It isn't until Yosef fulfills two classic conditions for identifying a Jew out there in galus, that the brothers really accept him for who he is.
He eats gefilte fish and uses vague yiddishisms like chutzpah and kvell.
No, seriously, he speaks to them in their native tongue, lashon hakodesh, and he cries with them. A lot. Only after Yosef cries with Binyamin and cries upon his brothers, do they accept him.
We may be able to use these two benchmarks to define or redefine ourselves vis-a-vis the world at large. What is it that marks us as Jews ? Especially to our fellow Jews, our speech and our empathy.
Do we speak with the refinement and humility or is our speech littered with the boasts and brags of secular society, so alien to our values ? Have we finally absorbed "looking out for number 1" after being bombarded with it from so many media outlets ? These subtle, yet telling, indicators of our spiritual health are given to us to safeguard.
As a testament to Yosef HaTzaddik, who lived for 13 years in the Egyptian slave and penal system and 9 more in the still more morally corrupt palace, and did not succumb to their enticements - let us pledge to watch them and with them our spiritual development as a whole.
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