ויגש אליו. בי אדני. בנוהג שבעולם מי שלוקח עבד ונמצא גנב מחזירו וזה שנמצא גנב אתה מבקש לעבד: ויגש אליו וגו'...בי אדוני, “he came near to him;....oh my lord.” Yehudah”s logic in challenging Joseph’s punishment for Binyamin was as follows: normally when a slave owner buys additional slaves and finds out that they steal from him, he demands his money back from the seller and returns such slaves to him. Why, do you do the opposite, by preferring to have a thief as your slave?
כי כמוך כפרעה. כשם שפרעה חמד שרה אמנו בשביל יופיה כך אתה חומד בנימין לעבד בשביל יופיו. ד"א כי כמוך כפרעה כמו שאתם גדולים במקומכם כן אנו גדולים במקומנו: כי כמוך כפרעה, “for you are just like Pharaoh;” just as an earlier Pharaoh lusted after the founding mother of the Hebrews, because of her physical beauty, our matriarch Sarah, you lust after our brother because you are attracted by the fact that he is so handsome.” An alternate interpretation: “just as you are great and mighty in your country, so we are great and mighty in the region which we call our home.” (Compare B’reshit Rabbah 93,6 and Tanchuma on this portion section 5)