I was recently sitting at the same table as Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer at a wedding. Rabbi Hopfer told me the following vort:
After Yosef revealed his true identity to his brothers, Yosef instructs them to bring their father, Yaakov, down to Mitzrayim. The brothers returned to Canaan and told Yaakov the whole story: “Yosef is still alive and he is the ruler over the entire land of Egypt; but he had a turn of heart, for he did not believe them. And they related to him all the words of Yosef that he had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons that Yoseph had sent to transport him, then the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived.” (Bereshis 45:26-27)
The sight of those wagons rejuvenated Yaakov, causing him to realize that Yosef was still alive.
We spoke in the past of the Medrash quoted by Rashi that the wagons (agalos) were a special sign that Yosef sent to his father, reminding Yaakov that the last Torah section they had studied together before they were separated for so many years was Eglah Arufah (the decapitated calf). The hint was based on the similarity between the word eglah and the word agala.
However, there can also be a p’shuto shel mikra (simple reading of the text): When Yaakov saw the wagons that Yosef sent to transport him and his family to Mitzrayim, his spirit returned to him. Why?
This can be understood with an analogy:
There is a fine pious Jew who lives in Brooklyn. He has a son who is “more modern,” who does not exactly follow in his father’s footsteps. The son goes off to college, which does not do much for his ruchniyus. He is still an Orthodox Jew, but not exactly on the same spiritual level as his father. He meets a girl. The father is not so happy with whom his son married. Then the son and his wife decide to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The father in Brooklyn misses his son. He calls him up and says “Son, it has been so long since I have seen you. I want to come visit you in New Mexico.” The son says, “You will schlep all the way to Santa Fe?” “Yes. I want to see you.” The last thing in the world this son wants is for his father from Brooklyn to come and see how he lives in Santa Fe. The father will see so many things which will displease him: How the house is run, how the wife dresses, how she acts. He will look in the refrigerator and see who knows what.
Seeking any way to avoid his father coming to Santa Fe, the son says to the father, “Dad, it is too big a deal for you to come from Brooklyn to Santa Fe. I will come to see you!” Why does he suggest that? It is because the last thing he wants is for the father to see how he lives in his new location. (I actually was in Santa Fe and saw the Chabad of Santa Fe, but it is far from an established Jewish community.)
Yosef was in Mitzrayim. He was away for so many years. He was cut off from any type of support system. There wasn’t even a Chabad of Mitzrayim! Yaakov could have thought “Who knows what could have happened to Yosef? What does he look like? What does his house look like?”
But what does Yosef do? He sends wagons to Yaakov to bring him to Mitzrayim so he can see how Yosef is living there! Yaakov felt, if Yosef is ready for me to see him and how he lives in his home territory, then I know one thing – he is still Yosef, my son. He is still Yosef haTzadik. Once Yaakov perceives that, his spirit is rejuvenated.
