When Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers, his first question to them seems almost a non-sequitur. For a while now the entire conversation had revolved around Yaakov and his pain at losing Binyamin. Yehuda had just finished delivering an entire speech hinging on precisely that point. And then Yosef reveals his identity and asks if his father is alive. Obviously Yosef was not asking a question to which he had already been told the answer many times. The difference now was not in Yakov's state of being in between Yosef's pretending to be an Egyptian and his revelation of his true identity, but in the identity itself. The change had not taken place in Yaakov, but in how the brothers now saw Yosef, and his question must be seen in that light. To understand Yosef's question, Haod Avi Chai, Does My Father Still Live, we need to take a step back and look at the dynamic of Yaakov's family. Ever since the confrontation with Esav when Yaakov had chosen to appease his re...