RAV KOOK ON Vayeishev Part 1: The Nature of Exile

"They took Joseph and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty, without water in it” (Gen. 37:24). When the brothers threw Joseph into the pit, the exile began — not just Joseph’s personal exile from his father’s house and the Land of Israel. From that dark, empty pit, began the exile of the entire Jewish people to Egypt. Joseph’s pit is a metaphor for Galut, for each exile of the Jewish people from their land.