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Automatic transcript; may contain mistakes, especially in Hebrew.
In this week's parasha, we find the mitzvah of the Egl Arrufah. The Egl Arrufah, of course, is what we must do when we find someone who's murdered in the field between two cities. The elders of the city come out, the Kohanim come out, members of the Sanhedrin are sent to measure the distance between the two cities to see which city he was closer to, and then they bring a karban as a kapara and ask forgiveness for this person that was killed. Many reasons are given for this. One of the reasons given is that chazal say. that a person, when he left the city, perhaps we were not malava him out and he didn't feel safe, and as a result of his psychological feeling of a lack of safety, he ended up being murdered, and in some way, that city is responsible for his death. Midrash tells us that Yosef HaTzadik, when he was sent by his father Yaakov to go visit his brothers, taught him the lesson of the Egl HaRufah before he left. Of course, Yosef went to his brothers, ultimately was thrown into the pit,
sold down to Mitzrayim, where he remained for 22 years as a slave. Midrash tells us that when it was time to bring Yaakov down to Mitzrayim, Yosef HaTzadik sent agalot, he sent wagons down, and when Yaakov Avinu saw that the viceroy of Mitzrayim was sending these agalot, he understood that it was a reference to the Egl HaRufah, and as a result he was convinced that Yosef HaTzadik was indeed still alive. The question is, why would Yaakov have his last lesson to Yosef HaTzadik be the lesson of the Egl HaRufah? And what was so astounding to him that when he saw it, he knew for sure that this was Yosef HaTzadik. Lubavitcher Rebbe explains very beautifully that a field is a place of desolation. It's an unprotected environment. And we have people from our community that are going out into the field. They're dropping out. They're leaving their Yiddishkeit behind. The question is, what message should we be giving to these people that are out in the field?
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The message of the Egl Arufa is that we are a community. And that when one of us dies, when one of us is under threat, it's all of our responsibility to let that person know that they matter. Ultimately, the biggest reason for a person dropping out of life is because nobody cares about them. That's why when someone leaves a city and no one is malava them out, it's so dangerous. Because when you feel like you're alone in life, you're subject to attack. And this is what's going on all around us. People are dropping out of our community because they don't feel like they matter. They don't feel like they're a part of our community. The message that Yaakov Avinu was sending to Yosef HaTzadik is on some level Yaakov understood, that it was a dangerous situation he was sending Yosef HaTzadik into. We could discuss why he was doing it, but regardless, it was a situation that Yaakov Avinu understood was dangerous. And the message he was telling him as he was about to begin his galos, was, you matter. No matter where you go, whether it's the house of Potiphar,
or whether it's the jail in Mitzrayim, or whether it's the viceroy of Mitzrayim, you are an infinite part of Klal Yisrael. And Klal Yisrael cannot exist without you. That's what it means. Yisrael is yesh shishim ribli ois yesh latayru. There are 600,000 letters in the Torah. Each one of us represents a letter. Without that letter, the Torah is pasal. It's our responsibility to let everybody in our community know that they matter. Mimela, we can understand that when Yosef HaTzadik sends the agalot, sends the wagons back to his father, to Yaakov Avinu, after 22 years, he's not just sending him a message. I remember the last lesson. It's a proof that I'm alive. Yaakov Avinu could have very well believed that he was alive. Why would he have any reason to doubt that if they're coming and giving him this message? But perhaps he was saying something more. Perhaps he was saying, I've been to the depths of Mitzrayim. I've seen the worst possible things you can see in terms of a society, but I've maintained loyalty to our beliefs, to our family, to our God, because the message you sent me with was no matter where I go, you're here with me.
That's why when Yosef HaTzadik was in the house of Potiphar, it was the image of Yaakov Avinu that he saw in the window, because even in his lowest moments, he knew his father still cared about him. I think that's a tremendous lesson for all of us, especially as we're here in Elul, to know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu cares about every single one of us, that every single one of us is an infinite part of the community that can never be replaced. Let's incorporate that message into our own lives, and then let's share it with the rest of Klal Yisrael.
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