Pharaoh tells Joseph to take a caravan back to Eretz Yisrael and bring his father to Egypt. In preparation for the journey, Joseph gives clean changes of clothing to each of his brothers. But to Benjamin, Joseph gives five changes of clothing.
Recall that Joseph was sold into slavery because his father gave him better clothing than he gave his brothers. So how could Joseph could risk making the very same mistake again after all he has been throught? Did he learn nothing at all about the power of jealousy?
In the Talmud, Rabbi Benyamin Bar Yefet explains Joseph's actions as follows: "Joseph was subtly giving Benjamin a sign that one of his descendants would go out from the presence of a king clad in five different kinds of royal clothing. Who is this? Mordechai. What five royal clothes did he wear? "And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in (1) royal clothes of (2) blue and white, and with a (3) great crown of gold, and with a (4) garment of fine linen and (5) purple." (Esther 8:15)
It also worth noting that Joseph was technically not making the same mistake that his father made. For one, he was Benjamin's brother, not his father. Therefore, the risk of jealousy was greatly lessened. Moreover, Joseph did not give Benjamin better or even different clothing, but simply more than what the others got. In contrast, Jacob gave Joseph a striped tunic that marked him as the favorite child wherever he went.
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