31 Dec VAYIGASH: A DIALOG THAT GOT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER

“And Yehudah
approached him…”
[Bereishis 44:18].
Binyamin was about
to become a hostage.
Yehudah recognized
the consequences of
that eventuality, so he
approached Yosef and presented what
amounted to a familiar speech. The basic
information relayed by Yehudah to Yosef in
the opening pasukim of Parshas VaYigash is
a summary of the events that transpired in
Parshas Miketz.
The Medrash comments that this encounter
between Yehudah and Yosef represents two
Kings coming together. The two Kings were
Yosef, who represented the Egyptian
Monarchy, and Yehudah, who was eventually
going to be the tribe of Monarchy within
Israel.
Perhaps the Medrash is trying to answer the
following question: what, in effect, has
changed? There is nothing new in this dialog.
It is not as if Yehudah suddenly presented a
new argument, explaining to the Egyptian
viceroy why he should not keep Binyamin as

a hostage. Yosef had already heard the
arguments about the old father and the stress
that this would be causing him. The
arguments apparently had not impressed
him. What did Yehudah hope to gain by
running through the same rhetoric one more
time?
And yet, somehow Yehudah suddenly does
“get through” to Yosef. How? What
transpired over here? Rav Nissan Alpert,
Zichrono Le’vracha, suggests the following
insight: On all other occasions when Yehudah
spoke to Yosef, the interpreter was between
them. Yosef was still playing the game that
he was an Egyptian who did not understand
Hebrew. Yehudah was trying to negotiate
through middlemen — like two labor
negotiators representing workers and
management trying to hammer out a contract
agreement.
However, this time there was no negotiating.
Yehudah went directly to Yosef and poured
his heart out directly to him. That was the
difference. On the other occasions, Yehduah
spoke to Yosef like a politician or statesman.
He maintained his ‘cool’. He used diplomatic
niceties. He said all the right things. They

had “frank and candid discussions”, as the
media always tells us.
This time there was no intermediary. It
was just Yehudah spilling his heart out to
Yosef. That is what got through. When a
person speaks from the heart and pours out
his true feelings, it conveys a clearer
message than any intermediary can
possibly hope to convey.
There is a famous story that the Chofetz
Chaim (1838-1933) once had to petition a
government official on behalf of some
communal need. The Chofetz Chaim was
already an elderly man at the time. Since he
did not speak Polish, he brought an interpreter
and spoke in Yiddish. When the Chofetz
Chaim finished his presentation, the
interpreter was about to begin translating the
Yiddish into Polish for the government
official. However, the government official
said, “You do not need to say anything. I
understand what the man was saying and I
grant his appeal.”
There was no need for the government
official to understand a word of Yiddish. He
sensed the pain, the anguish, the sincerity,
and the self- sacrifice (mesiras nefesh) that

the Chofetz Chaim felt for the matter.
Therefore, he did not require an interpreter.
This is the difference between Yehudah’s
conversations with Yosef here in Parshas
Vayigash and the previous conversations in
Parshas Miketz. Previously, they approached
it like politicians. The niceties of diplomacy
and negotiating techniques did not penetrate
Yosef. But now Yehudah uninhibitedly
poured out his heart. Regarding this occasion,
the Medrash comments that Yosef and
Yehudah became like one. They became like
brothers again. This time it was the real
Yehudah talking and the real Yosef listening.
Words that go out from the heart, enter into
the heart.