conclusion that Yehudah had been the first person ever to have done real penance by admitting his sin publicly, so that his brother learned from him when admitting being the father of the fetus his daughter-in-law Tamar was carrying in her womb. (Genesis 38,26) From that statement it is clear that at this stage Reuven had not felt the need to do penance. He did so only after Yehudah had set the example, which clearly had been some time after the sale of Joseph. Possibly, in order to solve this problem, perhaps the Talmud meant that until Yehudah had confessed publicly, Reuven had only done penance in the privacy his own house. He had been wearing sackcloth in his house already at this point.