Why the Interpreter?
When Joseph and his brothers met again they apparently lacked any common language and needed an 
Situations dictate the mode of behaviour.
interpreter. It is strange, considering that they all knew Hebrew. And since Egypt and Canaan were so near to one another, how could the brothers not have understood some Egyptian?
One view is that Joseph did not yet want them to know who he really was. It would have given the game away if he spoke Hebrew to them. And, in any case, their Egyptian may not have been adequate enough to address a ruler.
More probably it was a matter of etiquette. A ruler had to maintain his distance; a foreigner had to show deference. It would not have been correct for the two sides to speak directly to each other.
We learn from this episode that situations dictate the mode of behaviour. A gabbai in my first congregation realised that he had to establish this ground rule. Many of the small group who came to my Shabbat afternoon shi'ur were personal friends and we were on first-name terms. But one week, when Mark asked a question and addressed me as "Raymond", the gabbai politely told him that at home I was Raymond, but in the synagogue I was the rabbi.
It is not that I ever believed in putting on airs, but the halachah teaches us that by addressing the rabbi correctly one is showing respect to the Torah which the rabbi stands for. L'havdil, it is something like the lesson I learned when I was a cadet officer at the age of 16 and wore an officer's cap. A real soldier saluted me in the street and I thought he might have been mocking me, until I realised it was not me he was saluting, but the rank and what it stood for.
A Soft Spot for Judah
Vayigash elav Yehudah - "And Judah approached him." (Genesis 44:18)
We hardly need to ask who this Judah was. Not only was he the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, but Judaism and Jews are named after him. At several critical junctures it is he who was the leading spirit amongst the brothers. It was Judah who tried to save Joseph when the brothers wanted to kill him; Judah who persuaded Jacob to let Benjamin go to Egypt; Judah who led the negotiations in Egypt with the brothers. So important was he that the Torah speaks of "Judah and his brothers" (Genesis 44:14); and Jacob supported this idea when he blessed his sons and singled out Judah for praise (Genesis 49:8-10). The Midrash even calls him the king of the family and points out that his name comprises the four letters of the Divine Name plus the letter dalet, the fourth letter of the alphabet, because he was the fourth son.
Yet, Judah was no saint. His sins as well as his virtues are written up in the Torah text. The way he treated Tamar did not redound to his praise, though the sages give him credit for admitting his sin and repenting. From his union with Tamar derived King David and the royal dynasty (see the end of the Book of Ruth).
Judah is the prototype of the leader who does great things, but can lose all credibility unless he is man enough to own up and seek 
Judah was no saint. His sins as well as his virtues are written up in the Torah text.
forgiveness. A leader who brazenly tries to get away with misdeeds comes crashing down in the end, with his or her reputation in tatters.
Whenever I Feel Afraid
When Jacob was apprehensive about moving to Egypt, God told him al tira - "fear not" (Genesis 46:3). These words have become part of a song associated with the end of Shabbat, Al tira avdi Yaakov - "Fear not, My servant Jacob" (cf. Jeremiah 30:10, 46:27).
The connection with Saturday night may be the fear of what the coming week might bring. A serene, peaceful Sabbath day has to come to an end, and moving back into the often difficult world outside is never easy. In periods of persecution, it was a harsh world, but even in ordinary times there are worries and problems from which no-one is immune.
On a broader plane, we all feel a degree of apprehension when we face new challenges and new chapters in our lives. We are certainly apprehensive when facing an operation, illness, the decline of our powers, even the onset of death. We feel afraid when we think of the constant global convulsions and international crises. No-one can pretend that they never feel afraid. It goes right through our bodies. No wonder the Psalmist said, "Heal me, for my bones are afraid." (Psalms 6:3)
But what does "heal me" mean? Does it imply, "Stop me being afraid"? A tall order. Adon Olam makes it easier when it assures us we are not alone: HaShem li v'lo ira - "The Lord is with me: I shall not fear." The Midrash adds: don't be paralysed with fright; when Jacob was away from home and dreamed about the ladder linking Earth and Heaven, God's message to him, as the Midrash puts it, was, "Wake up and start climbing" (Leviticus Rabbah 29:2) - i.e., unfreeze your body and mind; do what you can. The first thing is to ask your mind what options you have; there are always some.
This is all very well, but aren't we still going to be afraid? The answer implied in the Psalmist's prayer, "Heal me", is "Help me to handle the fear." Fear is actually not always a bad thing. Kohelet might have said in his famous chapter, "There's a time for everything": 'There's a time to fear, and a time not to fear.'
There's a good type of fear. We should fear God and not do unworthy things in His sight. We should fear ignorance, and acquire (and spread) knowledge and understanding. We should fear illness and help medicine
There's a good type of fear.advance. We should fear loneliness and learn to discover other people. We should fear dictators, and stand firm for democracy and freedom.
This does not mean to say that every fear is good. There's a bad type of fear. The Psalmist knows a great deal about it. He constantly speaks of the fear that evil-doers "will come upon me to eat up my flesh" (Psalms 27:2), that he will be caught up min hametzar, "in a narrow strait" (Psalms 118:5) from which there is no escape. But with all his fear and trepidation, he still finds an answer. God will take his hand and lead him out by a means of escape he had not known - or He will lift him up upon a rock (Psalms 27:5), which may mean that he will be lifted up above his troubles and say, 'Nothing can break my spirit.'