Introduction to Parashat Hashavua
Yeshivat Har Etzion

Mazal tov to Rabbi Chanoch and Michelle Waxman upon the bat mitzva of their daughter Aviva!

PARASHAT VAYIGASH

Yosef's Wagons

By Rav Alex Israel

Let us set the scene.  Yosef has revealed his true identity to his brothers.  The family is reunited.  Yosef sends his brothers back to Kena'an to bring the good tidings to their father:

And they told him, "Yosef is still alive, and he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt."

His heart went numb, for he did not believe them.  But when they recounted all that Yosef had said to them, and he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Ya'akov revived.  Yisra'el said, "So much! My son Yosef is still alive! I will go and see him before I die."

 (45:26-27)

Ya'akov takes some time to react to the shocking news.  At the beginning, it all seems too much to be believed: Yosef is alive? How could he be the ruler of all Egypt! Ya'akov does not believe the news.  Indeed, I wonder how many people would believe such an incredible story.  It is something out of the world of fairy tales to imagine that a son presumed dead is in fact the head of state of a superpower.  The truth sinks in slowly.  The Torah here records two stages in Ya'akov's acceptance of Yosef's current situation.  First: "they recounted all that Yosef had said to them;" second: "Ya'akov saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him."

The first factor is clear.  Obviously, as the brothers recount the story and the meeting with Yosef, as they add facts and experiences, Ya'akov begins to see the impossible as possible and then he begins to accept the strange truth of the story.  Nevertheless, what tips the balance for Ya'akov is seeing the carriages sent by Yosef.  What is special about these carriages, these wagons? How do these vehicles convince Ya'akov?

I believe that the answer is pretty evident in the text itself.  The Torah describes the sending of the wagons a few lines earlier:

The news reached Pharaoh's palace: "Yosef's brothers have come."   …Pharaoh said to Yosef…"Take your father and his household and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall live off the fat of the land.  You have your command to do the following: 'Take from the land of Egypt wagons for your children and your wives, and bring your father here.  Never mind your belongings, for the best of the land of Egypt shall be yours.'"

The sons of Yisra'el did so; Yosef gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey…"

(45:16-20)

These are not simple wagons.  These wagons belong to the Egyptian government.  ("Take from the land of Egypt").  When Ya'akov sees the transportation emblazoned with Pharaoh's royal insignia, he understands that vehicles of this sort cannot be dispatched in the absence of a royal command. "No one could export a carriage from Egypt without Pharaoh's command" (Rashbam, ibid).

The sight of these royal wagons proves the veracity the entire story.  Only a royal Egyptian personality could be behind this.  Ya'akov is convinced

THE MIDRASHIC PERSPECTIVE[1]

Here I would like to quote a famous midrash that has been popularized by the commentary of Rashi.[2]   Let us see the original:

Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan bar Sha'ul: "[Yosef] said to [his brothers]: 'If [my father] believes you, then all is good.  If he fails to believe you, then tell him that at the moment when I departed from him, I was discussing the passage of egla arufa.'  Hence it says: 'He saw the wagons (agalot) that Yosef had sent… and Ya'akov's spirit was revived.'"

(Bereishit Rabba 94:3)

Now, quite clearly, this midrash is based upon a word-play: the Hebrew word "agala," a wagon, is spelled exactly the same as the word "egla," a heifer.  Moreover, there is an additional textual nuance that prompts the Midrash.  The Torah says that Ya'akov saw the wagons "that Yosef had sent."  In fact, Yosef had not sent these wagons; they actually belonged to Pharaoh, and it was Pharaoh who had instructed Yosef to send them.  Why would the text now depict them as the wagons that Yosef had sent?

Apparently, the text is informing us that Yosef had done something in order to express his "ownership" of these wagons, to subtly transform this journey into his own personal mission.  These were the wagons that Yosef sent because these wagons carried a secret message to Ya'akov.  In opposition to the peshat[3], the Midrash wants to suggest that had they been wagons that Pharaoh sent, it would have failed to impress Ya'akov, but since they were the wagons that Yosef had sent with a secret code, a sign to his father, this dimension made the difference.

THE PERSISTENCE OF TORAH

Let us probe a little deeper.  What was Yosef trying to communicate by sending this information regarding the Torah he had learned as he departed from his father? Was it just a foolproof identification method,[4] or was there something more?

When one continues to look at the Midrash, the story is given a particular spin that relates to the place of Torah in the family of Ya'akov and to the righteousness of Yosef.  This is the continuation of the midrash we quoted earlier:

"Yisra'el said: 'So much (rav)! My son Yosef is still alive!'"—"Great (rav) is the power of my son Yosef, for so many tribulations befell him, and yet he still retains his righteousness."

Another midrash expresses a variation on this theme:

"[Ya'akov] sent Yehuda ahead of him to Yosef, to point the way for him to Goshen" (46:28).  Rabbi Chanina the son of Rav Acha and Rabbi Chanina [argued about this verse]: One said: "He sent him to organize living accommodation;" the other said: "He sent him to establish a house of study in which he could teach Torah and where the tribes (sons of Ya'akov) could learn." 

