Who sold Yosef, and who purchased him? Earlier, the brothers saw a camel-train of Yishma'elim approaching (37:25). Then in our Pasuk, "Midyani men, merchants, passed by;" and then "they sold Yosef to the Yishma'elim." If it was the brothers who sold Yosef, what role did the Midyanim play? Another puzzle is that Potifar later buys Yosef "from the Yishma'elim that had brought him down there" (Bereishis 39:1). But at the end of our Perek, it was the "Medanim" (37:36) who sold Yosef to Mitzrayim!
Rashi: The Midyanim were a distinct group of people. This teaches us that Yosef was sold a number of times - a. The brothers pulled Yosef out of the pit and sold him to the Yishma'elim; who sold him to b. the Midyanim; 1 who sold him c. to Egypt.
Ramban and Seforno: The Midyani merchants hired the Yishma'eli camel-drivers to transport the goods to Egypt on their behalf. 2 Sometimes the Torah refers to the owners, and sometimes to the camel-drivers, though really they are one and the same. 3
Rashbam: The Midyani merchants, who arrived at the pit before the Yishma'elim, pulled Yosef out of the pit and sold him to the Yishma'elim, without the knowledge of the brothers (who were eating some distance away from the pit). 4
Moshav Zekenim (to 37:25) #1: He was sold to the Midyanim, then to the Yishma'elim, then to the Medanim, who sold him to Egypt. The Medanim are a different nation; Medan and Midyan were two sons of Keturah. See Bereishis 25:2.
Moshav Zekenim (to 37:25) #2: The Midyanim and Yishma'elim are one and the same. 5
Moshav Zekenim (to 37:25) #3, Rosh: The Midyanim were middlemen in the sale. 6 The Torah considers all of them as if they sold him.
Moshav Zekenim #4: The brothers were arranging a sale to the Yishma'elim. The Midyanim came and offered more money, and purchased him. They then sold him to the Yishma'elim, who sold him to Potifar.
Oznayim la'Torah: The brothers sold Yosef for twenty silver pieces to the Yishma'elim who had no cash, only wax, balsam and lotus, which they were taking to sell in Egypt - but which did not interest the brothers, since all these commodities were readily available in Eretz Kena'an. 7 They were however, interested in the shoes that the Midyanim had with them to sell, so they accepted ten pairs of shoes to the value of twenty silver pieces 8 that the Yishma'elim owed the brothers. Meanwhile, the Midyanim held on to Yosef as a security, until the Yishma'elim would sell Yosef and pay them with the proceeds. 9
Ohr ha'Chayim: The Yishma'elim were not merchants to buy and sell matters other than what they were carrying. 10 They would not buy Yosef! Therefore, Hashem summoned Midyani merchants, who know the value of everything to sell it for a profit. The Yishma'elim bought Yosef only due to them. The expert and the investor are partners in the profit. Therefore, verse 37:36 can say that the Medanim sold him to Egypt. It says (39:1) that Potifar bought him from the Yishma'elim, for they paid for him.
Malbim: Yehudah intended that the Yishma'elim will take him; but the Midyanim came first and took him, and sold him to the Yishma'elim.
Ha'amek Davar: The Yishma'elim rode on camels, and the Midyanim walked. One cannot travel in the Midbar without a large group. From afar, the brothers saw only the tall camels. The Midyanim veered from the road when they heard Yosef's cries, or their heart pushed them to look inside the pit. The brothers saw the Midyanim take Yosef, and were pleased.
Rashi seems to equate the Socharim (merchants) with the Midyanim. This clashes with what Rashi himself wrote above (Rashi to 37:3; refer to 37:3:3:6) - that Yosef was sold 4 times! See Sifsei Chachamim; see Gur Aryeh (refer to 37:28:1.03:1**). The Riva however explains that it is as if he was sold four times (37:28:1:6*).
Seforno: The brothers made a point of communicating with the Yishma'elim rather than with the Midyanim, who were likely to appear in Chevron to sell their merchandise (compare to 37:25:2:1). Rosh - The Midyanim saw the rich Yishma'elim from afar, and bought him when he was still in the pit.
R. Bechayei: Yosef told his brothers, "You sold me to Egypt" (45:4); this would mean 'I was sold through your throwing me into the pit.' Rashbam - Alternatively, the brothers commanded the Midyanim to pull him out of the pit before selling him to the Yishma'elim. See Oznayim la'Torah, who derives from the Pasuk in Amos 2:6 that it was the brothers who initially sold Yosef, and not the Midyani merchants.
Refer to 37:28:1.01.
Riva (citing R. Tam): The brothers were afraid to take Yosef from the pit, due to the snakes. The Yishma'elim hired the Midyanim to take him out through witchcraft; we find that the Midyanim who went to Bil'am were witches. Since they took him out, it is as if they sold him. (If they saw the snakes, they should have realized that Yosef survived because he is a Tzadik! Perhaps they thought that he is a snake-charmer, like Riva said above (to 37:22) - PF.)
Oznayim la'Torah: See Bereishis 43:1, how the brothers took those very same commodities with them together with others, as a gift for Yosef - even during a time of famine.
Even though Reuven was not present when they sold Yosef, they purchased a pair of shoes for him as well, on the assumption that he would readily agree to the sale - See Oznayim la'Torah, DH 'b'Esrim Kasef' #2.
Oznayim la'Torah: In this way both the Yishma'elim and the Midyanim were involved in the sale of Yosef - and all the Pesukim fall into place.
Compare to Gur Aryeh; refer to 37:28:1.03:1.
Why, according to some commentators, are the Midyanim sometimes referred to as 'Yishme'elim'?
Moshav Zekenim (to 37:25) #2: The Midyanim are called Yishma'elim since they lived in Yishma'el's land.
Gur Aryeh #1: The tribe of Yishma'el was numerous, and they "dwelt right up against all their brethren 1 " (Bereishis 16:12). Their Midyani cousins and neighbors dressed like the Yishma'elim, and people commonly called them such. Therefore, when the Pesukim are from the perspective of the brothers (or of Potifar), it calls them Yishma'elim. When the Pasuk itself is narrating, however, it calls them Midyanim (or Medanim), which they actually were.
Gur Aryeh #2: The caravan was comprised primarily of Yishma'elim, but there were a few Midyanim. When the brothers wished to sell, they approached the caravan as a whole, saying "Let us sell him to the Yishma'elim" (37:27). Likewise, Potifar bought "from the Yishma'elim" (39:1). But the actual buyers were Midyani merchants.
Midyan and Medan were sons of Avraham and Keturah (25:2), a.k.a. Hagar (Rashi to 25:1), making them full brothers to Yishma'el. But see Gur Aryeh below (37:28:1.03:3*).
Why was Yosef sold to Mitzrayim though the Midyanim specifically?
Maharal (Chidushei Agados Vol. 2, p. 81, to Sotah 43a): The Midyanim were attached to immorality (as evidenced by the episode in Shitim, when they turned their own daughters loose (Bamidbar 25)). Yosef was the polar opposite, he was holy, and separated from promiscuity; that is why the Midyanim were at odds with him.
What are the implications of the words "va'Yimshechu, va'Ya'alu"?
She'arim d'R. Hai Ga'on: It implies that Kinyan Meshichah acquires only after one has moved the object away from its original location.
What is the significance of the twenty silver pieces?
Rashi (to Bamidbar 3:46): It is equivalent to five Shekalim 1 - and, bearing in mind that Yosef was the Bechor of Rachel, it explains why the redemption of Bechorim is five Shekalim.
Targum Yonasan: The brothers used the money to purchase shoes. 2 (Riva - The Piyut Eleh Ezkerah concerning the Emperor of Rome and the ten martyrs, which we read on Yom Kippur, says that they gave him for shoes.)
Hadar Zekenim (based on the Yerushalmi (Shekalim 2:3): Because each of the (ten) brothers received two silver pieces 3 (a half Shekel Kodesh), each year one must give a half-Shekel for Korbanos as a Kaparah. 4
Ba'al ha'Turim #1: The Kesones Pasim - which Yaakov gave Yosef over and above his brothers - was worth two silver pieces, and correspondingly, each brother now received two silver pieces.
Ba'al ha'Turim #2: The Torah's representative value of an Eved is thirty Shekalim (Shemos 21:32); but they had to go down by one third when selling Yosef as an Eved.
Ba'al ha'Turim #3: The Erech of a male between the ages of five and twenty is twenty Sela'im (Vayikra 27:5).
Hadar Zekenim: These are Shekalim of Kodesh, which are synonymous with Sela'im. One Shekel (Sela) equals four Dinarim, so five Shekalim are twenty Dinarim. According to Targum Yonasan however, twenty silver pieces means twenty Ma'ah (a total of only one Sela - see Rashi to Shemos 30:13).
Moshav Zekenim: The Pasuk "v'Evyon Ba'avur Na'alayim" (Amos 2:6) alludes to this. Riva - Yosef had an amulet, and Gavriel made it into a robe; the brothers demanded extra for the robe, and the Yishma'elim gave shoes for it. (The verse and the Piyut imply that the shoes were in exchange for Yosef himself! Also - after seeing that a miracle was done for Yosef, why did they still sell him? - PF)
This is unlike his explanation later (refer to 37:28:151:3 that each brother received 20 silver pieces! (PF)
Mar'eh ha'Panim (Yerushalmi loc. cit.): Even Bnei Yosef also contribute half a Shekel; he caused this through his Leshon ha'Ra. Bnei Reuven and Binyamin give, for we follow the majority. Sheyarei Korban (ibid.) - Surely, everyone must give to have a share in Korbanos. The amount of Chatzi Shekel is based on the majority. See also Torah Temimah, note 24.
