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Parshat Miketz
2002
Saving Up for Lean Times Ahead
At the beginning of this Torah portion, Joseph is languishing in prison, unjustly accused, when Pharaoh has two disturbing dreams. First, he sees seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the Nile and they are eaten up by seven lean; sickly cows. After the lean cows have consumed the seven healthy cows, they are no fatter or healthier than they were before. Pharaoh wakes and has a second dream, virtually identical to the first, except that it concerns ears of corn instead of cattle. Upon awakening, he calls for all the wise men and magicians of Egypt, but none can interpret the dream. Pharaoh's chief butler then recalls Joseph, who correctly interpreted the butler's and baker's dreams in prison, and Joseph is taken from prison, cleaned up, and brought before Pharaoh.
Genesis 41:14-16
Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes and he appeared before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have had a dream, but no one can interet it. Now I have heard that you can understand (tishmah) a dream to interpret it." Joseph answered Paraoh saying, "Not I! God will see to Pharaoh's welfare."
The Hebrew word used for "understand" in verse 15 is "tishma." Rashi, in his commentary, makes note of the fact that to listen carefully, to really pay heed, is to understand.
Joseph, however, declines to take credit, and, just as he had done when he interpreted the butler's and baker's dreams in prison, he invokes God's name, saying, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
Your Torah Navigator
Why could Joseph interpret the dream when the wise men and magicians of Egypt could not?
Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream to mean that the next seven prosperous years will be followed by seven lean years, but he does not stop there. Joseph adds that Pharaoh should appoint an administrator to save grain from the prosperous years so that there will be food in Egypt during the famine to come. The commentator Ramban explains that Joseph would not be so chutzpahdik as to offer this as advice to Pharaoh - was he hired as a dream interpreter or an economic advisor? Rather, the advice is part of the dream, based on verse 4. According to Ramban, the lean cows swallowing the fat cows indicated to Joseph that the prosperity of the good years would sustain Egypt during the years of famine. Egypt would not grow fat during the famine, but would survive on a subsistence level.
Commentator Navigator
How does Ramban's interpretation preserve the integrity of the dream as one sent by God?
A Word
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, the author of S'fat Emet asks, "What can be learned from this parashah to prepare ourselves in good days, days in which holiness is revealed, to set the lights in our hearts, to be there in times when holiness seems far off." There are times in our lives when we have everything we could want, and times when we are sorely in need. There are times when we feel loved, successful, happy and on top of the world. There are times when we feel lonely, betrayed and misunderstood. During the good times, we think God is with us, and during the bad, it is easy to think that God has abandoned us. Just as Joseph helped the Egyptians save food from the good years to sustain them through the famine, we can use our own good times to sustain us through bad ones.
Prepared by Rabbi Leslie Bergson, Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director, The Claremont Colleges.
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