Parashat Miketz

It is almost time to wash the wax off our chanukiyot and set the table for Shabbat. Another Chanukah is over, and we will read and chant parashat Miketz, one more episode of “The Joseph Story” and one more link to the Exodus from Egypt. Though the Torah begins with enticement and temptation, murder, destruction, drunkenness, sibling rivalry, and outright deception, the truth is that God’s hand is in all of it. Family relationships, whether five thousand years ago or in the present day, are often fraught with drama, and the Torah shows us our first families, “warts and all.” But why? As we progress toward the end of the Book of Genesis, God is readying us to become a holy nation. These first families wrestle with all sorts of problems; indeed, some of them are not the nicest people. Yet the lessons they learn and the wisdom they gain will ultimately lead us out of slavery to freedom. “The Joseph Story” is part of the chain that joins the early first families to Moses. There are eighteen weeks and two days until Pesach. You do not have to remove your chametz just yet, but within three weeks, we will begin the Book of Exodus. Now, let us return to “The Joseph Story.”

Parashat Vayeshev ends with Joseph in prison. He has been wrongfully accused of attempting to seduce Potiphar’s wife, but “even while he was in prison, the Lord was with Joseph. . . .The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did the Lord made successful.” If you remember, it was a somewhat arrogant young Joseph who tattled on his brothers and told them his dream, that essentially they would bow down to him; Joseph also related a dream that “the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to him.” His brothers are angry, and a bit later, the brothers put Joseph in a pit and take his “coat of many colors”; Midianite traders pull Joseph out of the pit and sell him to Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; it is the Ishmaelites who take Joseph to Egypt. Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh, buys Joseph from the Ishmaelites, and the Torah says, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man, and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master.” It seems as if God makes Potiphar successful for Joseph. However, that success ends when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, and she is left holding his garment as he runs outside. In prison, Joseph meets a baker and a cupbearer, both of whom have dreams that need interpretation. 

Joseph’s experiences of being thrown into a pit and of being bought and sold have matured him; he tells the cupbearer and baker that “Surely God can interpret! Tell me [your dreams].” Joseph has begun to realize that he does not have a magical power; the power is all God’s. Even though he has asked the cupbearer “to think of me when all is well with you again, and do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, so as to free me from this place,” Parashat Vayeshev ends with the line, “Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Joseph; he forgot him.”

    When Parashat Miketz begins, two years have passed, and Joseph is still in prison; however, Pharaoh has had two dreams which have caused him to become “agitated.” The cupbearer remembers Joseph, who is brought to Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s statement that, “Now I have heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning.” Again, Joseph reiterates, “Not I! God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare.” Pharaoh’s dreams, one of fat and lean cows, and the other of healthy and of shriveled ears of grain, lead to Joseph becoming second-in-command to Pharaoh. Joseph will save Egypt from famine and rise to power, and as we later learn, he will save his estranged family, as well. His two dreams as a feckless youth have parallels in his interpretations of the cupbearer’s and baker’s dreams, and in his interpretations of Pharaoh’s dreams. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l notes that “the reason that Pharaoh has had two dreams, not one, is because a twofold dream implies that ‘God is firmly resolved on this plan, and very soon He will put it into effect’” (41:32).  

Yet, by the beginning of the Book of Exodus, “A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.” That seems a bit of an echo of the last line of Parashat Vayeshev: “Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Joseph; he forgot him.” Slavery, plagues, wandering in the wilderness, the Aseret HaDibrot (The Ten Statements, AKA The Ten Commandments), the construction of the Mishkan, commandments, festivals, suffering and celebration. God’s hand is in all of these situations; God is building a holy nation.

As we put our chanukiyot away, we know that Shabbat will begin a minute or two later each week. Days will become a bit longer. We will pray for better news about Israeli hostages and about Israel. According to the Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter questioned, “What can be learned from this parashah to prepare ourselves in good days, days in which holiness is revealed, to set the light in our hearts, to be there in times when holiness seems far off?” “We must store up resources of faith, even as the Egyptians stored grain, to nourish us spiritually when events turn against us.” And of course, we must not forget the ultimate narrative of the Torah: “Remember, I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods besides Me” (Exod. 20:2-3). Eighteen weeks and two days!