Freeing the Spirit
Parshas Vayeishev
Posted
on December 18, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner
Divine providence seems to work in strange ways, especially
for Joseph languishing in an Egyptian prison. Unjustly accused of making
advances to Potiphar’s wife, Joseph has been thrown into the dungeon and left
there to rot. But destiny requires that he be released and elevated to high
office in the royal palace, and to affect this important result, divine
providence arranges a very outlandish set of circumstances.
As we read in this week’s Torah portion, ten years after
his incarceration Joseph meets up with two discredited palace functionaries,
the royal cupbearer and the royal baker. One morning, he finds them despondent.
He questions them and discovers that they both had disturbing dreams the
previous night. He offers astute interpretations of their dreams, and the
sequence of events bears out his predictions. Two years later, when Pharaoh has
his own puzzling dreams, the cupbearer remembers Joseph’s interpretive skills
and recommends him to Pharaoh. Joseph is brought to the palace, where his
brilliant interpretations and wisdom win him high office, and the rest is
history.
This story certainly makes for high drama, but why were all
these farfetched developments necessary? Why didn’t divine providence manifest
itself in a simpler way? Couldn’t Joseph’s release and rise to power have been affected
through more commonplace events?
The commentators explain that Joseph’s release from prison
is meant to serve as a paradigm of the ultimate in human emancipation. The
vicissitudes of life can cause a person to experience confinement of many
sorts, not only physical incarceration but also psychological and emotional
bondage of the spirit, which can often be far more painful. How is a person to
extricate himself from these situations? How can he escape the isolation
sometimes imposed by his conditions?
The answer is to focus on the needs of others. As long as a
person is absorbed in his own miserable condition, he cannot help but wallow in
self-pity to some degree and to walk on the edge of despair. Once he shifts his
focus to others, however, his presence in confinement is no longer purposeless
and negative. On the contrary, his is a positive presence bringing relief to
others and fulfillment to himself. By freeing the spirit, he will in effect
have emancipated himself from the shackles of his condition.
Joseph personified this approach. Unjustly accused and
imprisoned, he did not withdraw into himself to bemoan his awful fate. Instead,
he immediately became the heart and soul of the prison, always there to help a
stricken inmate. In this sense, he affected his own emancipation even as he
still remained confined within the prison walls. And to drive home the point, Hashem contrived that his actual physical
release should also be the result of the kindness he performed for others.
A prisoner was thrown into a cell with a large number of other prisoners.
The walls of the prison were thick and damp, and high up on one side, far above
the heads of even the tallest prisoners, was a tiny, heavily barred window that
looked out over a barren piece of land. Every day, the new prisoner would drag
his bed to the wall under the window. Then he would climb onto the bed, stand
on his tiptoes and, stretching, was just able to rest his chin on the stone
window sill. The other prisoners gathered in groups to talk or play games, but
the new prisoner never participated. He just stood there all day, staring out
the window.
“What do you see out there?” a prisoner asked him.
“Nothing,” he replied.
“Then why do you stand there all day?”
“As long as I look out at the world outside,” the new
prisoner replied, “I still feel a little connection with it. I still have a
little bit of my freedom. But once I turn away from this window and look only
at the cell and my cellmates, all my freedom will be gone. Once
I surrender to my situation, I will truly be imprisoned.”
In our own lives, we are often pummeled by the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune.
Assailed by financial difficulties, family and childrearing
problems, pressure in the workplace and all sorts of other strains and
stresses, we can easily find ourselves becoming gloomy and depressed. So
what can we do? How can we regain the equilibrium and morale we need to deal
with our problems constructively? By throwing ourselves into helping families
less fortunate than ourselves or an important community project. For one
thing, focusing on others immediately relieves the distress of our own
situations. But more important, it elevates us spiritually and allows us to
view our troubles in the broader perspective of what has lasting value in the
ultimate scheme of things and what does not.
Text Copyright © 2008 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
The Spark that is the Key to Jewish Endurance
Parshas Vayeishev
Posted
on November 26, 2021 (5782) By Mordechai Dixler | Series: Lifeline | Level: Beginner
A merchant once entered the marketplace, his camels loaded
high with flax to sell. A blacksmith noticed the spectacle of tall, cumbersome
loads of flax, and wondered aloud, “Where will all that flax go?!” A clever
fellow answered him, “What’s the problem? One blow of your bellow could send a
spark onto all that flax, and burn it until nothing is left!” (Midrash BR 84:5)
Last week’s Torah portion concluded with a lengthy
accounting of Esau’s descendants, consisting of many prominent families and
nations. Jacob, with his 12 sons, was just beginning to establish the Jewish
nation, and Jacob felt intimidated by the growing dominance of his brother
Esau. Like the blacksmith, he wondered, what will happen to this little nation
of Jews, when they are threatened by oppressors and influences from mighty
kingdoms? Just as a small town would appear too small to consume massive piles of
flax, the Jewish people would be no match for the overwhelming pressure they
would face among the kingdoms of Esau.
The answer, says the Midrash, is
“These are the descendants of Jacob, Joseph… (Gen. 37:2)” Joseph, who
faithfully kept to the moral values of his father’s house, and overcame
tremendous challenges (as recorded in this week’s portion), would be the key to
survival through the generations. “The house of Jacob will be the fire, the
house of Joseph the flame, and the house of Esau the straw (Ovadiah 1).” A
spark will come from Joseph that will burn up any threat. (See Rashi Gen. 37:1)
Chanukah marks the Jewish victory over the Greeks. The
threat from Greece was not so much a threat to Jewish lives, but a threat to
the lifeblood of the Jewish nation: G-d’s Torah. All the decrees against the
Jewish people were designed to erase Torah study and Mitzvah observance.
If successful, the Jews would assimilate and lose all
identity. How could this little Jewish nation possibly face the world power of
Greece and Greek culture? Inspired by the steadfast strength of Joseph, Judah
Maccabee, his brothers, and all those who would stand for G-d’s Torah and
service, bravely dared to oppose the Greeks. G-d was
impressed by their intense faith and gave them a miraculous victory over the
Greek armies, restoring their liberty to practice and study G-d’s Torah. The
light of the Torah, that spark of their ancestors, burned up the threat of the
most dominant culture.
This Chanukah, let’s remember the sacrifice of our faithful
ancestors, and G-d’s hand that guided us to victory. The miracle of the oil
made it clear for all generations that G-d defends
those faithful to Torah, and its eternal flames will always give us the
strength to continue in our devoted service of the Al-mighty.
