Or HaChaim on Exodus 1:5/אור החיים על שמות א׳:ה׳

1 ויהי כל נפש…ויוסף היה במצרים. And the total number of persons…plus Joseph who was in Egypt already." Why does the Torah introduce this paragraph with the word ויהי which always introduces a painful experience? If the Torah refers to the exile, this was not the place to mention this seeing that the negative aspects of the exile did not commence till over 90 years later. Furthermore, why does the Torah have to tell us again that Joseph was already in Egypt?

2Perhaps we have here an oblique reference to the comment in Sotah 36 that it had been planned originally that Joseph would become the founding father of twelve tribes and that it was only due to the attempts of Potiphar's wife that he forfeited this opportunity as per Genesis 49,24. We know already that but for that unfortunate circumstance Joseph himself would have founded twelve tribes. The Torah expresses regret over that missed opportunity and that as a result the number of Israelites who descended to Egypt were only 70. Had Joseph become the founding father by fathering twelve tribes in the land of Canaan, many more Israelites would have been the basis of what was to become the Jewish nation. The Torah streses ויוסף היה, "and Joseph was already in Egypt," i.e. prematurely, before he could complete the task assigned to him as founder of the nation.

3Perhaps the Torah wants to put Joseph and family on a par with the other members of Jacob's family who descended to Egypt at the invitation of Pharaoh and Joseph by phrasing it thus: כל נפש…ויוסף היה במצרים, "all the persons …including Joseph who happened to be in Egypt already at that time." They were all righteous though some had been born in Egypt, etc. The Torah uses the word נפש for persons in the singular to show that they all formed a single spiritual unit. This is a tremendous compliment for Joseph whose life-experience was so totally different from that of his brothers and who had been mistreated by them. The Torah testified that Joseph was in no way less of an Israelite or part of the common heritage than his brothers who had remained in the land of Canaan all these years. If anything, Joseph was the prime example that given the proper strength of character, one could maintain one's spiritual integrity even after having lived in Egypt for many years and having occupied a position of power and prominence in that society. I have already mentioned this aspect of Joseph when I explained why Jacob was willing to die happy the moment he had made visual contact with Joseph in Genesis 46,30.