R'Shmuel, ben Nachman said: "The brothers were busy selling Joseph; Reuben was busy with his sackcloth and fasting; Jacob was busy with his sackcloth and fasting; Judah was busy taking a wife for himself; and God was busy creating the light of the King Messiah. 'And it came to pass at that time and Judah went down...' before the first slave is born, before the final redeemer is born."
After Jacob's daughter Dinah was raped he delayed telling his sons until they returned from the fields. They were outraged by the defilement, but also their father's delay. They hated the baby and wanted to kill it. Jacob took her to the priests of Midian where he placed an amulet around her neck, left her in a 'SNeh' (bush) and sent a message to the high priest to care for her. She was named AeSNath, sourced from 'SNeh' and SiNai (hatred).
When she reached the age her mother was violated, Midianite priests took her to grandmother Dinah at the ancestral home of Jacob's wives. Shortly before they arrived in Haran they traded her to Ishmaelites and instead they joined their caravan, heading south to Egypt. Along their way Joseph's brothers kidnapped and sold him to the Midianites. Thus the caravan of the hated carried Joseph and his niece, Aesnath to Egypt.
The special, but unusual Ishmaelite cargo, normally tars is hinted at, נְכֹאת֙ וּצְרִ֣י וָלֹ֔ט : Spice, Gum and Balm. One commentator relates the word for Spice to a 'treasure house'. Even stranger, in the midst of Joseph and Aesnath's arrival and final trade into the home of Egypt's leading priest, the convoluted story of Judah conceiving with Tamar and the birth of Peretz was juxtaposed before returning to Joseph's storyline.
The juxtaposition exposed the moment ascendency for the perfected toldot soul converged. Torah specifically placed these marriage stories so we can see God's hand at work, you would be blind not to perceive it. Through these marriages the house of Rachel (Joseph) was united with the house of Leah (through daughter Dinah-Aesnath) and the messianic light firmly rooted for Messianic redemption.
Confronted by drought Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy supplies. They did not recognize Joseph, there they eventually presented the Viceroy of Egypt (Joseph) with Jacob's gift and bowed to him. At that moment Joseph realized his prophetic dream, of wheat sheaves bowing to the center sheaf had been fulfilled, he saw the divine providence. But, the gift from Jacob surprised him because it contained three of the same "unusual" elements צֳרִי֙ וּמְעַ֣ט דְּבַ֔שׁ נְכֹ֣את וָלֹ֔ט בָּטְנִ֖ים וּשְׁקֵדִֽים: that accompanied him on his caravan to Egypt. A hint from his prophetic father that 30 years earlier, his regional diplomacy played its part to ensure Aesnath accompanied Joseph on his exile in Egypt?
If Jacob prophetically knew Joseph was alive, why did he mourn the 22 years of Joseph's absence? Because, his son's denied selling Joseph and Joseph who was free to communicate chose not to reach out, for 22 years. In Egypt Judah assumed responsibility for Benjamin who 22 years earlier was too young to be implicated, so Judah had to bind him to the oath the brothers had entered never to reveal their darkest secret, about the sale of Joseph to their father. Joseph admitting his own shortcoming cried on Benjamin's neck, he too was now bound with Israel (Jacob), united in their collective silence.
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