16 Dec PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING MIKEITZ – FULLY COMMITTED

With great
responsibility comes
great power!
The drama continues.
A disguised Yosef is keeping Shimon locked
up and threatening to deny any more food to
Yaakov’s family until the youngest is brought
down to Egypt. Desperate and starving, the
brothers beg their father to entrust them with
precious Binyamin, but Yaakov is unwilling
and refuses to be persuaded.
Well, at least that’s what happens when
Reuven asks. His confident declaration that
he will “return Binyamin safely” is swiftly
rejected by Yaakov ( Bereishis 42:37-38 ). Yet,
surprisingly, when Yehudah makes a nearly
identical appeal – guaranteeing the safety of
his brother – Yaakov relents and allows him
to take Binyamin on the dangerous journey (
43:8-13 ).
What changed? What did Yehudah offer that
Reuven had not?
The Sheim MiShmuel (Rabbi Shmuel
Borenstein, d. 1926) offers a very insightful
answer. While Reuven did assert forcefully
that he would return Binyamin home, he fell
short of actually guaranteeing it. By contrast,

Yehudah declared: I will guarantee him; from
my hands you can expect him. If I do not
return him to you, I will be held accountable
forever (43:9) . In other words, when
Yehudah took on personal responsibility,
he was effectively reassuring Yaakov that he
would stand up to any obstacle. Even a fully
confident person may give up when the task
becomes seemingly impossible; only someone
who has actually committed to completing
his mission will have the resolve to persevere
against all adversity.
In fact, this is exactly what plays out in the
end. When Binyamin finally enters Egypt, he
is arrested on false charges and taken prisoner
by the mighty viceroy of the country. An
impossible situation – how could ten brothers
take on an entire empire?! Nine of them don’t
even try; they shrink in defeat. Only one
brother steps forward to go head-to-head
with the insurmountable challenge: Yehudah.
Rav Shimon Schwab zt”l explained that it was
only because Yehudah had taken personal
responsibility to defend Binyamin that he later
had the tenacity to actually do so. He could not
sit back, he could not look to someone else to
do the job – he had committed to the task!
And he left no escape clause in the contract.

Whatever the challenge, whatever the odds,
Yehudah had no choice but to persevere. And
ultimately, this is what wore down Yosef. This
is what united the family that had been so
fractured for more than twenty years!
Sometimes we say we’ll “try our best,” without
really knowing what that is. And as long as we
have the option to back out or let someone else
step up, we might never find out. It is only by
making a commitment to others and holding
ourselves accountable to them that we are
pushed to discover our true capabilities.
This is true in so many areas of life. Most of us
genuinely want to learn more Torah, but good

intentions alone rarely translate into follow-
through. By signing up for a chavrusa, or

committing to teach a short weekly shiur, we
create the same kind of external responsibility
that Yehudah accepted. Suddenly, it’s not just
“I hope to learn this week,” but “someone is
waiting for me.” And that simple shift almost
guarantees that the learning actually happens.
The same is true with chessed. We all mean
to visit more, call more, help more – but those
plans often dissolve as the week gets busy.
Yet when we actually sign up to bring a meal,
or take on a weekly check-in with someone
who could use support, we remove the escape

hatch. Now it’s a responsibility, and that
responsibility unlocks strength, consistency,
and generosity we might not otherwise access.
And even in our personal growth, the pattern
holds. People who want to start exercising
often find that nothing changes until they get
a jogging buddy or join a class. Once someone
else is expecting you, even the cold mornings
become doable.
Yehudah teaches us that the way to rise
above our limitations is not by wishing to be
stronger, but by committing to something
outside ourselves. External accountability
doesn’t weaken our freedom – it unleashes
our potential. When we take responsibility
for a mitzvah, a person, or a goal, we become
capable of far more than we imagined.
We’ve all heard that with great power comes
great responsibility , but the converse is true
as well: With great responsibility comes great
power!