“To each of them (the brothers) he (Yosef) gave changes of clothing; but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.” (45:22)
Here’s the question: Yosef is in Egypt. How’d he get there, what was the cause of his being in Egypt, his brothers’ recent torment, and his father’s deep sorrow? Favoritism! Yosef was the favored son, thus the brothers were jealous, thus the cause and the effect. So what the heck is Yosef doing now as he is sending his brothers home to get the family to bring back to Egypt? He’s showing favoritism to Benjamin! Does he want to start a similar process all over again?
The Gemara in Megillah (16b) asks this question. It explains that Yosef was giving these gifts as a prophetical allusion to the five garments Mordechai, a descendent of Benjamin, would wear in the time of the Purim story.
But how does that answer our question? My Rebbe explained to my class that what Yosef was trying to do was console Benjamin in a way that the brothers would understand and there would be no jealousy. For the past 22 years Yosef, the previous favorite, was gone.
During that time Benjamin became the favorite. Now, as the brothers are all happy that they have been forgiven for selling their brother, there is still an unfulfilled brother, Benjamin. He had no part of the selling, so he got nothing out of this visit to Egypt. Further, now that Yosef is back on the scene, he’s not going to be the favorite anymore. Therefore, Yosef loaded him down with extra gifts to console him, and to make him feel like he is not left out.
Another answer to this whole question of how could Yosef show favoritism goes like this: The Vilna Gaon says that Yosef did not really show any favoritism. He gave all the brothers valuable clothing, and to Benjamin, he gave 5 less valuable pieces of clothing that added up to equal what his brothers received.
That’s a nice answer, but we have questions on it. One question is: What about the 300 pieces of silver? That was surely a sign of favoritism!
So Rav Yosef Dov Solveitchik explains in a novel way. There is a halacha (Jewish Law) which states that if a Jew has a slave and whom he sells to a non-Jew, he has to go back to the non-Jew and buy back the slave, even up to ten times the amount he sold him for. The standard price for a slave is 30 silver pieces. Therefore, each of the brothers had the obligation to buy back Yosef for even up to ten times the amount they got for him. However, when Yosef forgave them for what they did to him, they no longer had to pay (and he also wasn’t really a slave anymore). We see they saved 300 silver pieces each in the matter. Therefore Yosef gave Benjamin 300 silver pieces. He was not involved in the sale, and therefore did not need to buy Yosef back, and therefore didn’t profit from the forgiveness.