Vayeshev 1993

In the Torah portion Vayeshev we learn about Joseph and his troubles.  We learn how he tells his dreams to his brothers, how he tattletales on his brothers, how his father loves him more than all the other of his children and gives him a special coat.  When Joseph goes to see his brothers in Schem they plan to kill him.  However, Reuven saves him by having him put in a pit.  Reuven says, "Why should we actively kill our brother? Let's kill him passively," and later Judah saves him from passive death by having him sold to a caravan going down to Egypt.  Then we learn how when Joseph was in Egypt he is sold to Potifar and he rises quickly to become the majordomo of all his property but then the wife of Potifar sets her eyes upon Joseph and tries to seduce him.  He refuses and is accused of raping her and he is sent to prison.  There once again he, in effect, became the majordomo of the prison.  There when he was in prison the butler and baker of the king had been imprisoned and they had a dream and each of their dreams affected them and they were sad, and Joseph told them, "Isn't G-d the interpreter of all dreams? Tell me, please, your dream, and perhaps I can interpret it." They were not up to this time able to interpret their dream.  The question the rabbis ask is, how did Joseph get the nerve and self-confidence to feel that he could interpret their dreams? How did Joseph maintain his self-confidence after he suffered so many knocks in life? Here he had been rejected by his brothers, they had tried to kill them, then sold him as a slave.  When he finally achieved a position in Egypt he was immediately accosted by the wife of his master and once again thrown into prison.  He had one hard knock after another.  How did Joseph get the strength of character to persevere in the face of all these misfortunes? Why didn't he just give up? What made him feel that he could overcome all his problems and continue on?
Well, if we look carefully at Joseph's dream we will see that Joseph really had two dreams originally.  He had a dream of making sheaves, of binding up sheaves, and how all the other brothers' sheaves would stand and bow down to his sheave

and he also had a dream of the moon and the sun and the “ stars bowing down to
him.  He had two types of dreams.  He had a spiritual dream and he also had a
physical dream, the stars and the moon were a spiritual dream.  Joseph had an
idea.  He had a goal.  He had a dream which filled his life.  He was able to overcome
all his obstacles because he understood that in order to affect your dream on
this earth it is difficult and filled with hardship, that anytime you try to undertake
the Implementing of a dream in the real world it Is tough.  That Is why his first
dream, the dream about the binding of sheaves, and you know before you can make
bread from the sheaves you had to not only gather the grain but you had to bind
it and then after you bound it you had to thresh it and transport it to make your
flour in order to make bread.  It had to be ground.  It was difficult work.  It
was not easy work.  In order for the dream to be Implemented In the real world
It took a lot of effort.  In fact, that is actually the same type of Interpretation
that he gave to the butler and the baker.  We notice that in the butler's dream
the butler was doing something.  It was said in the butler's dream that there
were 3 branches and it was budding and Its blossoms shot forth and it bloomed,
and then clusters brought forth ripe grapes and the cup of Pharaoh was in his
hand and he took the grapes and pressed them Into Pharaoh's cup and  gave the
cup to Pharaoh.  The baker, on the other hand, had a passive dream.  We notice
in the butler's dream it talks about the fact that there were branches and that
the branches brought forth blossoms and these blossoms fell off and left the fruit,
and the butler may be discouraged but if you look you have a beautiful flower
and look this beautiful flower falls away but yet eventually you get to the fruit
and It is the fruit which is the most important thing.  In life many times we
go through many vicissitudes and the flower falls away but we are left with a
hard fruit but It is actually the fruit which gives us the nourishment.  It is
the fruit which we really need.  In the baker's dream all he did was walk and
on top of his head he saw that there were three baskets filled with white bread

and the upper baskets which had all sorts of baked foods, the birds came and ate
from the basket which was on top of his head.  Here the baker did absolutely nothing.
He was not pressing grapes.  All he saw was 3 baskets and on top of them birds
were eating the white bread.  Here he was so passive that he could not even serve
as a good scarecrow.  He did absolutely nothing, and, therefore, because he remained
passive, because he did not try to fight his troubles, because he did not try
to overcome them he ended up, of course, by failing and by himself being executed
by Pharaoh.  Joseph was able to maintain his self-confidence because he had a
goal.  In fact, this is emphasized again when he went to look for his brothers.
He came to Schema and they were not there and a man found them wandering in a
field and he asked this man, "What do you seek?" And he said, "My brothers I
seek." He had a goal. What are you seeking? He knew what he sought.  He sought
the unity of the Jewish people.  He did not want to destroy the family.  He had
a vision of the Jewish people united being able to help the world, to redeem the
world.  He knew where he was going, which was different than Judah, who after
Joseph was sold it says, "And Yehuda went down in his own estimation and in the
estimation of the brothers, too." Here Judah was supposed to be a leader.  He
was supposed to tell the brothers what the right thing was, and the brothers now,
of course, blamed Judah when they saw how much their father was suffering.  They
said, "Judah, you are our leader.  If you would have told us the right thing we
would have done it." They may or may not have but Judah had this type of responsibility.
Judah did not have clear in his mind his mission that he had to maintain the energy
of the Jewish people and that he had to do things that were moral and just if
the Jewish people were to be fulfilled in their mission in the world and here
he did not promote the Jewish community and he did not do a moral and a just thing.
Also, Joseph knew that his brothers were wrong when they attacked him.  The rabbis
say that they felt that Joseph deserved the death penalty and that they had discussed
all sorts of issues to prove that Joseph was a detriment to the family, but Joseph

knew that this was not true because if it would have been true they would have done it in the open daylight.  They would have involved their father in this court, so to speak.  He also knew that Judah knew that he was not guilty of anything because if he would have been guilty of anything Judah, himself, would have come forward and would not have saved him the way that he eventually saved him by having him sold as a slave, but he knew that his brothers knew that he was innocent of all these charges and that he was being put upon and that his brothers had done the wrong thing.  Joseph was able to maintain his self-confidence and was able to maintain his self-esteem because he knew that he was doing the best he could, and he knew that he had a goal.  He did not know G-d’s ways, and G-d many times gives us many obstacles to overcome in order to achieve what are His goals, G-d's goals but we do not understand how the world works.  What we are just supposed to understand is that we are to continue to do the best that we can, that we are to continue to live the moral life and the just life and that if we do the gest that we can and if we keep in mind that it is our job to inform this world with a spiritual vision and that we have clear goals then we will be able to overcome all of the problems that we see confronting us in the world.
I am reminded of the story they tell about a politician who said, "You know, it doesn't matter in congress whether you win or lose.  What really counts is how you place the blame." Well, in life it is not important how you place the blame. It is the exact opposite of the politician. We should not blame this one or that one.  If we run into troubles or difficulties we should just persevere and remember that we are working for a goal and that we should try to achieve this goal, the goal of achieving Jewish unity so that we can implement the values of our religion in a proper and correct way so that the world, itself, can be redeemed.  If we will keep this goal clearly in mind then truly we can through our combined efforts bring the Mashiach,  May He come soon.  Amen.