And they spoke to him all the words of Joseph which he had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their father was revived. (Bereishis 45;27)
The brothers had returned to their father in Canaan with incredible news: Joseph is still alive, and he is the viceroy in Egypt! Jacob heard, but he was not convinced. One thing, though, moved him; the sight of the wagons that Joseph had sent. What was so special about those wagons that they served to convince him? Commentators offer different opinions.
- At one level of straightforward explanation the wagons were vehicles from the Egyptian royal court. Only a senior government figure would have the means of organising travel in vehicles with visible ‘state markings’. Jacob could be truly convinced that the story, of Joseph his son the viceroy of Egypt was not a concocted one.
- Rashi adds another twist, based on the close resemblance of two Hebrew words, egloh, calf, and agoloh, wagon. The Torah mandates a procedure, in a case of an unsolved murder mystery, involving the ‘axing of a calf’, egloh arufah. The distance, from the corpse in the countryside to the nearest town, must be established, and the elders of that town must declare: ‘our hands did not spill this blood, and our eyes did not see’, meaning, ‘we did not let him on his journey by himself without food and accompaniment’. (Devorim 21;1-9). The case of Joseph too, had been for his father, at least, that of unsolved murder mystery. The brothers arrived home telling the story that Joseph had been eaten by a wild animal, and there was the blood soaked coat to prove it. By sending the agoloh, wagon, with its hint at egloh, calf, Joseph wanted to set his father’s mind at rest that the mystery had been solved in the happiest manner; there had been no murder.
- But there was a further aspect in the choice of agoloh, wagon, to send to Jacob. The last topic of Torah that Joseph had studied together with his father Jacob before their separation had been just this, eglah arufah. The sight of the wagon, agoloh, many years later, triggered in Jacob the memory of that last session of Torah learning with his son. That convinced him that this stranger in a far off land was indeed his son Joseph. There is a message for us here – the study of Torah is the enduring link between generations.
- For another interpretation the wheels of the wagon – symbolic of life’s wheel of fortune. Having been left for dead by my own brothers and then sold into slavery, from an Egyptian dungeon Joseph had now risen to become viceroy providing provisions for all. Joseph revives the spirit of his father by reassuring him that the Egyptian slavery which his descendants are destined to endure, will lead eventually to their redemption and to their formation into a great nation. The cart wheels, with their cycle of up, down, and up, symbolise life with its joys and pleasures which nourish us, together with its difficulties and its trials which require our strength to endure.
- A final symbolism in Joseph’s wagons, refers to the wagons in the Mishkon, the sanctuary in the desert. The future of the Jewish people looked bleak in Jacob’s eyes, his sons were divided. The brothers had taken a strong stand against Joseph, almost taking his life. Where was the internal comradeship necessary to secure the future of the Jewish nation? Joseph’s wagons here symbolised the wagons in the mishkon – all twelve tribes encamped united around the sanctuary, all twelve tribes having contributed to the building and the setting up of the mishkon. This revived the spirit of Jacob. He saw that the core unity of the Jewish people shows that there is a future and a hope for the people of Israel.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag