The brothers were all provided a full-trip’s supply of food for themselves and their animals, and yet one of them had to open his luggage to get food for his donkey. Why?
Among the peculiar incidents that Yosef’s brothers experienced when they went to Egypt to purchase grainis the return of their money. Before Yosef sent the brothers back to Canaan to bring Binyamin, holding Shimon as “security,” he instructed his servant to stock the brothers’ bags with grain and also to return the money with which they had paid for the provisions (42:25). Two verses later, we read that when the brothers arrived in an inn for lodging on their way home, one brother opened his luggage to get fodder for his donkey, and he discovered his money. The brothers reacted with horror, figuring that they were being framed. Later (verse 35), the Torah relates that the rest of the brothers unpacked their bags after they arrived home, and discovered that all their money had been returned.
One might wonder why only one of the nine brothers had to open his luggage at the inn, while the other eight did not look into their bags until their arrival in Chevron. Intuitively, we might have suggested that all the animals needed to be fed, and so one brother opened his luggage to bring fodder for all the animals. The Torah, however, states explicitly that this brother opened his luggage “to give his donkey fodder” – clearly indicating that he fed only his donkey, and not the others. The question thus arises as to why the other brothers had no need to open their luggage to feed their donkeys throughout the journey, but one brother did need to feed his donkey.
We should perhaps rephrase the question in light of a careful reading of Yosef’s instructions to his servant before the brothers’ departure. He told the servant to do three things: 1) fill the bags with grain; 2) place the brothers’ money in their bags; 3) give them tzeida la-derekh (food for the road). As eight of the nine brothers did not have to open their bags at any point throughout the trek from Egypt to Chevron, we may reasonably assume that the tzeida la-derekh was transported separately from the luggage. The luggage was loaded onto the donkeys without any intention to access it until the arrival home, and the tzeida la-derekh was carried on the brothers’ shoulders, or perhaps around their waist, for easy access. It also stands to reason that this tzeida la-derekh included food for the animals, which was obviously just as necessary for the trip as food for the brothers themselves.
Accordingly, the question becomes why one brother’s supply of tzeida la-derekh did not last him until the arrival home. The brothers were all provided a full-trip’s supply of food for themselves and their animals, and yet one of them had to open his luggage to get food for his donkey. Why?
Rav Mordechai Luzzato (Italy, 1720-1799), in an unpublished manuscript entitled Ru’ach So’a(cited and discussed by Rav Baruch Brenner at http://ybm.org.il/hebrew/LessonArticle.aspx?item=2896), addresses this question and presents a surprisingly simple answer. Namely, nine brothers returned to Canaan on that trip – but with ten donkeys. Shimon remained behind in Egypt, and we may presume that his brothers took his donkey with them back to Canaan. After all, the brothers all traveled to Egypt to purchase grain for their families suffering from a dire food shortage in Canaan, and even if Shimon himself was not returning on this trip, his family desperately needed food. The nine brothers therefore took along Shimon’s animal which was loaded with grain. However, Yosef’s servant, in preparing the brothers’ provisions for the trip, failed to take into account the extra donkey, and provided the brothers with food for only nine animals, not ten. Therefore, one of the brothers, who was responsible for feeding the extra donkey, ran out of fodder during the trip, and was forced to open his luggage.
Indeed, Rashi (42:27), citing Bereishit Rabba, writes that the brother who opened his bag in the inn was Levi. It appears that Shimon and Levi worked closely with one another, and therefore, it was Levi who assumed responsibility for Shimon’s donkey during the trip back to Canaan. As such, it was he who ran out of fodder and had thus had to open his bag during the stopover in the inn. The other brothers, however, had no need to open their luggage until they arrived home in Chevron.