“Judah approached him and said, ‘Please, my lord, let your servant say something to my lord personally. Let not your anger burn against your servant, though you are as Pharaoh.
“‘My lord asked if we still had a father or another brother. We told you, “We have a father who is very old, and a small child of his old age. His brother died, and he is the only one of his mother’s children still alive. His father loves him.”
“‘You said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.” We said to my lord, “The lad cannot leave his father. If he left him, his father would die.” And you said to your servants, “If your youngest brother does not come with you, you shall not see my face again.”
“‘We went to your servant our father and told him the words of my lord. When our father told us to go back and get some food, we replied, “We cannot go. We can go only if our youngest brother is with us. If he is not with us, we cannot even see the man.”
“‘Your servant our father said, “You know that my wife [Rachel] bore me two sons. One has already left me, and I assume that he was torn to pieces by wild animals. I have seen nothing of him until now. Now you want to take this one from me tool If something were to happen to him, you will have brought my white head down to the grave in evil misery.”
“‘And now, when I come to your servant our father and the lad is not with us, his soul is bound up with his soul! When he sees that the lad is not there, he will die! Your servants will have brought your servant our father’s white head down to the grave in misery. Besides, I offered myself to my father as a guarantee for the lad, and I said, “If I do not bring him back to you, I will have sinned to my father for all time.”’ ” (Genesis 44:18–33)
We need to understand why the opening verse says only “Judah approached him,” and not “Judah approached Joseph.” We could answer that this chapter is merely a continuation of the previous one, which makes it obvious that Judah was speaking to Joseph, but if that is the case, why does it need to say, “Judah approached him and said”? Also, why does the form of speech keep changing from the second to third persons, and back, until the end of the speech when he speaks only directly, in the accusative?
We learn from the holy rabbi, the man of God, the Rebbe, Reb Ber of Mezritch, of blessed memory, on the verse (Psalms 110:4) “And You are cohen (priest) forever,” that cohen represents chesed (loving-kindness). The chesed of God is in the fact that the Jewish person addresses God as “You.”
According to our limited understanding, the explanation could be as follows. One can speak directly, in the second person accusative, only when the listener is facing the speaker and vice versa, but not when they have turned their backs on one another. Therefore, when the members of the Great Assembly determined in the wording of the prayers that we say “You” to God, in the second person accusative, it is because the Holy Blessed One is there in front of the Jewish person. God is face-to-face with the Jew, at the level of (Psalms 52:3) chesed El—Loving-Kindness of God. He is so clearly revealed that the Jew can address God as “You.” For this to happen, though, the person who prays also must not turn his back on God. He must present himself before God in thought, desire, and heart, so that he may say to God, “You.” Even if he cannot bring himself to face God throughout the entire prayer, at least he can achieve it at certain parts of his prayer.
There are those who feel as if they are leaping toward the Holy Blessed One, and in that moment their whole being is drawn toward Him. Then there is the person who may feel only a desire to be drawn towards Him, and prays (from the liturgy comprising the blessings of the Sh’ma), “Unify our hearts to love and fear Your name,” without actually feeling the love and fear of God. He may feel only the longing to have a powerful love and fear of God, but this longing can increase until he feels, even momentarily, as we described above, that his whole being is drawn toward God, through his longing to come close to Him in love and fear. And so, at least momentarily, the person cleaves unto God.
We learn in the sacred writings of my brother-in-law, the holy R. Aharon Yechiel, of blessed memory, on the verses (Deut. 30:11–14) “For this commandment that I teach you today is not too wonderful or too distant for you to fulfill. It is not in heaven, so that you might say, ‘Who will climb to heaven for us, to bring it and teach it to us, so that we might do it?’ It is not over the sea, so that you might say, ‘Who will pass to the other side of the sea to bring it back and teach it to us, so that we might do it?’ It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so you can do it.” R. Aharon Yechiel says that it is a miracle that first it is written “in your mouth” and then afterwards “in your heart,” for if it were imperative that it be first “in your heart”—that from the outset the commandment must be fulfilled with the desire in your heart—who would ever have achieved such a level? But because it is first written “in your mouth,” then even if at first your prayer is not from your heart, if you continue speaking with your mouth only, this will eventually arouse your heart.
This is hinted at in the verse “Judah approached him.” We learn in the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 93:3) on the verse (Proverbs 25:11) “Apples of gold in silver trays,” that each of the phrases spoken by Judah to Joseph is rich with meaning. According to what we have said above, one of the meanings hints at an approach to prayer: “Judah approached him.” Even though at the beginning of his prayer a person may not feel he can speak directly and immediately to God, but only indirectly in the third person, nevertheless moments of revelation and closeness will enter his prayer, so that it becomes direct and immediate. Hence Judah continued, “Let not your anger burn against your servant,” speaking directly, in the second person accusative. Then he again lost his sense of connection and encountered concealment, and so he said, “My lord asked,” in the third person, after which he once again returned to direct, immediate speech: “We told you, ‘We have a father.’ ” By the end, he had come to a revelation and intimacy with God that was immediate and direct, and his speech ends, “And now, when I come to your servant our father, and the lad is not with us, his soul is bound up with his soul! When he sees that the lad is not there, he will die! Your servants will have brought your servant our father’s white head down to the grave in misery.” This, however, can happen only when a person makes the initial “approach,” and his prayers are not incidental or delivered solely from force of habit. He should be deliberate in his approach to God. Before starting to pray, he concentrates on the fact that prayer is a cleaving to God, and that at the very least it should be as if he were approaching a human king. This is how Judah “approached” his prayers in his thoughts—with the knowledge that prayer is an “approach” to God. So in the end he achieved a revelation of God that is direct and immediate. Thus, he cleaved, bringing down salvation upon him and all the Jewish people, Amen.