וידברו אליו את כל דברי יוסף. פירש"י סימן מסר להם כשפירש ממנו היה עוסק בפרשת עגלה ערופה. וצריך פי' לפי' והכי רוצה לומר כי כשפירש מאביו היה מלוה אותו כדכתי' וישלחהו שהוא לשון לויה כמו וישלחו דכתיב גבי אברהם דמתרגמינן ואלויאו. ואמר לו יוסף חזור בך ואמר לו יעקב בני גדולה לויה שעליה נתוספה פרשה אחת בתורה דכתיב ידינו לא שפכה. וכי תעלה על דעתך שב"ד שופכי דמים אלא לא ראינוהו ופטרנוהו בלא לויה הא אם ראוהו ולא לווהו מעלה עליהם כאלו שפכו דמים והיינו פרשת עגלה ערופה שהיה עסוק בה. ויש אומרים שהיה עוסק בעגלה שמושכת בקרון וקשה לשני הפירושים לפרש עגלות לשון עגלה לכן נראה לפ' בפרשת עגלות המשכן דכתיב שש עגלות צב: וידברו אליו את כל דברי יוסף, “they said to him all the words Joseph had spoken. According to Rashi, Joseph conveyed to his father a code word that would convince him that only he could have known this. It concerned the subject matter that his father and he had been discussing when he accompanied him part of the way on his fateful journey. It dealt with someone being found dead on the road, someone whom no one knew and who had nothing on him that could identify him. This subject is discussed in chapter 21.of the Book of Deuteronomy. The hint was contained in the translation of the word וישלחהו, “he sent him off,” which the Targum renders in Genesis 12,20 when Pharaoh sent Avraham home as ואלויאו, “he gave him safe conduct.” Joseph had at the time told his father to go home, to which Yaakov had replied that it was a virtuous act to accompany someone departing some distance. He acquainted him at the time with the paragraph quoted from Deuteronomy chapter 21. He even pointed out the fact that failing to accompany a departing guest some distance, could make such a person liable to have to swear a sacred oath that he had not been negligent in this respect. The subject is discussed in the Talmud tractate Sotah chapter nine at length, where it is presumed that the word עגלות was supposed to refer to the heifer that would be the animal offered as atonement for this sin of negligence by the townspeople closest to the murdered person. Other commentators believe that what Yaakov and Joseph had been discussing was the subject of a carriage being pulled by a heifer (compare Sotah, folio 46.) In either event, it seems very forced to see in the carriages Joseph had sent to carry Yaakov’s family a reference to the word עגלה, heifer. It is more plausible that the hint had to do with the carriages used by the Jewish people to transport the parts of the Tabernacle that could not be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. (Compare Numbers 7,3)
וירא את העגלות. ותחי רוח יעקב אביהם. פי' כשראה העגלות חיתה רוחו והאמין כי קודם לכן צוה יוסף לבל יוציאו עגלות מארץ מצרים ועכשיו אמר פרעה ואתה צויתה זאת עשו קחו עגלות מה שאין אחרים רשאין להוציא ולכך כשראה העגלות האמין אמר בודאי מפי מלך הוא זה: וירא את העגלות....ותחי רוח יעקב אביהם, “when he saw the carriages, their father Yaakov’s spirits revived.” He was aware that previously the Egyptian ruler had absolutely forbidden that any carriages leave the boundaries of Egypt [in order not to enable horses to be exported from Egypt. Ed.] Now Pharaoh had relented and instructed Joseph to bring his family to Egypt by means of carriages. This turnaround convinced Yaakov that he and his family would be welcome in Egypt. He realised that such a command could only have been given by Pharaoh himself. [He had attributed antisemitic feeling in Egypt as dating back to when his grandmother had almost been raped there, had G–d not interfered. (Compare Genesis chapter 12 and the derogatory term used by Potiphar’s wife about the ‘Hebrew’ slave in Genesis 39,18. Ed.]