Wagons of Achrayus

The stalemate between Yosef and Yehudah regarding the fate of Binyamin, which began in last week’s Parsha, ends in this week’s Sedra when Yosef reveals his true identity to his brothers. Immediately after their emotional reunion, Yosef insists that his brothers hurry back to Eretz Yisroel to tell their father that Yosef is alive and about the stature he has achieved in Mitzrayim.

The Shevatim follow this directive and arrive back in the house of Yaakov bearing the wonderful news exclaiming “Od Yosef Chai, V’chi Hu Moshel B’Chol Eretz Mitzrayim.” Yaakov, however, was not so quick to believe them, and actually experienced an adverse physical reaction upon hearing their words: “VaYafag Libo Ki Lo He’emin Lahem”. The Passuk tells us that as much as the Shevatim tried to assuage his anxiety, Yaakov was calmed by one sight: “VaYar Es Ha’Agalos Asher Shalach Yosef... VaTichi Ruach Yaakov Avihem.” Only when Yaakov saw the wagons Yosef had sent—which were used to carry all that he had sent back with the Shevatim, and to be used to bring the Bais Yaakov down to Mitzrayim—was he able to relax. Immediately thereafter he declares his intent to travel to Mitzrayim in order to see Yosef.

Rashi, citing a Medrash, seeks to explain how these Agalos caused Yaakov to calm down: Yosef send the wagons as a signal of sorts to Yaakov Avinu. Before he was sold as a slave to Mitzrayim, the last Parsha that Yosef had learned with Yaakov was “Eglah Arufa”. The wagons were meant to refer to this Halacha, thereby hinting to Yaakov without a doubt that it was actually Yosef who was serving as the ruler in Mitzrayim.

While this Medrash addresses a very important point—why the sight of the wagons calmed Yaakov—it really gives rise to another question. The Parsha of Egla Arufa deals with a, Eglah, a young calf. A wagon, on the other hand, is called an Agalah. These are obviously two completely different words—how then did the Agalos serve as the signal to Yaakov from Yosef? If the point was to show Yaakov that it was truly Yosef who had been interacting with his sons by sending a Remez to the last Limud the two had shared, why not send some actual calves? Why send wagons, Agalos, which merely sounds like Eglah?

The Da’as Zekenim alludes to this question, stating that Rashi requires a Pirush to his Pirush on this Passuk. In fact, because the two words, Agalah and Eglah, have no relationship to each other, the Da’as Zekenim offers that perhaps the two were learning about the wagons that were used to carry parts of the Mishkan. If this were the case it would be understandable that the wagons were used as the Siman, but the Medrash clearly states that they were learning about Eglah Arufah and the Siman was related to that. We must therefore understand how the Agalos and the Eglah are related to one another.

But even once we understand how the two are connected, there is another point to consider. One way or another the appearance of the wagons apparently finally reassured Yaakov that Yosef was alive and well. Were there not other signs that could have been given? One would imagine that the Shevatim could have provided Yaakov with any number of Simanim that the man they feared most in Mitzrayim was actually Yosef. Why did the wagons, connected as they were to the Limud they had shared all those years before, serve to calm Yaakov’s nerves with such certainty?

Perhaps in order to better understand the message of the Agalos we must first take a closer look at the Sugya that they referred to: Egla Arufa.

R’ Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, in Birchas Mordechai, suggests that it was not coincidence that Yaakov Avinu was specifically learning the Parsha of Egla Arufa during the time immediately prior to the sale of Yosef—he had specifically chosen this Mitzvah to deliver a message to Yosef and his brothers.

When a dead body is found in a no-man’s-land between two cities, the distance between the Mes and the two cities is measured. The Zekenim of the city which is determined to be closer to the body are required to carry out the Mitzvah of Eglah Arufa by slaughtering a calf in a dry and barren area. The Zekenim then wash their hands in the area of the calf’s blood and say: “Yadenu Lo Shafchu Es HaDam HaZeh: Our hands did not spill this blood.”

The Mishna in Meseches Sotah asks: would we really have assumed that the Zekenim were murderers, responsible for his heinous act? Rather, explains the Mishna, the Zekenim were declaring that they had not encountered the victim within their city and ignored his needs, and they had not sent him from the city without properly escorting him. In saying “Yadenu Lo Shafchu Es HaDam HaZeh” the Chachamim were not absolving themselves of the actual murder, but of any attendant responsibility. They were declaring that they had not even been the proximate cause of his death.

R’ Baruch Mordechai explains that we learn an amazing lesson of Achrayus from this Parsha. If this man had travelled through the city of these Zekenim they may not have necessarily encountered him. Perhaps some residents of the city had indeed ignored him and his needs had not been adequately addressed and aybe he was in fact not properly escorted upon his departure, leading to his death. Who says that the Zekenim were able to prevent this from occurring? Could they be expected to notice every itinerant who entered the city and been responsible for their welfare?

The Mitzvah of Eglah Arufah teaches us that indeed they were. The Zekenim had to wash their hands and declare that they were in no way responsible for this man’s death because if the actions of the residents of their city led to his demise that would in fact be their fault. The Zekenim had to take Achrayus for that which happened in their area regardless of their own personal involvement.