Someone as handsome as Yosef was surely worth more than 20 silver pieces!
Moshav Zekenim, Hadar Zekenim from Pirkei d'R. Eliezer: Due to fear in the pit 1 and of the snakes, his appearance changed, and he was sold for only twenty silver pieces.
Bechor Shor: Due to their hatred they were very eager to sell him, and sold him for far less than his real value.
Hadar Zekenim: They sold him for twenty silver pieces for each brother, i.e. 200 in all. 2
Rosh (to 37:32) #2: The twenty pieces were Zekukim (pure silver - which were worth much more than regular Dinarim).
Why did the brothers consent to sell Yosef? (They had wanted to kill him!)
Ohr ha'Chayim: Because, having degraded and humiliated him - knocking him down, stripping him, and casting him into the pit - their anger abated. Moreover, primarily, they wanted to ensure that his dreams would not be fulfilled, and they achieved that by selling him as a slave - thereby even depriving him of his basic freedom.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes (based on the Midrash), that Yosef was sold and purchased multiple times. How so, and what does this symbolize?
Gur Aryeh #1: Yosef was first sold to the Yishma'elim. 1 The Yishma'elim were busy with their spices, and they did not wish to get involved with other merchandise - so they sold him to the merchants, who did this for a living (i.e. they trade in whatever merchandise becomes available). 2 The merchants sold him to the Midyanim - distinct groups all within the same caravan train. 3
Gur Aryeh #2: Another opinion in the Midrash is that upon Yosef's arrival in Mitzrayim, he was initially sold to the regional official; 4 from whom Potifar purchased him. Yet, 39:1 says that Potifar purchased him from the Yishma'elim, since he had not been in anyone else's hands in the practical sense (i.e. during the trip he was sold on paper).
Gur Aryeh #3: In the conceptual sense, Eretz Kena'an and Mitzrayim were a world apart. Eretz Kena'an was to be Am Yisrael's eternal heritage, whereas in Mitzrayim they were to be enslaved. Yosef had to "change domains" multiple times; meaning that Hashem was gradually leading Yosef down from freedom into slavery. He was first sold by his own brothers, via his cousins from Yishma'el (son of Avraham, but whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian). He was then sold to sons of Midyan, son of Avraham and Keturah. 5 (If merchants were involved, 6 that too was a gradual downgrade, from being considered merchandise to being a slave. If Yosef was then sold to the regional official, 7 it symbolizes that Midyan was related to Mitzrayim only as a nation, not to individual Egyptians; only after being sold to "Mitzrayim" as a whole was Yosef then sold to an individual. 8 )
Gur Aryeh: Otherwise, why need the Pasuk mention the Yishma'elim at all?
Gur Aryeh: Rashi above named the merchants as a separate group (Rashi to 37:3); yet Rashi himself does not do so here; perhaps because this is not clear from our Pasuk, for perhaps the Midyanim themselves were the merchants.
Gur Aryeh: As above, Potifar bought 'from the Yishma'elim' in the sense that they comprised most of the caravan (37:28:1.01:3).
Gur Aryeh: This is based on the Pasuk, "The Medanim sold him to Egypt, to Potifar" (37:36).
Gur Aryeh: Even though, according to Rashi (to 25:1), Keturah was one and the same as Hagar, Yishma'el is closer (as a descendant of Avraham) to the Bnei Yisrael than is Midyan. That is because Yishma'el was born through Sarah's deed of giving Hagar to Avraham [whereas Midyan came about without Sarah's involvement, after her passing].
Refer to 37:28:1.03:1 and the notes there.
Refer to 37:28:1.03:2.
Maharal (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 11, p. 63) - A slave to the public is not completely a slave, for sometimes even a nobleman will work on behalf of the public. Only afterwards was Yosef sold to a private individual, becoming a slave in the full sense of the word.
Rashi writes: "'They pulled' - [I.e.] the brothers pulled Yosef out of the pit, and sold him...." But perhaps it means that the Midyanites pulled him out?
Gur Aryeh: The Midyanites had not yet purchased Yosef; how could they pull him out if they had not yet purchased him? 1
Rashbam, Malbim, and Ha'amek Davar disagree; refer to 37:28:1:3, 37:28:1:10 and 37:28:1:11.
