Cyberdov

At our Shabbat table this week, Tamar enlightened us about a puzzling aspect of the Yosef story - what is the significance of Yosef having the brothers’ money returned surreptitiously to their baggage, on  their first trip? Tamar offered 3 explanations - the psychological, the symbolic/literary, and the plot or pshat.

From a psychological perspective (as explained by Daniel Tropper), the money was a way of leaving some part of himself with the brothers to take home. Despite his mistreatment at the hand of his brothers, Yosef wanted at a deeper level to return to his family. The mystery of the money can be added to some of the other mysteries presented by Yosef - such as seating the brothers according to the order of their ages (43:33). Perhaps psychologically, Yosef was trying to tip his hand. Similarly, criminals are sometimes known to leave ‘calling cards’, which sometimes seem to be a way of ‘asking’ to be caught.

From a literary point of view, as pointed out by Robert Alter, the money is symbolic of the money the brothers received when they sold Yosef. For years they carried this guilt, and the story symbolically shows that despite their attempts to shed themselves of this money, it kept coming back - they couldn’t get rid of it no matter how they tried.

Finally, from a pshat point of view, the first incident of returning the money serves the plot, by setting up the second incident in which Binyamin is implicated in the theft of the goblet. Having had the first experience, the brothers are not inclined to assign any guilt to Binyamin and so are able to stand up for him in good conscience.

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