Netvort Parshas Vayigash 5771-resending:         Not So Fast
By Rabbi Joshua (cryptically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Dedicated toward the speedy and complete recovery of Basya Shira bas Chasida Bronstein, daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Hershel Reichman. Readers are asked to mention her in their Shemoneh Esreh and to say Tehillim for her.

Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers, and makes arrangements for them to return to Canaan and bring their father, together with the entire family, down to Egypt, so that he can provide for them during the famine. Before sending them off, he tells them not to get agitated on the road (Bereishis, 45:24). What does this cryptic instruction mean, and why don't we find that Yaakov told this to his sons before sending Binyamin with them to Egypt?  One explanation, brought by Rashi from the Talmud (Taanis, 10b) is that Yosef told them not to get involved in deep halachic discussions on the way, because that would distract them from the conditions on the road, and bring them into danger.  I remember that a friend of mine was driving Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt'l, home in cold, snowy weather on the day before his ordination test on the laws of mikvah.  While driving, he was discussing various topics in those laws with Rav Aharon in preparation for the test, but when he mentioned a particularly complicated matter, Rav Aharon told him that he didn't want to discuss it at that moment, because he was afraid that the intricate nature of the topic would cause him to lose his concentration on the road. R. Chaim ben Betzalel Loewe, brother of the Maharal of Prague, in his Sefer HaChayim, writes that Yaakov did not caution his sons to refrain from discussing Halacha on the road because they were going to Egypt due to a lack of grain, and the Mishnah in Avos says that if there is no flour then there is no Torah. The point here is that they were too focused on reaching Egypt to obtain provisions in order to stave off their hunger to get involved in discussions of other matters.

Another explanation, brought by Rashi from a Midrash, is that he told his brothers to refrain from taking long steps.  Although the rabbis say that doing so impairs one vision, the Kotzker Rebbe gave a different explanation, in the context of Yosef's brothers going to bring Yaakov down to Egypt. He says that the brothers were very eager to bring Yaakov, and this may have led them to hurry the process. However, God had his plans for how long the process would take, and nothing they did to expedite it would change that plan. Perhaps this can be understood in light of the Baal Shem Tov's teaching that one should always take things with equanimity, based on the verse, “I have set God before me constantly."  The word  for 'I have placed'' - ''shivisi' - says the Baal Shem Tov, should be read in the sense of 'shaveh,' or ‘equal,'  meaning that one should deal with all circumstances in life equally, out of  his trust in God, and not get overly agitated over any particular  matter, because he has total trust in Him.  According to this explanation of the Kotzker, we can understand why Yaakov did not issue the same warning that Yosef did, since the circumstances of the two trips were so different. On the other hand, the famed Rabbi Gavriel Zev Margolis, in his Toras Gavriel, mentions the second explanation brought by Rashi, and writes that it is self-understood that Yaakov told his sons not to take large steps. Yosef, at first, relied on Yaakov's words of caution, to his sons, and did not issue his own warning.  However, after accompanying his brothers on the road for a short time, he noticed that they began taking long steps, and so he reiterated Yaakov's original exhortation. Rav Margolis derives all of this from the fact that the verse first says, "and Yosef sent them' - which he takes to mean - as, in fact, the Rashbam interprets - that he accompanied them - and then says "and he told them, do not become agitated on the road.'

A third explanation of Yosef's instruction to his brothers is given by the Targum Yonasan (or, as it is referred to in the world of Targum scholarship, Pesudo - Jonathan). He says that Yosef warned them not to argue over their sale of him, lest the people on the road become agitated against them. The Ramban, in parshas Vayigash, writes that we never find that Yosef's brothers sold him, and the brothers made a special effort not to create a circumstance in which he would find out. Thus, if we follow the Targum's explanation of Yosef's warning to his brothers, and combine it with the Ramban, we can see why Yaakov did not give them a similar warning, since he did not know that the brothers sold Yosef.

Rav Moshe Sternbuch, in his Taam VaDaas, says that the message of this Targum is that when the Jewish people are not united, but quarrel among themselves, they leave themselves open to attacks from their enemies. Although Yaakov did not give this message over to his children, it seems that he did understand it. The Yalkut Reuveni mentions a Zohar which says that when Yaakov saw the wagons – agalos - that Yosef sent from Egypt, Yaakov, by pure word association, thought of the Torah teaching concerning the 'eglah arufah,' or the calf whose neck is broken, in atonement for the death of a wayfarer who, as the Talmud explains, was sent on his way by his host without accompaniment, and ended up being murdered by an unknown assailant on the road. Yaakov remembered that he had sent Yosef to see after his brothers welfare without accompanying him, and, moreover, that he had sent him to see them while knowing that they were not getting along (see Rashi for a different explanation of the connection between the agalos and the eglah arufah).  According to the Ramban, Yaakov never knew that the brothers sold Yosef.  Apparently, then, his feelings of guilt for Yosef's travails came from an understanding that when the Jewish people are not united, they open themselves up to danger from outside forces, and he feared that this is what happened to Yosef, as well.

In addition, archives from 5764-5768 are now available at yeshivasbrisk.freeservers.com/netvort.html    

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