פרשת וישב תש"ו - מכירת יוסף

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).

When the Ishmaelite merchants passed by them, because the Midianites are called Ishmaelites. And so it says about the kings of Midian, that they were Ishmaelites (Shoftim 8:24).

..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

והמדנים מכרו אותו אל מצרים. The Midianites, Medanites, and the Ishmaelites are brotherly tribes. (compare 25,20) According to the plain meaning of the text, they are the same people, sometimes called by one name, other times by the other name. This is why the Torah wrote here that the Midianites had sold him, whereas the Ishmaelites had transported him there.

מן הבור, “from the pit;” his brothers had no knowledge at all of what had happened to Joseph after they had thrown him into the pit. When Reuven came back to the pit and there was no trace of Joseph, all of them thought that some wild animal must have devoured him. They did not Jje to their father. If the brothers themselves had sold him to anyone or any country, they would have made extensive efforts during the 22 years until they travelled to Egypt to find out what had happened to him since. Not only that, if they had had any reason to believe that he might still have been alive, they would not have failed to recognise him when they stood face to face with him. He could not have completely fooled them unless they had long ago become convinced that he was dead. At least they would have recognised him when he blessed Binyamin (43,29) or when he gave Binyamin gifts that were five time larger than the gifts he gave to them. (43,34) Also, the fact that he had seated them at the table in strict accordance with the order of their birth, would have convinced them that he must be their long lost brother. I am convinced that this is the correct sequence of what happened. An alternate interpretation of the sequence of events after Joseph was thrown into the pit: while the brothers were still debating among themselves if to sell Joseph to the approaching Yishmaelites, the Midianites had come from a different direction and seen Joseph in the pit and sold him to the Yishmaelites as soon as possible. In order not to be shamed as having left him in the pit while he was crying, they took him out and made him look presentable before handing him over to the Yishmaelites. Following this, the Yishmaelites sold Joseph to the Midianites, who in turn sold him to Potiphar. According to this scenario, Joseph was actually sold no fewer than four times. This would tally with what is written in 39,1 according to which Potiphar bought Joseph from the Yishmaelites. To sum up: the brothers sold Joseph to the Midianites; this sale has not been recorded in the Torah as it remained in effect only for an hour or so. The Midianites then sold him to the Yishmaelites; this sale was also not recorded in the Torah seeing that the Yishmaelites resold Joseph as soon as possible and secretly, not at public auction as they were afraid that the Midianites wished to cancel the sale and sell him to Potiphar instead, getting a much better price. When Potiphar saw Joseph in the possession of the Midianites and realised how handsome a slave this would be, he could not understand why a white person would sell a fellow white skinned person, they usually only sold negroes, although the reverse would have made sense to him. He therefore reasoned that Joseph could not have been born as a slave. Consequently, he demanded an ironclad guarantee that the Midinanites had not kidnapped him. The guarantee that the Midianites furnished was that they brought the Yishmaelites from whom they had purchased Joseph to confirm this for Potiphar. This is why the Torah writes that Potiphar purchased Joseph from the Yishmaelites, who had confirmed that they had sold him legitimately.

הולכים להוריד מצרימה, these Ishmaelites were camel owners, they did not own the merchandise described which was carried by their camels. As soon as they would deliver the merchandise to the appropriate address in Egypt their mission was completed.

מדינים סוחרים, the owners of the merchandise being transported on the Ishmaelites’ camels. וימכרו את יוסף לישמעאלים, they completed the deal with the Ishmaelites acting as agents for the Midianites. The brothers did not want to speak to the Midianite merchants. The reason was that they did not want to be recognised by them as they were in the habit of frequenting cities in order to ply their wares. The camel drovers, however, were not in the habit of visiting urban areas. At worst they would just pass through towns without stopping there overnight or longer. The actual purchasers, however, were the Midianite merchants, in accordance with the Torah’s narrative that the Midianites sold Joseph to Egypt (verse 36). The Jewish people experienced something parallel during the period of the second Temple, when Midianites sold a portion of our people into slavery to surrounding nations, a phenomenon which was widespread during the time when the descendants of the Hasmoneans were fighting among themselves about who would be king in Jerusalem. This fratricide is responsible for our exile until this day. It was a historical replay of what happened as a result of the brothers selling Joseph, and the whole family winding up in exile in Egypt only a few years later. Compare what our sages have to say on the subject in Shabbat 10.

ויחשבה לו צדקה AND HE ACCOUNTED IT UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS — The Holy One, blessed be He, accounted it unto Abraham as a merit, because of the faith with which he had trusted in Him. Another explanation of במה אדע is: he did not, by these words, ask for a sign regarding this promise that he would possess the land, but he said to Him, “Tell me by what merit they (my descendants) will remain in it (the land).” God answered him, through the merit of the sacrifices (Taanit 27b).

And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.