Chariot of Consideration
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Yoseph has revealed himself to his brothers and they have reconciled. All of Egypt and Pharaoh himself hear of this reunion. Now it is time for Yaakov and the whole family to reunite and come to Egypt. To this purpose, Pharaoh tells Yoseph to load up the animals, presumably the animals the brothers came down with, and commands Yoseph to send wagons back to Canaan with his brothers to transport the entire family to Egypt. Pharaoh is so thrilled that he tells Yoseph that his family should leave all their possessions behind, for Pharaoh will provide them with the best Egypt has to offer. Yoseph sends the brothers back with the empty wagons and with a total of twenty animals, laden with all the food necessary for the family journey from Canaan to Egypt. When the brothers return to Canaan, they tell Yaakov the amazing news that Yoseph is alive and is the ruler of all Egypt. Yaakov does not believe them, but when he sees the wagons, he believes and his spirit is revived.
Our commentators discuss this passage at length, focusing mainly on the significance of the wagons and how seeing them revived Yaakov’s spirit. The most widely accepted answer is a play on the Hebrew word for wagon(s), eglah/agalot. By sending these wagons, Yoseph was alluding to the last Torah topic he had studied with his father before his disappearance, the topic of eglah arufah, the heifer which was to be killed when a murdered man was found between two towns and no one knows who killed him. The elders of the closer town go out, deny responsibility for the man’s death, and kill the heifer in atonement. By sending the wagons, Yoseph was telling his father that Torah was still important to him, albeit he had spent all these years in Egypt.
Rabbi Zev Leff raises the first of several questions on this passage. If it was Pharaoh who commanded Yoseph to send wagons for his father and the family, how could the wagons serve as an allusion to Yoseph’s mindset? Where did Yaakov see the message Yoseph was sending? The Netivot Chaim, Rabbi Matlin, offers a simple explanation based on the simple reading of the text, an answer that will help us understand this passage on several levels. While the wagons were indeed authorized by Pharaoh, Yoseph sent his father many animals. He packed the animals full of provisions for the journey, but the wagons themselves remained empty. That seems rather strange. But when one understands that the eglah that would atone for the murder victim was one that had never born a burden, one can understand why Yoseph sent the wagons empty and put the loads on the donkeys.
Yoseph was sending a message that was important not only for our first, imminent exile in Egypt, but that would also be important in every subsequent exile throughout our history. Yoseph was telling his father that even though he had been away from his Torah home for so many years, even though he had been in exile, even though he had become rich and famous during this exile, the Torah of his father’s house was still the most important thing in his life. Rabbi Chasman elaborates on this theme by noting that Yaakov’s response was to send Yehudah ahead so that Yehudah could establish batei medrash, study halls, to perpetuate the Torah learning before the family’s arrival. Rabbi Chasman notes that the two main personalities of this parsha are Yoseph and Yehudah, connoting the future Moshiach ben Yoseph and Moshiach ben Dovid. Yehudah was sent down to Egypt lehorot lefonov, to show [the way] before him, (alternately, to teach before him) before Yaakov and Bnei Yisroel would come. By sending Yehudah on this mission, Yaakov was teaching us that in order to survive in exile we must have our priorities straight. We must keep our focus on our spiritual lives and understand that this world is but the antechamber to the eternal, future world. Unfortunately, most people today, even Orthodox Jews, exert more effort and time on the material aspects of life than on the spiritual. By Yoseph’s message and Yaakov’s response, we learn where our priorities should lie.
But the laws of eglah arufah are meant to teach more than empty ritual. As both Rabbi Belsky and Rabbi Frand point out, escorting a wayfarer a short distance out of the city and providing some food for the journey give the wayfarer self confidence and dignity, thereby perhaps strengthening him enough to fend off his attackers (or making him seem a less easy target). Yoseph is thus telling his father that he survived and maintained his Jewish identity by remembering his relationship with his father. Similarly, by accompanying someone a short distance, we give them the feeling that we care about them and value them.
The further meaning of Yoseph’s message to his father can be deduced from the fact that Yoseph sent more than just empty wagons as Pharaoh had commanded. By sending the donkeys laden with plenty of food for the journey, he was sending a message of his continuing love for his father, of caring for him and taking responsibility for his safe arrival in Egypt.
Rabbi Mordechai Ezrachi points out that the crux of the eglah arufah ritual is the declaration by the elders that they did not spill the blood of this man. But while they are disclaiming responsibility for the murder, Rabbi Ezrachi notes that there is a second responsibility the elders may not have met. They should have also have noticed the people at risk who may already have been on a criminal path. As elders of the community, they should have stepped in and, with sensitivity and caring, reeducated them and brought them back from a violent lifestyle.
But the message is deeper for all of us, continues Rabbi Ezrachi. Each of us serves as a role model to others at one time or another. We must act responsibly at all times, for we do not know who will point to us and say that if we are not careful is this area (loshon horo, kashrut, etc.), I need not be careful in that area as well. A simple careless, irresponsible action on our part may be the catalyst for the first step away from Torah values and the Torah life of another. Yosef was hinting to his father, that he learned this message, and was a person who took responsibility seriously.
