פרשת מקץ תשי"ח - הירידה למצרים

And they said one to another: ‘We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.’

And he said unto his brethren: ‘My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack.’ And their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying: ‘What is this that God hath done unto us?’

And Judah said: ‘What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants; behold, we are my lord’s bondmen, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found.’

ואת הארץ תסחרו AND YE SHALL TRAVEL IN THE LAND — It means literally, “ye may travel round the land”. All such words as סוחרים merchants, סחורה merchandise, are derived from this root סחר to go round, because the merchants travel round looking for merchandise.

אתי שכלתם ME YE HAVE BEREAVED OF CHILDREN — The inference is that he suspected them of having slain or sold him (Simeon) as they had done to Joseph (Genesis Rabbah 91:9).

שכלתם YE HAVE BEREAVED — any-one whose children are lost to him may be called (שכול) bereaved.

ואת בנימין [AND THEY TOOK DOUBLE MONEY] AND BENJAMIN — We render this in the Targum by ודברו ית בנימן “and they led Benjamin away”, because the same expression cannot be used in Aramaic for taking money and for taking a person. In the case of a thing that can be taken in the hand the Targum uses ונסיב “and he carried” for the Hebrew verb לקח, whilst in the case of a person who is taken by persuasion (literally, by leading him with words) the Targum uses ודבר and he led away.