This is the message, says R’ Baruch Mordechai, that Yaakov was trying to give not only Yosef but all the Shevatim at that time. While we may not be able to fully understand the discord between Yosef and his brothers—their conflict certainly rose beyond petty indifference—it is clear from the Pessukim, that all was not well in the house of Yaakov during those years. Yaakov was learning the Parsha of Egla Arufa with his sons to teach them that he bore responsibility, on some level, for their actions. The Ziknei HaIr were the ones who had the Mitzvah of Egla Arufah because they were the greatest men in the city, and the greater the man the farther his responsibility extends.

Yaakov was teaching his sons that although their Machlokes was surely L’Shem Shamayim, and any hint of jealousy certainly qualified as Kinas Sofrim, if there was responsibility to bear, it fell to Yaakov himself. This was a message not only for that moment, but for their lives. They had to know that even when circumstances were beyond their immediate control, as great men, as leaders, they bore ultimate Achrayus for all that happened in their surroundings. If one is able to affect others in any way, he is responsible for their shortcomings as well.

In fact, the responsibility of the leaders may extend even further.

The Gemarah in Makkos discusses the Teffilos of those confined to an Ir Miklat. Because their freedom was tied to the lifetime of the Kohen Gadol, offering them an incentive to look forward to his death, the Mishna says that they were bribed by the Kohen’s mother. The Gemarah, in alternative versions, says that they were either encouraged to to daven that the Kohen Gadol would live, or not to daven that he would die.

In either case the Gemarah explains that the lives of the Kohanim Gedolim were at risk because they could have davened for the Dor, preventing the accidental death from occurring. The Gemarah illustrates this idea with a story: a man was killed by a lion three Parsaos, about 12 miles, from R’ Yehoshua. As a result, Eliyahu HaNavi did not come visit R’ Yehoshua for three days. Although he was not close enough to physically help, and one could not even fault his leadership for causing the lion to kill, nonetheless R’ Yehoshua was held accountable on some level.

The Bais Yisroel points out that this is the extent of a leader’s Achrayus: not only is he responsible for that which happens in his immediate vicinity, and that he could have perhaps affected, but for everything that he may have been able to change through his Teffilos. This is tied to the message of the Eglah Arufah: in saying “Yadenu Lo Shafchu Es HaDam HaZeh” the Ziknei HaIr are absolving themselves of every level of responsibility.

If this is the message of the Eglah Arufah, the responsibility that leaders bear for all that happens around them, perhaps we can then understand what Yosef was trying to tell his father.

The Etz Yosef, a Pirush on the Medrah Rabba, suggests that when the Torah tells us VaYar Es Ha’Agalos it refers to both Agalos, wagons, and Eglos, calves, as there were calves pulling the wagons. This would perhaps help understand the connection to Eglah Arufah, but why then does the Torah refer to the wagons, which would seem to be unrelated to the Eglah Arufah, as the signal that helped allay Yaakov’s concerns?

The Halacha is that a calf that does any sort of work, even on a very minimal basis, is Passul to be used as an Egla Arufah. The calves that were pulling the wagons that Yosef sent would therefore have been invalid for the Mitzvah. Maybe that is the message that Yosef was sending Yaakov: these Eglos are Passul, becaue there is no need for an Eglah Arufah.

Yosef knew that his father felt responsible for all that happened in his sphere of influence—that was the message that was conveyed by teaching his sons about Eglah Arufah in the first place, as R’ Ezrachi explains. He therefore wanted to show his father that he placed no blame, and firmly believed that Yaakov had no responsibility, for the events that led to Yosef’s sale and all his tribulations in Mitzrayim.

Yosef showed this level of absolute Emunah when he revealed himself to his brothers and said: “Lo Atem Shilachtem Osi Henah, Ki Im Elokim.” He placed no blame on anyone else for his situation, staunch in his convictions that this was the Ratzon Hashem. By sending Eglos that were pulling Agalos, and were therefore Passul for the Mitzvah, Yosef was showing his father that there was no culpability here. There was no need for Yaakov to address his own chrayus Achrayus for all that had happened, for he was not in any way responsible.

R’ Melech Biderman points out that there is a Remez to this idea in the Agalos themselves: a wheel turns, and while it may be in the mud at one point, just a moment later it will be on top. Therefore the wagon wheel does not complain or feel bad when it is on the ground, because it knows that eventually it will be on the other side. Yosef was giving the same message to Yaakov: “Yes, I was in the mud for a moment, but now I am on top. Just as Hashem placed me in this position, my time on the ground was his Ratzon as well.”

This is why the wagons themselves helped Yaakov Avinu to such an extent. Even once his sons told him that Yosef was alive, and the entire story of his journey, he could not be calm because he felt responsible for the circumstances and perhaps worried that Yosef may hold him accountable. Once he saw the calves pulling wagons, he understood the Siman that Yosef was sending: the Eglos were Passul, there was no need for an Egla Arufah, for there was no Achrayus for Yaakov to abdicate.

There are times in our lives when we must take Achryus and realize that our actions affect those around us, and that we are liable for their results. At the same time, we must always remember that some things are outside our control, that ultimately the Ratzon Hashem runs the world. Though we may sometimes feel that we are in the mud, life is like a wheel, and we can just as quickly end up on top.

We can remember the message of the Eglos and the Agalos.