When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his house steward, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make preparations; for the men are to dine with me at noon.” Genesis 43:16-17 NASB

What constitutes complete repentance? A good answer is provided in the definition of repentance written by Maimonides in his Code of Jewish Law: “One who is confronted by the identical situation in which he transgressed and it lies within his power to commit the transgression again, but he nevertheless abstains, not out of lack of strength or fear of being caught, but out of repentance alone” (adapted).

Joseph sets about to test his brothers. Joseph’s plan was to engineer a test placing his brothers in a situation similar to the one in which they betrayed him, a situation in which they could save themselves by abandoning their youngest brother, Benjamin, to a life of slavery. Would they protect Benjamin or themselves?

As the test came to completion (Genesis 44:33), Judah offered himself as a lifelong slave in place of Benjamin in order to keep his word to Jacob that Benjamin would return to him. His noble offer convinced Joseph the test had gone far enough. Having seen solid evidence that his brothers had changed, he could now reconcile with them.

Judah is the archetype of the true penitent – the person who confronts the same situation in which he had previously acted wrongly and now acts decently. In the words of the Talmud: “In the place where penitents stand, even the most righteous do not stand.” Put another way, an even higher level of righteousness is ascribed to the one who has sinned and repented than to the one who has always been righteous.