Community Magazine December 2012

When the time came for Yaakov and his family to immigrate to Egypt, the spiritual future of the Jewish nation was at risk. Learning how they survived the Egyptian “melting pot” provides valuable guidance for us in our efforts to maintain our religious identity in a spiritually hostile culture. Dedicated inmemory of Mr.&Mrs. Jacques&Rachel Gindi  T he news was too good and too astonishing to believe. After 22 years of mourning and grief, certain that his beloved son had been violently killed, Yaakov hears the news that Yosef is alive, and is in fact the vizier of Egypt. We could excuse Yaakov for his initial disbelief. Having seen with his own eyes Yosef’s cloak drenched with blood, and knowing that Yosef hadn’t returned home since that fateful trip to Shechem over two decades earlier, there was no reason to entertain the possibility that his son was still alive, let alone that he was the second-in-command in the world’s leading empire. As we know, it did not take long for Yaakov to come around and accept the report that Yosef was alive and was now inviting the family to live under his care in Egypt. What changed his mind? What convinced Yaakov that this all but impossible news was in fact true? “They spoke to him all of Yosef’s words which he had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons which Yosef had sent to transport him, and the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived” (Beresheet 46:27). As our sages comment, it was “the wagons which Yosef had sent to transport him” that brought Yaakov out of his disbelief and led him to acknowledge the truth that Yosef was still very much alive. Once he saw the transport carriages that his son had sent for him, he realized that Yosef never died. Why would the sight of the wagons have such an effect on Yaakov? How did they prove that Yosef was still alive? Rashi explains that the wagons, or “ agalot ” in Hebrew, were intended as a veiled allusion to the law of eglah arufah , the ceremony that was conducted when a murder victim was discovered in between cities and the perpetrator could not be found. The word “ eglah, ” which means calf and refers to the young cow that is part of this ceremony, resembles the word for carriage (“ agalah ”), and thus Yosef sent the “ agalot ” to his father as an indication that he still remembered the last subject they had studied together before he left home for the last time. And thus when Yaakov saw the wagons, and understood the hint to his final study session with Yosef, he realized that Yosef was alive. The obvious question arises, if Yosef wanted to equip his brothers with proof of his authenticity for his father, why did he not simply tell them that he remembered the final subject he studied with Yaakov? Why did he resort to a far-fetched allusion, instead of conveying a clear, direct message? Is the incidental etymological relationship between the words “ eglah ” and “ agalah ” enough of a reason to choose this method of proving the news to his father? RABBI ELI J. MANSOUR Surviving the Melting Pot 16 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE