PIKESVILLE, Maryland — The biblical portion Mikkets, Genesis 41:1-44:17, is fascinating. It reveals some different, more mature, and intelligent acts by Jacob’s son Joseph than the 17-year-old youngster who tormented his brothers who sold him into slavery. Still, there are some questionable, even troubling, behaviors.
Joseph knew about a series of two dreams experienced by his father Jacob when he fled from his home and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder in Genesis 28:12-15, and secondly, during his return some 20 years later to the same area where he dreams of his battle with a stranger in 32:25-30.
He experienced the second dual set in which he saw himself rule over his family in 37:5-10.
He listened to and interpreted the two dreams, one each from two of Pharaoh’s officials in 40:5-13.
Then, in 41:1-36, he was summoned before Pharaoh to interpret his two dreams.
All were two dreams. The fact that there were two in each event signifies to the interpreter, Joseph in this case, that dual dreams are important to the dreamer.
Joseph learned two more things about dreams, both of which Sigmund Freud later relearned. First, people frequently have dreams with symbols prompted by their daily concerns. Second, while in prison for the attempted rape of his master’s wife, he learned from prison talk about the background of two fellow imprisoned Pharaoh officials and realized that this knowledge helped him predict the future of each of them.
Pharaoh first requested an interpretation from Egyptian wise men. They also understood that dreams are provoked by daily concerns but thought Pharaoh was concerned about himself. Recalling his last lesson, that the imprisoned officials were worried about their jobs, Joseph realized that Pharaoh was concerned about his role as ruler and protector of Egypt and its citizens, not his personal life.
He used these three-fold dream interpretation understandings and skills when he spoke with Pharaoh and one more – a very important one. As a 17-year-old, he showed pride while telling his dreams to his family and received a rebuke from his father and hatred from his brothers for this behavior. He learned from this experience not to praise himself. In his conversation with Pharaoh, he repeated more than once that the interpretation he was giving came from God. This self-effacement affected Pharaoh greatly. It was an addition to Joseph’s interpretation, like the sweet icing placed on a cake, and so was the effacement to the interpretation. The two, the interpretation and effacement, prompted him to free Joseph from prison and elevate him to be a top Egyptian official.
What I described shows that Joseph was able to learn from his experiences, and we can learn from his behaviors.
This is one reason why the Torah tells this tale.
These were not the only skills Joseph learned. My son Stephen reminded me that Joseph spent years as the overseer in the house of the Egyptian Potiphar. While there, he learned how to manage food, a skill he used when he oversaw food rationing during the seven years of famine in Egypt.
Scholars of all kinds, Jewish and non-Jewish, have puzzled over Pharaoh naming Joseph “Zaphenath-paneah” in 41:45, a name never repeated, and the word “paneah” never recurring in any form in the Torah. Some scholars think it is a misspelling; others believe it is Egyptian, but nobody knows. The accepted meaning, pure guesswork, is “the one who explains hidden things.” A later scholar used it as the title of his book.
But Joseph was not perfect. During the years he was second only to Pharaoh, he never attempted to notify his father that he was still alive. He did not bother to find out if his dad was still living. He tormented his brothers when they came for food for their starving father, his wife, children, and their families. He did not tell them who he was when they came to Egypt to buy food.
He insisted his brothers bring their youngest brother if they came again, even though his brothers told him their father did not want Benjamin to leave home and that he feared losing Benjamin as he lost Joseph. He knew this would agonize not only them but also their aged father. He demonstrated that he controlled the situation by imprisoning them for three days and kept his brother Shimon in prison when the others were released. He then taunted them by placing the money they gave him for the food they purchased in their package. They trembled for a long time, perhaps for more than a year, believing they would be charged and killed for robbery and worried about Shimon.
When they returned to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph placed his silver goblet and the new purchase funds in their package to taunt them again. He charged Benjamin with robbery. This time, he increased the pressure. He sent people to pursue his brothers. We can assume it was a platoon of armed soldiers to arrest them. Imagine their fear when they saw the soldiers.
Thus, this portion shows Joseph learning much from his experiences as he grew older, but not enough.
*
Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and the author of more than 50 books.