This is indeed the case, for when Yosef left [Ya'akov], he knew with which passage [of Torah] he separated from him, and he reviewed it.  When Yosef's brothers came to [Ya'akov]… he said to himself: "I know that at the passage of egla arufa, I parted from Yosef…" What did Yosef do?  He gave them wagons (agalot) … to teach you that wherever Ya'akov was, he would sit and study Torah.

The thrust of these midrashim is to demonstrate the centrality of Torah in a Jewish identity.  Ya'akov studies Torah at all times; he would converse in Torah matters with his children.  Both Ya'akov and Yosef remember their last Torah conversation.  Thus, when Yosef wishes to assure his father that he has not survived merely physically, but that he "still retains his righteousness," he informs his father that his Torah study is still fresh in his mind—he is still committed to it.

Perhaps we can now explain the phrase: "Ya'akov's spirit was revived."  In the view of these Midrashim, Ya'akov could rejoin Yosef in person, but the question that irks Ya'akov concerns Yosef's spirit.  Physically, Yosef is intact; is he spiritually whole as well?  The symbol of the wagons informs his father quite clearly that Yosef has retained his spiritual orientation: he has persisted against all odds in his commitment to Torah.  Now Ya'akov's spirit, in particular, can be revived!

Egla Arufa

We get the sense that this approach is heavily homiletic in nature.  It seems to impose the ideology of a life based in Torah upon the storyline here.  Where is the intimation in the text that the Ya'akov-Yosef link was based upon Torah study?  However, beyond this problem, the midrashic conclusion ignores half the story.  We never understand why they studied egla arufa in particular.  What made that passage poignant during the moment in which Yosef said goodbye to his father?  As we look at this mitzva, things become clearer.

The law of the egla arufa, found in Devarim 21:1-9, applies to a situation in which a corpse is found, "a slain person… lying in the field, with his killer unknown."  In such a case, the Torah prescribes a powerful ceremony: the elders of the city which is the closest to the crime scene take a young heifer to a barren valley; there, they break the animal's neck.  Then,

...All the elders of the city nearest to the scene of the crime will wash their hands over the beheaded heifer (egla arufa)…and will say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.  Forgive O Lord, your people Yisra'el whom you have redeemed, and do not let innocent blood remain in the midst of your people, Yisra'el."

Rashi there[5] says that the elders are culpable because they have failed to properly care for a visitor to their town.  Specifically, he singles out the mitzva of accompaniment, that a person should be escorted as he or she leaves a town.  The elders are obviously not implicated in the murder, but they have allowed a situation in which strangers feel abandoned, leaving them vulnerable. 

Now, the rabbis frequently see a subtext beneath the "revealed" text, and they express these textual undercurrents in the genre of Midrash.  When did Ya'akov and Yosef apparently study this topic?  Let us remember the scene: "He sent him from the valley of Chevron and he set off for Shekhem" (Bereshit 37:14).  It would appear that Ya'akov accompanies Yosef outside the city limits.[6]  When challenged by Yosef about this, he responds that a person should always be accompanied out of the town to ensure their safety, etc.  How ironic then, that Yosef finds himself assaulted and almost killed on this particular mission!  Their discussion of safe journeying presages the tragedy which befalls Yosef.

Of course, Yosef is not murdered, and yet, Yosef's biography echoes the biography of the victim described in the passage of the egla arufa!

THE MESSAGE.  TWO OPTIONS.

The midrash says that as Yosef contacts his father for the first time in 22 years, he is sending him a message that relates to egla arufa.  What could this message be?

One approach would be that of rebuke:

When Yosef tells his brothers to mention to Ya'akov that they were "learning" the laws of egla arufa at the time of Yosef's disappearance, we may surmise that he is rebuking his father and justifying his silence (of 22 years, not initiating contact with his family.)  Didn't you send me to the brothers knowing the dangers involved?  Weren't you aware of the hatred between us? …And when I disappeared in the rough field, did you do anything?  Did you investigate?  Did you ask forgiveness for letting me go without escort?"

(Prof. Michael Rosenak, Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge, p. 278)

Now, of course, Yosef does not say these things to his father; the rabbis of the Midrash are saying these things for him!  They are so troubled as to the ethical implications of this near-murder in the covenantal family that they feel obligated to raise the questions of how this might have been possible, thinkable, in Ya'akov's family.  What moral lapse gave rise to the twisted thought of murdering Yosef?  Chazal are expressing this concern through the language of allusion.

However, a second and contrary option is also a possibility.  After all, the egla arufa ceremony asks God to forgive the people, as they do not bear the guilt of what has happened to the victim.

This is precisely Yosef's message from the moment he reveals himself to his brothers:

"Do not be upset… for God sent me before you." (44:5)

"You did not send me here; it was God."  (44:8)

The brothers are not guilty; Yosef expresses this time and time again.  How will he tell his father that nobody is guilty for the strange events that lead to his disappearance?  He transmits a message to his father through subtle means; by invoking egla arufa, he says to his father: I do not wish to divulge the circumstances in which I went missing; let us simply say that nobody bears the guilt.  God has atoned for it all, because, after all, it is all part of His plan.

Shabbat Shalom!