Vayeshev 2023
In this week's Torah portion, Vayeshev, Yosef is 17 years old and quite self-involved. He is a dreamer and, as Rashi tells us, constantly coming his hair, and overly concerned with his outward appearance. He seems haughty, declaring his dreams to his family, which are perceived by his father and brothers as being about Yosef’s own power. At the beginning of the parsha, everything revolves around him and his father plays into this by giving him the kitonet pasim, the coat of many colors, which tags him as his father’s favorite.
But Yosef changes. By the end of the portion, Yosef is using his charisma and good looks, not for himself, but for God and for the good of others. He confidently convinces Pharaoh of his dream interpretation suggesting a way to avoid the coming famine, and instead of taking credit for the interpretation of the dreams, he says, “God will interpret Pharaoh's dreams.”
What is the catalyst which changes Yosef from someone so self-involved into Yosef the Righteous who uses his powers to put God in the center and to help save Egypt and the world from famine? I think it is his time in prison. At the beginning of the portion, he is the dreamer, but after a few years of suffering he becomes the interpreter of the dreams of others. In fact, this focus on the dreams of others, according to the Medrash, becomes the foundation for Jewish redemption. As the Jerusalem Talmud states (Tractate Pesachim):
From where do we know about the Four Cups at the Seder?...Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said, corresponding to the four cups of Pharaoh in the dream of the wine steward: “The cup of Pharaoh was in my hand; I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup in Pharaoh's hand. You will give the cup in the hand of Pharaoh.”
It is hard to get out of our own heads and focus on the dreams of others, to be humble enough to listen to and to care about how others see the future. But this is an important element in learning from others, getting beyond ourselves and joining together as a community and a nation to bring a more redemptive time. When things are difficult for us as individuals or for our nation it is easy to be despondent. But we can learn from Yosef that precisely when things are dark, when we find ourselves in the pit, it is there that we must look around, listen to the dreams of others, learn from them and use our particular strengths to help bring about redemption.
