The Full Circle

When Yosef sends the wagons to carry his father and family to Egypt the possuk describes their journey as going up to Egypt.  The language of the possuk is ונשאתם.  This is a strange terminology to be used for in last week's parsha the Torah calls it a ירידה when heading to Egypt, so why here does it refer to arriving in Egypt as going up?  The Shem M'Shmuel explains that a wagon is called a עגלה   which comes from the word עגול - circle, because it moves on wheels which go around.  Yosef was hinting to Yaakov that yes you are going down into golus but don't worry for you will rise even higher because of it.  It is downward spin, but the wheel will spin up again.  See the letters of Rav Kook volume 1 #332 where he says that even though on the power of the individual there is a general principle of נתקטנו הדורות and we become weaker as time goes on, on a national level, in regard to the totality of Klal Yisroel, each generation builds upon the previous and there is more light in the world (see the letter inside, very important message about chinuch and kiruv in our times.) The move to golus would serve not as a period of darkness, it would be an oppurtunity to bring light into the darkest depths of the planet.  Possibly that's why Hashem appeared to Yaakov before he went to Egypt at night.  Why do we need to know Hashem came to him at night?  The message was that the night, the darkness of golus will be illuminated by the kedusha of Klal Yisroel.  The darkness is temporary, but in the future, it will be illuminated with God's presence.

Hashem tells Yaakov that “Yosef will place his hands on your eyes”.  The meforshim explain this to mean that Yosef would outlive Yaakov (see Even Ezra and Or Hachaim.)  The Zohar says this is the secret of shema.  (That is how the Kol Aryeh cites it, though I couldn’t find it inside.) What is the connection between this possuk and shemah?  The Kol Aryeh explains that we place our hands over our eyes by shema to indicate whether we experience the attributes of Hashem from the side of chesed or the side of gevurah (Hashem Elokenu,) it is Hashem echad and either way it is for our benefit even if we don’t see it.  Even if our eyes our covered, we can't see how this will work out, we trust that its all for our benefit.  This is exemplified in the story of Yosef for what seemed to be a terrible predicament, being sold into slavery and then thrown into jail turned out to be the mechanism to became viceroy over Egypt and set up Klal Yisroel for the golus.  That is what Hashem was telling Yaakov; even though it seems to be terrible to have to go to golus it will end up being for the benefit of Klal Yisroel.  Hence the possuk is rendered as follows, Yosef is the proof that when on'e eyes are covered, when one meets up with what appears as middas hadin, it will turn out to be a great chesed.

It might be possible to use this idea to answer a famous question on Rashi.  Rashi says that when Yaakov saw Yosef, he said shema.  The question is why did only Yaakov say shema at that moment and not Yosef?  If it was the time to say shema, then both should say shema, and if it wasn’t the time, then neither of them should say shema?  Based upon the Kol Aryeh we can understand why it was only Yaakov that recited shema and not Yosef. It was the sight of Yosef that helped Yaakov grasp the sod of shema.  He now saw the full circle, he was able to understand how the years of separation where not years of empty pain but were years of setting up a brighter future.  Now that Yaakov grasped the message, he was able to internalize that the golus will have a similar affect, he felt no need to worry.  Yosef on the other hand, lived through the circle, it was not a novelty to him and therefore he didn't have to recite the shema.