Carriages' Conception
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Vayigash records the dramatic events leading up to the reunification of Yosef Hatzadik with the rest of his family. After revealing himself to his brothers, and Pharaoh and all his household hear the news, Yosef Hatzadik sends his brothers back to Canaan to bring their father down to Mitzrayim. Pharaoh gives Yosef Hatzadik wagons and provisions for the journey to transport the family. The brothers return to Yaakov Avinu and tell him the good news, that Yosef Hatzadik is alive. But Yaakov Avinu refuses to believe it. Then when he sees the agalot/wagons, he believes, and his spirit is revived. What was it about the agalot/wagons that reassured and comforted Yaakov?
A well known medrash explains the connection by playing on the similarity between the words agalot/wagons/ and eglah/heifer. The last bit of Torah Yaakov Avinu taught Yosef Hatzadik as he was escorting Yosef Hatzadik along part of the way to look for his brothers was the law of the eglah arufah/decapitated calf. This unusual law stated that if a corpse was found between two cities, the elders of the closer city were to decapitate a heifer and proclaim that their hands did not spill this blood, that they were not responsible for this man's death, that they had provided for his needs and seen him safely out of the city. By sending his father these agalot, Yosef Hatzadik was alluding to this law, reassuring Yaakov Avinu that he was still attached to the Torah they had learned together. Although it was Pharaoh who had sent the wagons, it was Yosef Hatzadik who sent the message, especially since sometimes heifers were used to pull wagons.
Yaakov Avinu may have accepted that his beloved son Yosef Hatzadik was alive physically, but for Yaakov, what was more important was that Yosef Hatzadik had retained his spiritual life, his connection to Hashem. By alluding to a Torah topic, they had learned together, Yosef Hatzadik proved that Torah was still relevant to him, for, as Rabbi Kushelevsky notes, whatever is no longer relevant to us, we soon forget.
But there is a deeper significance to remembering this law. The essence of this law is that life is valuable, that we are responsible for preserving its sanctity. Yosef Hatzadik was telling his father that he had not succumbed to the immorality of Egyptian society albeit he had lived there alone for so many years, writes Rabbi Mordechai Rogow zt”l.
There is yet a deeper significance to this law, teaches us Rabbi Zweig. A nation is an eternal entity. Past generations and future generations are woven into the fabric of the nation. With this understanding, the Talmud explains that the ritual of the eglah arufah was an atonement for the generation that left Egypt. At this time in history, the entire family understood that the prophecy to Avraham Avinu, that his descendants would go into exile in a strange land, was now being actualized. Yaakov, however, was concerned that although they would descend, they would not merit redemption. For redemption, the family had to forge an ethos of mutual respect and responsibility for each other. Yosef Hatzadik had tested his brothers, first with imprisoning Shimon and then with threatening to enslave Binyamin, and the brothers had risen to the challenge, united in protecting each other. They had become a nation and would merit redemption. The declaration of the elders in the eglah arufah ritual was this statement of mutual responsibility.
While the ritual of eglah arufah atones for the lapse in the community, the individual murderer is still held accountable and must be brought to justice, notes the Tosher Rebbe zt”l in Avodat Avodah. Since there is a communal responsibility, the taint of selling Yosef Hatzadik into slavery remains throughout the generations on all of Knesset Yisroel. Therefore, thousands of years later the Roman Empire could execute ten holy sages on the pretext that the perpetrators of Yosef Hatzadik's kidnapping and sale had never been brought to justice..
While there is communal responsibility, there is also communal atonement. Therefore, when Yaakov's spirit was revived, it was not just personal, but also national. We all mourn when one of our brothers, all of them Bnei Yisroel, is mourning, and we rejoice when they celebrate. This communal interconnectedness explains why when one Jew does teshuvah, he hastens the redemption for the entire nation. It also explains why one Jew can can fulfill the obligation of another Jew by reciting Kiddush or reading the Megillah for him.
Since we are all part of one body, it is my responsibility to love everyone. If you do not yet feel that love, fake it until you do. If you do not yet feel that Hashem is your Father, שאל אביך, borrow on His account and you will get credit, as one buying a home gets a mortgage on the promise of paying back the loan. While the house technically belongs to the bank, it is mine to use until I pay back the loan and personally own it fully. Feel that love for your fellow Jew as if it really belongs to you, as you feel the love for the home you live in, and you will get there. Start locally and connect with those nearby. Begin by loving the neighbors, expand to the community and eventually, incrementally, globally.
Parshat Vayigash is always read around Chanukah. In this context, we can find an additional interpretation for the name Chanukah, they found חן/chen/favor/grace [perhaps by seeing the כה, Hashem, in the image of the other, CKS] in each other, looking for the positive in their brother.
We are all ערבים/responsible for/ interconnected to each other. But ערב/orev also means sweet. Find the sweetness in the other, even if he seems to be treating you improperly. Perhaps he is going through some challenging times and we can excuse this lapse to his current circumstances. We are all part of one tree. Our joint roots go deep, and then spread out to branches and leaves. And we are all waiting for Moshiach. Yaakov Avinu now saw the deep connection all the Tribes had for each other and realized they would be able to survive all the exiles they would encounter in their history. As Rebbe Elimelech zt”l says, when all the edicts and sanctions against Jews become so heavy as to seem unbearable, let Bnei Yisroel arouse their love for each other, for peace among them, for that will sweeten [יערב] all the decrees
As Rabbi Ezrachi zt”l says, nothing we do is neutral, affecting only ourselves. Because of our responsibility to everyone and everything, whatever we do has a ripple effect and is noticed. This was the essence of Yosef Hatzadik's life, writes Rabbi Nissan Alpert zt”l. When the sons of the maidservants were being treated disrespectfully, Yosef Hatzadik could not stand by and watch idly. He felt responsible not only for their physical welfare, but also for their emotional and psychological well being.
