Literary Devices – Bereshit 43/0

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Literary Devices – Bereshit 43

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Allusions

Through the use of allusions, the Torah presents the brothers’ journey to Egypt with Binyamin as a symbolic reenactment (and perhaps corrective) of Yosef’s journey to Egypt after they sold him: 

  • When trying to convince his father to let them bring Binyamin to Egypt, Yehuda refers to Binyamin as “הַנַּעַר” (verse 8), which is the word with which Yosef is introduced in 37:2.1
  • The balsam, spices, and ladanum that Yaakov instructs his sons to bring to Egypt as a gift (verse 11) call to mind the same items that were being carried on the caravan that brought Yosef into slavery (see Bereshit 37:25).2 These are the only two mentions of these three items together in Tanakh, strengthening the allusion.  

Character Titles and Relational Epithets

Binyamin

The text refers to Binyamin in several ways (in addition to using his proper name):

  • "Brother" – In Yehuda's speech to his father, he does not refer to Binyamin by name, but rather as "our brother" (verse 4), perhaps reflecting that, in contrast to the sibling's feelings towards Yosef, they actually felt a brotherly bond with Binyamin.3 Yaakov, too, refers to him as "your brother".
  • הַנַּעַר – The other term used by Yehuda to describe Binyamin is "הַנַּעַר", the lad. See "Allusions" above, that this is the same term used to describe Yosef when he is first introduced to the reader and is perhaps used here to allude to that story.
  • בִּנְיָמִין אָחִיו בֶּן אִמּוֹ – When Binyamin appears before Yosef, he is described as “Binyamin, his brother, the son of his mother”, with the text stressing that they are full siblings and reflecting Yosef’s feelings of closeness to him. 

Yosef

  • Yosef – The narrator consistently refers to Yosef by his proper name.
  • "האיש" – When the brothers and Yaakov speak of  Yosef, however, they call him simply "האיש" highlighting their lack of knowledge of the identity of Yosef; in their eyes the individual with whom they have interacted is simply a powerful and inscrutable man. 

The Brothers

  • "הָאֲנָשִׁים" – In contrast to earlier (and later) chapters where the siblings are often identified as "Yosef's brothers" or "Yaakov’s sons", throughout this chapter, they are referred to as “הָאֲנָשִׁים”.
  • Sources and Secondary Literature:
    • See R. BachyaBereshit 43:15About R. Bachya b. Asher that the brothers are so called because, in their fear, they took care to enter Egypt disguised so that no one would know that they were brothers, but would instead think that they were individual men.
    • Professor Y. Grossman, יוסף: סיפורים של חלוות (Rishon LeZion, 2021): 304-305, suggests that through the lack of relational epithets, the text highlights that at this juncture in the story, the brothers are independent players with the free will to decide how they will act in the continuation of the drama – as Yosef's brothers and Yaakov's sons, or not.4

Shimon

When Yaakov refers to the possibility of freeing Shimon (verse 14), he does not do so by name, but rather says "אֲחִיכֶם אַחֵר" (your other brother). As Yaakov refers to Binyamin by name in the same sentence, the anonymity here is striking.

Hashem

  • Yaakov uses Hashem’s name of El Shaddai when he blesses the brothers before their journey.
  • Commentators discuss his use of this name.  

Key Words

אִישׁ (man)

Parrellism

Parallelism refers to the literary structure in which adjacent phrases parallel each other. 

  • Yehuda's Pledge –Yehudah’s declaration in 43:9 takes parallelistic form, lending it linguistic formality as a solemn pledge:
    • אָנֹכִי אֶעֶרְבֶנּוּ / מִיָּדִי תְּבַקְשֶׁנּוּ / אִם לֹא הֲבִיאֹתִיו אֵלֶיךָ / וְהִצַּגְתִּיו לְפָנֶיךָ / וְחָטָאתִי לְךָ כׇּל הַיָּמִים.
  • Secondary Literature – For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Dr. Mayer I. Gruber’s article The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Dr. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism. 6