This spiritual connection is the focus of Rabbi Zev Leff in Outlook: Insight. Pharaoh’s message in sending empty wagons for the people was that Yaakov and his family come down to Egypt with nothing from their life in Canaan. All would be provided in Egypt. What Pharaoh was hoping was that Yaakov would leave not only his physical possessions behind, but also his spiritual identity. Pharaoh was hoping that Yaakov and his family would assimilate into Egyptian society. When Yoseph sent additional wagons for their belongings and Yaakov and Bnei Yisroel were able to bring down all their cattle, their wealth, their clothing and, by extension, their unique culture, Yaakov understood that Yoseph himself had maintained his spiritual connection to Am Yisroel. In fact, according to the Medrash, Yehudah actually destroyed the wagons that Pharaoh had sent because they were decorated with idolatrous images. Only the wagons that Yoseph sent were used.
Rabbi Leff sees here the inherent message that wherever we find ourselves, we can carry the sanctity of Eretz Yisroel with us and not succumb to the lures of other cultures. In connecting this idea to eglah arufah, Rabbi Leff posits that by escorting a guest or wayfarer even a short distance, one is arming the lone traveler with the spiritual protection of the tzibur, of the community even without the spiritual protection.
Rabbi Pinchas Friedman, the Shvilei Pinchas and Rosh Kollel of the Belzer kollel, discusses the symbolism of the wheels, the gal-galim of the agalot, the wagons. He reminds us that when we utter the four lettered name of Hashem, we should bear in mind that that name of God refers to all time, hayah/past, hoveh/present, and yihiyeh/future. Numerically, the all temporal God is the Master of the galgal, the turning wheels of time, both equaling 66. Yosef was encouraging his father, as Hashem would validate, that Yaakov should go down to Egypt, for, although Bnei Yisroel would be enslaved there, the wheels would be turning, and their enslavement in Egypt was a necessary step in the purification process to completing the circle that would bring Bnei Yisroel to receive the Torah at Sinai.
Here is where the concept of emunah, faith, comes into play. Emunah comes from the root omein, to raise (a child), to have an expectancy for the future. Someone with faith in Hakodosh Boruch Hu accepts his challenges as part of the cycle of life, knowing that Hashem turns the wheels so that the final outcome is good. A faithless person, on the other hand, stops mid-cycle and condemns the difficulties he is experiencing, preventing himself from moving forward and allowing the wheels to complete their cycle.
The Shvilei Pinchas continues his discussion by noting that there appeared to be two sets of wagons, the impure wagons of idolatry that Pharaoh sent and the pure wagons from Yoseph himself. Integrating ideas from various commentators, he suggests that the a-galot can be divided to mean a-(the letter ayin=70) galut, exile among the seventy nations. While Egypt pursued Bnei Yisroel with every chariot it had, Hashem mired the wheels in the mud to show that all that Egypt valued, all its impurity was worthless. This was a message to support Bnei Yisroel in every future exile, for Hashem will always champion Bnei Yisroel and bring their wheels to the proper destination while entrapping the wheels of our enemies. It is our faith, not just as a nation but also as individuals, that grease the wheels and keep them turning until they reach the positive conclusion of the journey.
We can now perhaps move on to a discussion of the conclusion of our national history. Rabbi Appel in Mesameach Zion focuses on the significance of the contrasting symbols of Yoseph and Yehudah. While in our history to date Yoseph represents the darkness of exile, the Jew who sanctified God’s name in private, Yehudah represents the light who sanctifies God’s name in public. His very name proclaims the Name of God. In the future, these two streams will unite, and we will recognize that even what we had believed to be bad was actually good. God will be praised as Hatov veHaMeitiv, He Who is Good and does everything for Good. While in exile we can see things as either good or bad, that dichotomy will be resolved in the future. In the meantime, it is important to send Yehudah ahead to show the way and strengthen the Godliness in our exile existence.
The Sheveli Pinchas brings this lesson into our daily lives. It is interesting to note, he writes, that while the Ashrei Psalm we recite multiple times in our daily prayers is arranged according to the letters of the aleph bet, a verse for the letter nun is conspicuously absent. However, its omission is made up for by its inclusion in the following verse. Nun stands for nofel, fall. The following verse for samech reads, “Somech Hashem lechol hanoflim – Hashem supports all the fallen ones...” We know in Hebrew print, the letter nun is open, an incomplete circle, while the samech appears as a closed, complete circle. While I may be in the fallen, incomplete state at present, I must believe that there is another half that will complete and perfect the circle. After all, the circle is the shape of the wheel, the galgal that represents all the stages of time in the existence of God’s four lettered Name. Then if we add the letter nun to the letter samech, as they are joined in the ensuing verse, we get nes, the miracle that has sustained us through all time.
Yaakov understands the message of the wagons and their wheels. He is comforted. He sends Yehudah down to prepare the place for their spiritual lives so that his descendants can emerge as a strong nation capable of receiving the Torah. In our personal lives, we must also have faith that although we may have fallen, Hashem is supporting us and helping us, that the wheel will turn until it completes its mission for us as individuals and for Klal Yisroel, and all will be good.