Miketz

We read that Joseph, though ruler, made it his personal business to allocate grain to the individual buyers. This in spite of the fact that he had many officials who could have attended to such tasks. The reason must be that he supervised the sales personally in order to be on hand when his brothers would show up as buyers sooner or later. When the brothers did arrive, and naturally bowed down, the first of Joseph’s dreams had been fulfilled.

Yitzchak Arama (15^th Century)

Now it is not befitting a ruler of a land, second in rank to the king of Egypt, that he sell everyone a dry measure or a half thereof of grain. It was for this reason that our Rabbis were impelled to say that Joseph had ordered at that time that all storehouses except one be closed so that he would be sure to meet his brothers.

Ramban (13^th Century)

We (need) to know, why Joseph chose to remain a stranger to his brothers, whom he identified accurately. To aggravate this question, let me add another, which has troubled me ever since my childhood: Jacob and his sons did not know all those years where Joseph was…Joseph, on the other hand, knew all along where his father was. In the first years after he was sold…he was still under the shock of what had been done to him…but why didn’t he do so when he rose to power and riches?... Joseph does not want to think of the past…His assimilation into Egyptian society is complete, flawless. He has no qualms about it.

Pinchas: Peli (20^th Century)

The Holy Spirit glimmered in Jacob, showing him that Joseph (was alive). Why did God not reveal the truth to him? Because the brothers had placed a ban and a curse on anyone who would reveal this truth, and they had included God in their ban! Isaac knew that Joseph was alive, but he said, “How shall I reveal it, if God Himself does not want to reveal it?”

Rashi (11^th Century)

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them but he acted like a stranger…Joseph sets himself to act a role of total alienation…He tests his actual alienation, his lostness, by taking it almost to a point of caricature…His purpose is hinted at…Joseph makes himself strange to the point of uncanniness. His accusations that they are spies constitute bizarre probes of their responses, while his inquisitorial persona is so incomprehensible that his brothers are freed, in a sense from any attempt to communicate with him.

Aviva Zornberg (Contemporary)

It is remarkable that ten intelligent people such as the brothers did not recognize Joseph, even when we accept the comment that Joseph had not worn a beard at the time he was sold by the brothers…Seeing that Joseph recognized his brothers immediately, he was afraid that such recognition might become mutual; therefore he had to make strenuous efforts to prevent them from recognizing him…Each brother had arrived in Egypt by a different border…Joseph had collected lists of each person who had entered the country and when he saw that the sons of Jacob had arrived, he shut down all the grain distribution centers except one where he personally took charge of the sales. When none of the brothers had shown up within three days of having entered the country he had them traced and found them near the red light district…

Moshe Alshich (16^th Century)