We read in Parashat Miketz that when Yosef’s brothers plan to return home from Egypt, Yosef orders his servant to place his silver goblet in Binyamin’s bag, to frame him as a thief. Shortly after the brothers’ departure, the servant runs after them and opens their bags, discovering the goblet in Binyamin’s luggage. The brothers immediately rend their garments, realizing that Binyamin would now be either executed or held prisoner in Egypt (44:13).
The Midrash Tanchuma comments, “The tribes tore for Binyamin – therefore, Mordekhai descended from him, who tore for Israel.” The Midrash makes reference here to a verse in Megilat Ester (4:1), which tells that Mordekhai, upon hearing of Haman’s decree against the Jews of Persia, rent his garments, wore sackcloth and cried. It seems, at least at first glance, that the Sages view Mordekhai’s response as a kind of “reward” for the time when the brothers rent their garments in sympathy for their condemned brother. Now, many centuries later, a descendant of Binyamin – Mordekhai – mourns for the decree issued against the entire nation.
This comment, however, seems very difficult to understand. After all, Mordekhai was himself included in Haman’s decree of annihilation, and thus he mourned as much for himself and his family as for the rest of the nation.
Rav Shlomo Breuer, in his Chokhma U-musar, suggests a different reading of the Midrash Tanchuma. Namely, the Midrash here observes the common theme of Jewish fraternity that is shared by the brothers’ reaction here in Parashat Miketz, and the story of Haman. The same sense of brotherhood and shared destiny that led the brothers to mourn the fate of Binyamin is what led Haman to condemn the entire Jewish people on account of the disobedience of one Jew (“…but Mordekhai would not kneel or bow”). Haman blamed the entire Jewish nation for Mordekhai because they all identified with one another; since they acted as a single family, they all bore some degree of responsibility for Mordekhai’s behavior, and would therefore have to suffer the consequences.
Needless to say, this association is by no means intended to discourage this sense of identification and responsibility that we all share with one another, in light of how it causes the enemy to hold us all accountable for individual offenses. To the contrary, we ought to be held accountable for one another and bear responsibility for each other’s behavior. Moreover, it is precisely this sense of fraternity and cohesiveness that ultimately rescued the Jews of Shushan, as Ester did her part by risking her life on behalf of the nation. The Midrash simply observes how the empathy Jews feel toward one another can be found in very different periods in history, and is discerned even by our most vicious enemies. Undoubtedly, though, this is to a large extent the source of Am Yisrael’s strength, and among the important ingredients of its miraculous survival throughout the millennia.