Torah Posting: מקץ
Two years later, Pharaoh has a disturbing dream.
He dreams of standing by the river — the Nile, the lifeblood of Mitzrayim — and seven healthy cows emerge from the water and eat of the reeds on the bank. Then seven lean, diseased cows emerge after the healthy ones and devour the healthy ones.
Pharaoh wakes up, then falls back asleep and has another disturbing dream. This one is pretty much the same if you substitute ears of corn for cows, although this dream specifies that the withered ones are “blasted by the east wind,” which sounds deep. I couldn’t tell you exactly why myself, but I know what land lies to the east of Mitzrayim, and that the Sun rises in that direction.
Pharaoh is disturbed by these twin dreams and their somewhat obvious symbolism, and he summons all the wizards and sages of Mitzrayim to interpret it all, but none of them can. Then the butler remembers Yosef like Yosef asked him to do two years ago. He tells Pharaoh the whole story and recommends the services of the “Hebrew” to his king.
Pharaoh summons Yosef, and Yosef is taken out of the dungeon, groomed, and brought before him. Pharaoh says he has heard Yosef can interpret dreams, and Yosef replies in the same way he did last time to Pharaoh’s servants in jail: “It’s not me! God is the one who will give you a favorable answer.”
So Pharaoh tells his dreams, and Yosef confirms that they are one dream. “God has declared to Pharaoh what God is about to do,” Yosef says. He interprets the seven healthy cows and stalks as seven years of plenty, and they will be followed by seven years of famine. And the famine will be rough; everyone will forget the years of plenty that happened before. Yosef says the repetition is God’s way of saying this has been decided, and now it will come to pass.
Yosef segues immediately into political advice. He suggests that Pharaoh appoint… you know, SOMEBODY wise and discerning to manage the country for him and oversee a national effort of stocking up for the famine. Pharaoh sees that, naturally, Yosef should receive this appointment, and so it is decided. Only Pharaoh himself will be more powerful than Yosef. He gives Yosef his own ring off his hand to signify it.
Yosef even receives an Egyptian royal name — צפנת פענח — and Asenat, the daughter of a powerful priest, as a wife. At 30 years old, after being sold off by his brothers, Yosef has deployed his signature combination of wisdom and trickiness to become one of the most politically powerful people in the world.
While overseeing this transformation of the Egyptian economy, Yosef and Asenat bear two sons, Menashe and Efrayim, in whose names Jewish sons are blessed by their parents every week to this day.
Everything comes to pass exactly as Yosef predicted, and when the people come crying to Pharaoh for bread as the famine sets in, Pharaoh directs them to Yosef and tells them to do as Yosef says. The famine spans the world, and even representatives from other countries come down to Mitzrayim for food.
Back in the Holy Land, Ya’akov — whom the text is still apparently calling that — looks around at his sons and says, “What are yall still doing here? I’ve heard they have corn down in Mitzrayim. Get down there and buy some, so we don’t die!”
So 10 of Yosef’s brothers head down to Mitzrayim. Ya’akov doesn’t want to lose another baby boy, so he makes Binyamin stay behind.
As the sons go down to Mitzrayim, now they are called “בני ישראל,” the children of Yisra’el, as all descendants of this lineage would one day be called.
When they appear before Governor Tzafnat P’aneah a.k.a. Yosef, he immediately recognizes them, but he decides to play the trickster Yosef game and stay in character. He remembers the dreams he had about ruling over them and probably chuckles to himself, and then he decides to ratchet up the tension. He accuses them of being spies come from Kena’an to bring back shameful reports of the barrenness of the land. The brothers beg him to understand that no, they are all the sons of one man back in Kena’an. They were 12, they say. There are 10 of them, they have one brother back with their father, and one brother who is no more.
