As Yehuda (Judah) approaches Yosef (Joseph) to rescue his brother Binyamin (Benjamin), he was really approaching an essential aspect of the human condition. Indeed, the Torah in describing this event does not even mention the name of Yosef. It merely mentions a vague pronoun which is applicable to any human being.
It is very important that we understand the nature of the argument that Yehuda places before Yosef in order to liberate his brother Binyamin. At first, Yehuda recounts in great detail the various circumstances which brought them to that moment of confrontation.
He ends, however, not with a petition for Binyamin, but one for his father Yaakov. It is that petition which Yosef recognizes and causes him to reveal his identify to his brothers. It is important to analyze that argument.
Yehuda states as follows: “and now, when I come to my father your servant and the youth is not with us his life is bound to his (my father’s) life. And it will come to pass that the youth is missing, he will die. And your servants will bring down your servant my father in his old age with great agony into the afterlife.” (Bereishis 44, 30-31.)
Yehuda here an obvious, but also extremely profound concept. For human life to have true value human beings must establish connections and relationships with those which are closest to them and which they have the ability to understand. The ultimate human experience is where one senses that he is literally bound to those who are closest to him. It is this process of binding which enables both sides to continue and prosper. When that bond is cut then both sides become adrift and there is not stable foundation to hold them either as a group or as individuals.
It is this lesson which Yehuda wanted Yosef to learn, but at the same time, it was the key lesson that Yosef wanted Yehuda to learn. It was a lesson of brotherly love, which transformed both of their lives.