“Joseph fell weeping upon the neck of his brother Benjamin, while Benjamin wept on Joseph’s neck.” (Genesis 45:14)
Rashi (ibid.) explains that the two brothers were crying over the future destruction of the Holy Temple, which was to be situated on their territory in the Land of Israel.
Let us understand: The text of the following verse (Genesis 45:15) says, “Joseph kissed his other brothers and cried over them.” Yet why is it that Rashi does not explain the crying in this instance to be over the future destruction of the Temple?
Perhaps the answer is related to what we have learned in the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 28a) that “Commandments were not given to provide enjoyment.” Rashi explains that commandments were given in order to be a yoke on the neck of the people.
This explains why the brothers cried “on each other’s neck.” They were lamenting the yoke of the commandments that would be shrugged off at the time of the destruction of the Temple.
Every Jewish person has a yoke around his neck. He must do this and that, learning Torah and observing commandments, every day. His thoughts and his speech must also be holy, and even when he is prevented from physically observing commandments he must brace himself for even greater effort, because of the yoke that remains on his neck.
In catastrophic times, however, when suffering is overwhelming and everything holy and Jewish is destroyed, God forbid, people not only give up on specific things because of the difficulties in observing commandments, but the yoke itself is shrugged off, God forbid, because of all the pain and degradation that must be endured. This is why Joseph and Benjamin cried, each upon the neck of the other, and why, when explaining this verse, Rashi makes his comment about the destruction of the Temple. Rashi does not suggest that Joseph was crying over the destruction of the Temple when he refers to Joseph crying over his other brothers because there is no mention of their falling on their necks.
With this we can also answer a question arising from a subsequent text, namely, why Joseph later falls upon the neck of his father Jacob and weeps, whereas Jacob does not fall on the neck of Joseph (Genesis 46:30). Rashi explains that instead of falling upon the neck of Joseph, Jacob recited the Sh’ma. My father, his holiness, my teacher, R. Elimelech, of blessed memory, asks the well-known question, “Why did Jacob recite the Sh’ma at that particular time, and why did Joseph not also recite the Sh’ma?”
With what has been said above, we can now understand the text. Upon meeting his father, Joseph began once again to weep over the future destruction destined to meet the Jewish people, and the shedding of the yoke associated with that catastrophe. This is the reason for the reference to the neck of his father. The Jewish people were entering into their exile in Egypt, and so Joseph wondered how, under these circumstances, they would manage to keep the yoke of the commandments around their necks. Jacob the patriarch answered simply, “With self-sacrifice.” He gave this answer by reciting the Sh’ma. When we recite the Sh’ma, we give our soul back to God, utterly and without reservation. And, as we learn in the holy book Ma’ or V’Shamesh, whoever recites the Sh’ma properly in the morning will find that his worship is successful all day long.