Yosef uses this opportunity to accuse them of hiding something and says they will be imprisoned unless they send one brother back to go fetch their youngest brother and bring him here. He confines them for three days, and then he changes his order slightly. Only one brother must stay; the rest must go back to Kena’an and bring the food with them to feed their family. Then they must retrieve Binyamin and return for the brother who stays in Mitzrayim.
In their native language, the brothers bemoan their situation, which they consider to be punishment for the fate of their brother, Yosef. Re’uvein, the eldest, says “I told you so.” They do not know that Yosef can understand them; he has been speaking with them via an interpreter this whole time.
Yosef can’t contain himself and turns away to weep for a moment. Then he turns back and binds up Shim’on, gives orders to have the other brothers’ sacks filled with corn, and he also orders their money returned to them and for them to be provisioned for their round-trip journey. They don’t see this until they open their sacks to feed their donkeys before they leave, and it only frightens them more. Now they fear they will be punished by Yosef for stealing or something like that.
When they return to their father, Ya’akov, they relate the whole situation. Ya’akov wails in anguish. “You have bereaved me of my children!” he says, believing that Shim’on is dead, too, and that Binyamin will be killed now as well. Re’uvein swears this will not come to pass in a rather uncomfortable way, saying Ya’akov can kill Re’uvein’s own sons if this quest does not succeed. Not exactly keen on continuing the family son-murdering trauma, Ya’akov is not interested.
But eventually they run out of food again, and Ya’akov tells them to go back and buy a little food. Yehudah explains they can’t go without Binyamin. Ya’akov protests bitterly, but the sons solemnly swear to pull it off, and Ya’akov relents. He says to bring down some gifts and also to return the money they found in their sacks — perhaps it was an oversight. Ya’akov prays to God that they’ll be all right.
The brothers go back down to Mitzrayim and stand before Yosef. Once Yosef sees that everything is in order, he sends the brothers back to his own residence and orders a lunchtime feast prepared for all of them. They’re still frightened about what he’s going to do, and they try to return their money via Yosef’s steward, explaining exactly what happened in awkward detail, offering the additional gifts, and generally sucking up. But the steward says “שלום לכם” — “peace to you. The God of your ancestors gave you that money back.”
The brothers are brought into the residence and washed and prepared for the banquet. When Yosef arrives, they present their gifts, and Yosef asks after their father, and they tell him Ya’akov is well. Then, when Yosef sees young Binyamin, he is again unable to contain his emotion and shuffles out into his room to cry. Then he washes his face, composes himself, and returns.
They sit down to eat, but the brothers must sit by themselves. It is an abomination to the Mitzrim to eat with the Hebrews.
To the brothers’ continued perplexity, Binyamin is served a portion five times larger than any of the others. Nevertheless, they eat their fill and have a good time.
Yosef orders his steward to put all their money back in their sacks again, but he orders his own silver cup be placed in Binyamin’s sack. Then he sends them off in the morning, and Yosef sends his steward to pursue them, overtake them just outside the city, and then accuse them of stealing the governor’s cup.
The brothers respond incredulously, saying that whoever is found to have stolen this cup should be executed, because it was not them. Everybody takes down their sacks, and lo and behold, the cup is in Binyamin’s sack. They all begin to mourn, and they return to the city to accept their punishment.
Back at Yosef’s house, they fall before him on the ground, and Yosef towers over them, crowing about his obvious divination powers that showed him this treachery. They wail and offer themselves as bondmen, but Yosef says only the one who stole the cup shall be his bondman; the rest must return to their father.
The parashah ends here. The game is not over, but we can see how it is ending. Yosef will surely set things right, but he must do so in the most dramatic possible way, to ensure the lesson of all their trials and tribulations is properly taught.
You know what I love about Yosef? He has true divine powers, but he also knows the stage tricks of a proper magician. He has the kind of magic that makes things happen in the material world, the kind that works on people. And he has done great things with this power, both on the national scale and the family scale.
But he has also empowered the empire in the process, and what consequences might that have down the line?
🌽
