parshat shavua, portion of the week, Vayigash, "up close"

Vayigash, Bereishit, Genesis, 44, 18
This starts with one of the longest speeches in the Bible. "Then Judah (Yehuda) came up close to him and said....."

There are lots of disguises and lies in the stories in Bereishit:

• Sara pretending to be Avraham's sister
• Leah pretending to be her sister Rachel
• Jacob pretending to be his brother Eisav
• Tamar pretending to be a prostitute
• the 10 older brothers pretending that Joseph was killed by an animal
• Joseph pretending that he didn't know his brothers, and that he was an Egyptian
• Joseph having the money and then his goblet put in his brothers' sacks
• and.... Yehuda pretending that he didn't know that the Egyptian official was his brother Joseph

Yes, I think that he realized that the only reason behind all of the strange things going on, (that the brothers were seated in the correct order, the money returned, their being forced to bring Benjamin, etc). It had to have been for a reason, and Yehuda, who developed into the leader of the family, realized the truth. He also knew that Joseph was still angry with them for dumping him in the pit and selling him. Yehuda, who so quickly took responsibility for Tamar, saying that she was the righteous one, knew that Joseph had to be somewhere in Egypt, and realized that his brother was right there.

He walked closer, as close as he could, so Joseph couldn't escape, like he had done earlier. He made the speech of a life time. And when finally Joseph could no longer keep the mask on, still Joseph wanted to know why his father hadn't gone looking for him. He didn't know that his father was told that he was dead. He asked if if father was still his father, if his father still cared.