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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.
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