Shabbat Parashat Mikeitz - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Mikeitz - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

Yosef said to them, "What is this deed that you have done? Do you not realize

that a man like me can foretell events?" [Bereishit 44:15]

The end of our verse is usually translated "practice sorcery" or similar wording.

We must ask, why did Yosef claim to his brothers that he had some ability to do

something the Torah forbids to us?

Rashbam thinks this is not unusual: "Princes and ministers were in the habit of

performing magic tricks." But that does not answer our question. Netziv sidesteps

the question by focusing on the words "a man like me", meaning Yosef did not

claim to be doing this wrong act, but merely mentioned that someone in his

position could do so, thus the brothers should not have ignored the possibility.

Rashi is similar, but closer to our concern, "Do you not realize that a man as

accomplished as I knows how to foretell events and to ascertain through knowledge

and through logic and understanding that you stole the goblet?" Although he alludes

to Yosef having the ability to foretell, he adds that Yosef could also here come to the

same conclusion through logic. Thus far, these commentators do not address why

Yosef the righteous would be involved in sorcery in the first place.

Onkelos translates the verse a little differently: "Do you not know that a man like me

makes careful tests?" Thus, instead of being a sorcerer, he was a careful administrator.

Perhaps, given the context, we can understand it in yet another way. Our verse

occurs right after Yosef had the brothers' money and his own goblet put in their food

sacks before they left. Yosef then sent his police to capture them with the evidence.

He knew all along that the goblet would be found in Binyamin's sack, so there was no

sorcery involved. Rather than using forbidden techniques to foretell anything, Yosef

knew the facts because he set them up. He could 'foretell' events because he knew

what the logical follow-on would be due to his own actions.

The last item to look at is why Yosef chose this particular wording, nachash yinacheish

since that usually refers to performing sorcery or magic. We can recognize that the

brothers lived in a time when such 'talents' were assumed to be valid, and had not

yet been clearly forbidden to the descendants of Yaakov, so Yosef was merely

speaking in a context they could understand.