Parashat HaShavua - Miketz
How can our understanding of today, and our ability to shape the future, be informed and illuminated by the past? Generally speaking, Pharaoh’s dreams in this week’s parsha of Miketz seem pretty straightforward; seven gaunt and unhealthy cows and wheat stalks consuming seven of each that were robust and healthy were God’s way of saying that seven years of scarcity will overwhelm seven years of plenty. The ruach elohim of Yosef – God’s divine spirit – of course gave him insight that Pharaoh and his courtiers did not have, but still, it all seems straightforward enough!
Not so fast, teaches Rabbi David Fohrman. (AlephBeta.org.) He points out the remarkable coincidences between the language used to describe the cows and the language used to describe Yosef, his mother Rachel and his stepmother Leah. First, the healthy cows, representing seven years of plenty, are described as “attractive in appearance with robust flesh, and they pastured in the marshland / יְפ֥וֹת מַרְאֶ֖ה וּבְרִיאֹ֣ת בָּשָׂ֑ר וַתִּרְעֶ֖ינָה בָּאָֽחוּ.” (Gen. 41:2) Two people are described this way in the Torah: Yosef and Rachel. For both, the Torah uses the language of “attractive features and attractive appearance / יְפַת־תֹּ֖אַר וִיפַ֥ת מַרְאֶֽה.” (Gen. 29:17 regarding Rachel, and said in the masculine for Yosef in 39:6.)
And the unhealthy cows? Pharaoh’s language for them echoes how Leah is described, though not exactly. Those cows, according to Pharaoh, are “the meager cows / הַפָּר֔וֹת הָֽרַקּ֖וֹת.” (Gen. 41:20) That negative adjective of “rakot” for the cows is a homonym for how the Torah describes the eyes of Leah rather uncharitably: “Leah’s eyes were weak / וְעֵינֵ֥י לֵאָ֖ה רַכּ֑וֹת.” (Gen. 37:2) There too, the negative adjective is pronounced “rakot.”
Coincidence? Rabbi Fohrman certainly thinks not, and the evidence is convincing. Yosef can see his own life in this dream: he and his mother, both “attractive in appearance / יְפ֥וֹת מַרְאֶ֖ה,” were in a sense swallowed up by the children of Leah, whose eyes were “rakot,” like those unhealthy cows. Rachel could not conceive while Leah had six children, after which Rachel had her two children, only to die tragically after giving birth to her second. Subsequently, Yosef is actually literally swallowed up by his brothers, most of whom are Leah’s children, when they throw him into a pit. He temporarily escapes that fate in Egypt when he works for Potiphar, only to find himself again thrown into a pit when he goes to prison, accused of adultery.
And there is more. Rabbi Fohrman points out that the analogy between Yosef’s life and Pharaoh’s dreams seems to break down when you consider that seven of each type of cow and stalk do not align with the numbers for Yosef and his brothers. However, the number seven has a different significance in Yosef’s life: his father Yaakov worked seven years for the right to marry his mother Rachel, only to be tricked into marrying Leah first and needing to work another seven years for Rachel. Fourteen years, to match the fourteen years represented in Pharaoh’s dreams! Not only that, but remember how the Torah describes the years he worked in anticipation of marrying Rachel: “they appeared to him like a few days / וַיִּֽהְי֤וּ בְעֵינָיו֙ כְּיָמִ֣ים אֲחָדִ֔ים.” (Gen. 29:20) Similarly, Egypt’s years of plenty will be forgotten according to Yosef: “all the plenty will be forgotten / וְנִשְׁכַּ֥ח כָּל־הַשָּׂבָ֖ע.” (Gen. 41:30)
In light of this profound comparison between Pharaoh's dreams and Yosef’s life, it seems to me that when Yosef saw his own life in Pharaoh’s dreams, he could have easily felt even further trapped in an inescapable pattern. ‘This is how my life played out,’ he might have thought, ‘and it is how the world works; I have been swallowed up, and now Egypt will be too.’ Instead, he seized the opportunity to learn from his own experiences how to flip the script, thus enabling Egypt to save itself and feed an entire region. He has a chance to ‘do over,’ and does not squander it.
May we all be blessed with this sense of perspective and self-awareness, and an ability to recognize opportunities in our lives to learn from past difficulties and challenges; and may we use those experiences to our advantage as we build a better future.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head (Ivrit/Tanach/Toshba)
Rabbinic Advisor