פרשת וישב תשכ"ט - מכירת יוסף

And Reuben said unto them: ‘Shed no blood; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him’—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.

And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.

ויעברו אנשים מדינים AND THERE PASSED BY MIDIANITES — This was another caravan: Scripture indicates that he was sold several times.

וימשכו AND THEY DREW UP — the sons of Jacob drew up את יוסף מן הבור JOSEPH FROM THE PIT, and they sold him to the Ishmaelites, and the Ishmaelites to the Midianites and the Midianites into Egypt (Midrash Tanchuma 1:9:13).

ויעברו אנשים מדינים, while the brothers had been sitting down to consume their meal, having distanced themselves somewhat from the pit into which they had thrown Joseph in order not to be guilty of “eating while spilling blood,” they were waiting for the Ishmaelites whom they had seen in the distance, to arrive. During this period the Midianites, coming from a different direction had passed there, saw Joseph in the pit, pulled him up, and proceeded to sell him to the Ishmaelites. One may assume that the brothers had no knowledge of this. Even though the Torah appears to attribute the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites to the brothers, (based on Joseph accusing them of having sold him to Egypt, 45,4) we would have to say that because of their having been instrumental in bringing about that sale they are considered as if having assisted in that sale. This appears to me the deeper meaning of the plain meaning of the text both here and in chapter 45. The line describing the Midianites passing that way is described as something totally coincidental, having nothing to do with what the brothers had planned to do with Joseph. Even if the Torah says:וימכרו (את) יוסף לישמעאלים, this sounds as if the brothers did the selling. It is also possible that the brothers noting the Midianites suddenly materialising out of nowhere, instructed them to pull Joseph out of the pit after which they themselves sold him to the Ishmaelites.

..When they raised their eyes and saw from afar men coming from the road from Gilad, they recognized that they were an Ishmealite caravan on the camels and they knew that they were going to Egypt, since from Gilad comes <name of="" road="" #1=""> and <name of="" road="" #2="">, and this was the way people went to Egypt. <loose translation=""> Therefore, Yehuda said to them, 'These men are from a far land and going to a far land. We will sell him to them and the matter will not become known.' When they came closer, they found that they were merchants who travel those roads, Midianite merchants who leased the camels from the Ishmealites and they sold Yosef to the Midianites, who bought him in order to trade him, for the Ishmealites, the lessors of the camels, did not purchase merchandise for themselves. It says in 37:28, "They sold Yosef to the Ishmealites" because they gave him to them while they were carrying the merchandise to Egypt , and that is the meaning of the phrase "from the Ishmealites who brought him down there," because he had been in their hands (=in their custody) even though the Midianites were his owners and they traded him, like it says in 37:36, "The Midianites sold him to Egypt," for any action in the Chumash will once be told with [the name of] the one who commanded it and once will be told with [the name of] the one who carried it out. For example, in Devarim 11:7, it says "...all the actions of Hashem, the greatness that He did," and later it says in 34:12, "that Moshe did in from of all of Israel." And so it says in Melachim 1 7:51, "the work was completed that was done by the king Shlomo," but Hiram did it, like it says, "And he [Hiram] came to King Shlomo and did all the work for him." About Yosef himself it says in 39:22, "all that was done there [in the prison], he would do it. It gives [credit for] the action to the commander of it and to the doer of it. Rabbi Avraham [Ibn Ezra] says in 37:28 that the Midianites were called Ishmealites, (i.e., these two groups are really the same group) like it says in Shoftim 8:24 that the kings of Midian were Ishmealites. It is not like he thought, becaue the Torah says in Shoftim 8:24 "for they had gold nose-rings, for they were Ishmealites," this is hinting at 'Bnei Kedem', for this war was for them, like it says in Shoftim 6:33