The Judgment of the Shivtei Kah

Even with Hashem’s plan in the background, the Be’er Mayim Chaim asks what moved the holy brothers, the heads of the tribes, to act as they did toward Yosef. He explains that they judged him liable for the death penalty. He had rebelled against Yehuda, and so was considered a rebel against the future kingdom of Bais Dovid, and any such rebel is liable to capital punishment. Furthermore, he had told their father slanderous tales about them, and since the Bris of the Flesh corresponds to the Bris of the Tongue, they believed that perhaps he had blemished himself in the area of the holy bris. They therefore sat in judgment and ruled that he was liable. This is hinted at by the traditional trop on the word es, one of fifteen such instances in the mesora. Fifteen equals the divine Name yud and hei, which testifies that they remained the holy divine tribes, the Shivtei Kah, since their actions were guided by Torah and motivated by Halocha.