that Joseph's brothers actually went to feed themselves. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Joseph saw the sons of Jacob's concubines eating the flesh of roes and sheep while they were still alive and reported on them to Jacob. And so they could not stand to see Joseph's face anymore in peace, as reports. Jacob told Joseph that he had waited many days without hearing of the welfare of Joseph's brethren, and of the welfare of the flock, and thus, as reported in , Jacob asked Joseph, "Go now, see whether it be well with your brethren, and well with the flock." Reading , "And he said to him: ‘Here am I,'" Rabbi Hama bar Rabbi Hanina said that after Joseph went missing, Jacob was ever mindful of Joseph words and Jacob's insides were torn up about them. For Jacob realized that Joseph had known that his brothers hated him, and yet he answered Jacob: ‘Here am I.'" Reading in the three parallel clauses, "And a certain man found him," "And the man asked him," "And the man said," Rabbi Yannai deduced that three angels met Joseph. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer read the word "man" in to mean the archangel Gabriel, as says, "The man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision." The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Gabriel asked Joseph what he sought. Joseph told Gabriel that he sought his brethren, as reports. And Gabriel led Joseph to his brethren. Noting that reports, "And Reuben heard it," a Midrash asked where Reuben had been. Rabbi Judah taught that each one of the brothers attended to Jacob one day, and that day it was Reuben's turn. Rabbi Nehemiah taught that Reuben reasoned that he was the firstborn and he alone would be held responsible for the crime. The Rabbis taught that Reuben reasoned that Joseph had included Reuben with his brethren in Joseph's dream of the sun and the moon and the eleven stars in , when Reuben thought that he had been expelled from the company of his brothers on account of the incident of . Because Joseph counted Reuben as a brother, Reuben felt motivated to rescue Joseph. And since Reuben was the first to engage in life saving, God decreed that the Cities of Refuge would be set up first within the borders of the Tribe of Reuben in . Reading , Rabbi Eleazar contrasted Reuben's