Rabbi Cohen answers the phone. "Hello, is this Rabbi Sam Cohen?" "It is."
"This is the IRS. Can you help us?" "I can."
"Do you know a Frank Schwartz?" "I do."
"Is he a member of your congregation?" "He is."
"Did he donate $100,000,000 to the synagogue?" "He will."
The story is riveting in this week's Torah portion Miketz. Joseph, sold by his brothers into slavery, is languishing in an Egyptian prison pit, where he interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker. Two years later, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has two dreams. In the first, Pharaoh sees himself standing over the Nile River, "And, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows, handsome and fat of flesh and they fed in the reed grass. And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the River, ugly and lean of flesh and stood by the other cows upon the bank of the River. And the ugly and lean cows ate up the seven handsome and fat cows."
In the second dream, Pharaoh sees seven thin, shriveled ears of grain swallow seven fat ears of grain.
None of the wise men of Egypt can offer Pharaoh a satisfactory interpretation of his dreams. Then, the "young Hebrew slave," Joseph, is summoned from his dungeon to the palace. Joseph interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty, symbolized by the fat cows and fat grain, will be followed by seven years of hunger, reflected by the lean cows and the shriveled ears. The seven years of famine will be so powerful that they will "swallow up" any trace of the years of plenty.
Joseph then advises Pharaoh how to deal with the situation: "Now Pharaoh must seek out a man with insight and wisdom and place him in charge of Egypt. A rationing system will have to be set up over Egypt during the seven years of surplus," Joseph explains, "in which grain will be stored for the upcoming years of famine."
Pharaoh is mesmerized by Joseph's vision. "Can there be another person who has G-d's spirit in him as this man does?" Pharaoh asks his advisors. "There is none as understanding and wise as you," he says to Joseph. "You shall be over my house, and according to your word shall all my people be ruled; only the throne I will make greater than you."
Joseph is thus appointed Prime Minister of Egypt, under King Pharaoh.
Once again, the Torah relates, Pharaoh says to Joseph: “I am Pharaoh; yet without you, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
There is something strange here. It seems that Pharaoh is concerned Joseph will usurp his position and he must tell him, not once but twice, that he is working under the king. But what would trigger this concern?
In December 2018, at the funeral of former President George H. W. Bush, his secretary of state, James Baker, described the relationship between the two statesmen as one of “big brother and little brother.”
One of the things that the 41st president liked most about his top diplomat was that “I’d always tell him what I thought, even when I knew he didn’t want to hear it,” Baker said, speaking at Bush’s funeral in Houston.
Baker drew laughs when describing their “spirited” discussions and how his boss had a “very effective way” of telling him the conversation was over.
“He would look at me and he’d say: ‘Baker, if you’re so smart, why am I president and you’re not?’”
Pharaoh does not have to say his position is bigger than Joseph; it is larger than Joseph. It is the source and cause of Joseph’s authority. If not for the king’s instructions, Joseph would still be a prisoner?
In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth... After that, everything else was Made in China.
The Rebbe explains that Pharaoh was not only telling Joseph that he remains the king. He was telling him something far more dramatic: Your entire power is only given to you for the sake of the king, so you can use it to serve the king and fulfill his ambitions. You, Joseph, have absolutely no other power besides that. “I am Pharaoh; and without you, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” What he means to say is this: The entire goal of you become the viceroy of this country, to the point where you will become the ultimate boss, is only for one purpose: to further my kingship, to secure the position of “I am Pharaoh.” Your entire greatness, Joseph, is to ensure Pharaoh’s greatness. Your success is nothing but an instrument for Pharaoh’s enduring success. Your entire power and authority are simply to become a channel for Pharaoh’s power and authority.
This was not simply about Pharaoh’s grand ego, but like everything in life, it was essential to Joseph’s own growth and transformation. For everything that happens to us in life is there to help us achieve our inner mission and purpose in this world.
Joseph is loathed by his brothers because they see in him a craving for power. When they hear of Joseph’s dream that their sheaves would bow down to his sheaf, and his second dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars will bow down to him they say to him: Do you mean to rule over us? And they hated him even more.
But during his turbulent journeys, he undergoes a transformation. When he would reveal himself to his brothers, he says to them these astonishing words: “G-d has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. It was not you who sent me here, but G-d; He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.”
At some point, Joseph acquired a deep realization—that in all his talent, skill, wisdom, and prowess he was an ambassador of G-d. He was a manifestation of G-d’s light in the world.
As Pharaoh tells Joseph that his entire mission is to elevate the throne of the king—Joseph, the attentive Jew, knows that on a deeper level he is receiving a message from the ultimate king of the world. “I want you to change the world; I want you to lead humanity. But I want you to know that your entire existence, power, and success is all for one purpose—to serve G-d, to be a conduit for His light, love, grace, and hope. This is not about your ego, your position, your charisma, your talents. The only real reality is the Divine. Everything you have is a manifestation of G-d in the world; you and all your skills are the Divine light manifesting itself through you.
This made Joseph not less powerful, but far more powerful. He discovers that his power is not just his own limited strength, but rather it is G-d’s infinite power that flows through him.
The Greeks worshipped beauty and power. Judaism too cherishes beauty and power. But the difference is profound. For the Greeks, power and beauty are to be adorned in their own right; for the Jew, they are instruments to serve G-d.
I am inspired today by a Torah observant mother of five. Batya Deutsch, 29, has been training to run the marathon in the 2020 Olympics in Japan.
When Deutsch first decided to pursue her Olympic goal nearly a year ago, the first thing she did was check to make sure she would be able to participate. She was relieved to learn that the marathon was set for the last Sunday of the games, so she would not be forced to violate the Shabbat.
But a few weeks ago, the women’s marathon was rescheduled after Tokyo Olympics organizers decided to relocate the race. They made it on Shabbat.
Batya announced that if they do not change the day, she will give up on the Olympic dream. She said it was not even a question. Shabbat comes first!
“Suddenly things got real very quickly,” Deutsch, who ran the Tel Aviv Marathon in 2017 while seven months pregnant, wrote in a recent post. “Because I’ve been pretty public about my Olympic dream … and I’ve invested a whole lot to get myself there … and what if, what if after all that I make it and I can’t even run?!”
But Deutsch said she is not giving up.
“I will continue to train and push myself to the best of my ability to try and qualify,” she said. “Regardless of whether the race is switched or not, I’m not letting go yet. I am a fighter, I don’t give up easily and I will do whatever I can to get the Olympic marathon date changed.”
Deutsch, the winner of the 2018 Jerusalem Marathon, wrote that she had skipped the World Championships and several other competitions because they were held on Shabbat. Asked recently about the challenges she faces as a Jewish religious female runner, Deutsch said there really weren’t any and that running was “very compatible with my religious lifestyle.”
Deutsch, who moved to Israel from New Jersey in 2009, is known for running in a skirt, sleeves that fall below her elbow, and a headscarf.
In May, Deutsch was the top female finisher in a 13-mile half-marathon race in Riga, Latvia, reportedly becoming the first Haredi woman to win an international athletic competition. Only 80 women will qualify for the games, with a cap of three per country.
“I may not make it to the Olympics,” she wrote. “I may not make the standard or I may not be able to run a race that is on Shabbat. But one thing I do know is that I will continue to proudly represent what it means to be an Orthodox Jewish woman and professional runner for Israel.”
I was deeply moved. The Olympics was created by the Greeks. But this Jewish woman knows the truth: It is a tool to serve G-d and bring more G-dliness into the world. Like Joseph, she knows that Shabbat comes first.
Shabbat Shalom and a Happy Chanukah,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Tom Peacock wrote...