The Messages of Yehuda's Oration

Introduction

Unusually Lengthy

Conversations in Tanakh are generally recorded in very succinct fashion, and rarely does any single person speak for more than a couple of consecutive verses. Yehuda's plea on behalf of Binyamin at the beginning of Parashat Vayigash is unusual in that it spans a full seventeen verses (Bereshit 44:18-34). In fact, it is the longest speech of any individual in all of Sefer Bereshit.¹ What is the message of Yehuda's address and why does he need to carry on for so long?

Extraneous Information

Yehuda begins his oration by reviewing the protocol of Yosef's interrogation of the brothers when they originally came down to Egypt:

But why was there a need for Yehuda to repeat information that Yosef already knew? After all, Yehuda had a powerful argument that he was about to present. So why did he beat around the bush before making his case?²

Subtle Changes

Yehuda's speech recaps a significant portion of the dialogue of the previous two chapters. While it closely parallels the Torah's earlier accounts of the events, it makes several additions, subtractions, and substitutions. In particular, it cites Yosef himself as saying two things that the narrator never told us he said:

What is the meaning of this phenomenon? Did Yosef really say these words or was Yehuda employing rhetorical license? Either way, why were they significant enough to be included in his monologue?

In Approaches, we will explore the different understandings of the underlying message of Yehuda's words.