Now again Yosef Hatzadik took responsibility for his brothers' welfare. While it is true that Pharaoh provided the wagons, he filled them only with the minimum provisions. It was Yosef Hatzadik who filled them to make sure his father and his brothers would have plenty of all they needed. According to Vayovinu Bamikra, it was not the wagons that was the message, but what was in the wagons. Yosef Hatzadik was living the message of the eglah arufah ritual. As Chochmat Hamatzpun says Yosef Hatzadik didn't wait for his brothers to ask for extra largess [they came to buy food to stave off starvation], he gave them graciously and fully, from his own sense of connection to them, as we should give to others before they ask. Yosef Hatzadik proved he lived with the sense of mutual responsibility, and his brothers had now proven it too.
While we are focusing on the connection of the agalot to the eglah arufah ritual, in Yiram Hayam Rabbi Twerski brings a second interpretation from Rashi found on the Midrash. What Yosef Hatzadik was hinting at, writes Rabbi Twerski, was the actual wagons that Bnei Yisroel would eventually use to transport the boards and tapestries of the Mishkan from one place to another as they wandered in the desert. Although Bnei Yisroel were physically in different places, they were always under the watchful eyes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu, just as an infant is always in its mother's arms as they move from room to room and from country to country. Yosef Hatzadik was telling his father that even though he was physically in Egypt, his mind and heart, and therefore his essence, was always with his father. It was this image of his father that kept Yosef Hatzadik from succumbing to the Egyptian culture. Yosef Hatzadik had left on a mission from his father and he remained his father's representative albeit he was unable to complete the mission. Just as Bnei Yisroel took the Mishkan wherever they went, using the wagons, so did Yosef Hatzadik take his father's image and the learning they did together wherever he went, even in Egypt.
It is with this premise that Pirkei Avos advises us to take on a Rebbe/teacher/mentor and acquire a friend for yourself, so that even when you are far from them, from your Rabbi and from your community, you still feel the connection and the support they provide.
This connection also explains why Yaakov Avinu refused to be comforted, writes the Slonimer Rebbe zt”l, the Netivot Shalom. If Yosef Hatzadik was to remain righteous, the connection between Yaakov Avinu and Yosef Hatzadik could not be severed. So while Yosef Hatzadik kept the image of his father with him at all times, Yaakov Avinu too maintained the link in his own mind. [Today, even science discusses invisible energies that affect reality. Perhaps the connection between Yaakov Avinuand Yosef Hatzadik can be imagined as an invisible electrical ion between their two physches. CKS]
When Yosef Hatzadik reveals himself to his brothers, he is not asking, "Is my father still alive," but declaring that "My father is still alive in me." This was the message of the eglah arufah ritual, that as long as the individual has a supporting escort, he can withstand danger. As long as Yosef Hatzadik felt within himself the support of his father, he could withstand dangerous temptations of Egyptian society. And today, when we feel the support of our Rabbis, our families and our community we too can withstand the dangerous road our society is taking.
The Kedushas Halevi zt”l sees an additional message in the עגלות/wagons. עגלות is related to עגול, circle. Yosef Hatzadik was telling Yaakov Avinu not to be afraid of the Egyptian exile, for everything turns, for its purpose is to turn, like wagon wheels, on the road to the ultimate redemption. Yosef Hatzadik understood that his own descent into slavery was all part of Hashem's plan. The exile was the סיבה/the cause for the redemption, the point that turns/סובב the tragic enslavement toward the eventual, final redemption. Yosef Hatzadik now understood that all his suffering had a purpose, just as we too must believe that the challenges we face also have a purpose.
Yosef Hatzadik was also encouraging Bnei Yisroel to have faith that they would be redeemed from future exiles. Dividing our word, we get ע גלות/seventy exile, an allusion of hope for the future exiles, writes the Shvilei Pinchas. [The Babylonian exile lasted seventy years, and all our exiles were some form of domination by the seventy nations of the world. CKS] The wheel will turn, and down will be the impetus for the upturn.
This idea is alluded to in the Ashrei prayer [Tehillim 145]. The verses are arranged in the order of the aleph bet but the letter nun/ נ is conspicuously absent. It is, however, part of the next verse, "סומך ה לכל הנופלים /Hashem supports all who fall, all who call to Him... " Citing the Bnei Yissaschar, the Shvilei Pinchas notes that when we connect two "nun"s [one upside down] we form the letter ס/samech. When Hashem supports us, He brings us salvation even with a נס, miraculously.
The agalot/wagons that Yosef Hatzadik sent Yaakov Avinu a message of hope to all of us today and remind us of our responsibility to each other as members of large Israel family. Then Hashem will turn our challenges and "falls" into salvation and great light, and joy in our faith in Hashem's protection from our first exile even unto our modern exile. May our full salvation come soon.