Parshas Vayigash - Selling Binyamin as a slave

The Medrash Rabbah says (Bereishis 96:6)

אמר רבי סימון בנימוסות שלנו כתיב (שמות כ"ב) ואם אין לו ונמכר בגניבתו וזה יש לו לשלם

Rabbi Simon says, “[Yehudah said to Yosef,] in our law it is written, ‘If he does not have the money needed to pay back that which he stole, then he will be sold as a slave (and the money from the sale will be used to pay back the person from whom he stole). However, Binyamin does have money to pay [so he does not need to be sold as a slave.]’”

The gemara says in Kiddushin (18a)

והתניא (שמות כ"ב, ב') בגניבתו בולא בכפילו

“A ganav may only be sold to pay back the principal amount which he stole, but not to pay back the double payment which he must pay as a fine.”

Since Yosef had already retrieved the chalice which Binyamin had supposedly stolen from him, the only sum which Binyamin could have been left indebted to Yosef for would have been the double payment which he had to pay as a fine for stealing the chalice.

• Why then did Yehudah say that Binyamin had enough money to pay Yosef, and therefore he need not be sold. Even had Binyamin not had the money needed to pay back the fine of the double payment, he would also not have been sold as a slave?

The Duvno Maggid explains that the reason that a ganav is not sold as a slave if he has enough money to pay back the robbery is as follows:

The passuk says in Mishlei (6:30)

לֹא יָבוּזוּ לַגַּנָּב כִּי יִגְנוֹב לְמַלֵּא נַפְשׁוֹ כִּי יִרְעָב

“People will not despise a ganav if he steals to fill his stomach when he is hungry.”

Therefore, if the ganav does not have enough money to make restitution for the robbery, then he must have stolen because he was needy. If so, he may really be a good person who fell on hard times and will make an honest slave, in which case he can be sold in order to enable him to pay back.

However, if the ganav does have enough money to pay back the robbery, then he must have stolen simply because he is greedy and avaricious. If so, there is no point selling his as a slave, because he will simply use his position as a slave to continue stealing from his master’s house.

Subsequently we can understand that Yehudah said to Yosef; “The Torah says that if a ganav has enough money to pay back the robbery then he is not sold as a slave. This is because circumstances prove that he is essentially dishonest, and therefore selling him as a slave would be counterproductive.

You are not bound to the laws of the Torah, and therefore you are willing to enslave Binyamin to pay for the fine of the double payment. Nevertheless, you should still accept the fundamental reasoning that his having had enough money and anyway having stolen proves that he will be a dishonest slave who would be useless to you, and so you should free Binyamin.”