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. 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, had two dreams. In the first, Pharaoh sees himself standing over the Nile River, and behold, seven cows, handsome and fat of flesh, came up out of the river, 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 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 on 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, that Pharaoh says to Joseph: “I am Pharaoh; yet without you, no one shall lift hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” “Only the throne I will make greater than you.”
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?
When the President of the United States appoints the US Secretary of Commerce, does he tell him: “Remember, you are the Commerce Secretary; you are not the President of the US?”
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 was impressed by Joseph’s wisdom and humility. All the money, land, and livestock that came in during the years of famine went to Pharaoh. Why does Pharaoh need to tell Joseph he is not giving him the throne?
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth... After that, everything else was Made in China.
The Sefas Emes presented a deeper explanation. The full understanding of the message was presented by the Rebbe. Pharaoh said something very blunt and sharp to Joseph and communicated honestly: I am appointing you for no other agenda than for my throne to grow from you. Sure, I want you to rule my people; I want you to feed them and protect them from a pending famine; I want you to create a successful economy. However, I want you to know, that there is only one agenda here as far as I am concerned: “I want the throne to grow more powerful through you!”
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; I want you to take full charge. But I want you to know that your entire existence, power, and success are 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 handsomeness, 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 through you.
This made Joseph not less powerful, but far more powerful. He discovers that his power is not just his limited strength, but G-d’s infinite power that flows through him. He remains unstoppable, and can never be a victim to circumstances, for his entire being is merely a conduit for the Divine infinite light.
One woman’s remark on the subject has become justly famous. She wrote: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Who are you not to be? You are a child of G-d. You’re playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously permit to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
It is one of the reasons we read Miketz during Chanukah.
The Greeks worshiped beauty and power. Judaism too cherishes beauty and power. But the difference is profound. For the Greeks, power and beauty are to be adored in their own right; for the Jews, they are instruments to serve G-d. As we said today in Hallel: “Not for us, O Lord, not for us, but for Your name give honor, for Your kindness and Your truthfulness.”
Josef, says the Megaleh Amukos, is the same numerical value as “Antiyaches” (156) and as “Melech Yavan.”)אנטיכוס, מלך יון(. This is deeply strange. Why are we associating Joseph with the Greek king? Someone who wished to uproot Judaism.
Yet the above can explain it: The Greeks viewed Joseph as their role model. Here was a Jew who was beautiful, handsome, athletic, a real Renaissance man. What they misunderstood was that for Joseph all this was important for one purpose: to serve G-d, to fulfill his divine mission in the world. Joseph saw all his talent as nothing G-d manifested Himself through him in this world, through his unique talents and skills. It was not about him; it was about G-d working through him. Joseph’s power brought him to more, not less, humility, to more, not less, spiritual awareness.
The debate between the Jews and the Greeks was not, as some think the physical is more important than the spiritual. The debate was much deeper: it was about the physical itself and its enduring power. The Greeks argued that celebrating and worshiping the physical in and of
itself is the ultimate joy and satisfaction in life. The Jews argued, that for physical power, success, beauty, fashion, looks, sports, athletics, art, and wealth to bring you happiness and create a good, balanced, healthy, harmonious life it is when one realizes that all of this is a tool to bring G-d’s light and truth into the world.
This was Joseph’s and the Jew's message to the Greeks. Judaism does not celebrate meekness, poverty, self-denigration, and weakness. G-d wants you to be powerful, beautiful, successful, gorgeous, effective, and full of blessing and prosperity. To realize that all these blessings are Diving gifts for you to serve as an ambassador of the Divine, an ambassador of love, light, hope, goodness, kindness, healing, and strength.
Just as Pharaoh told Joseph, G-d says to every Jew: I have given you all the power for one purpose only: “So that the throne become greater through you!” So that you become a conduit to reveal G-d’s oneness in the world, to reveal that all of humanity and all the world is one, all part of Divine oneness. Your power and beauty themselves are only a manifestation of Divine power and beauty.
The great 18th-century Chassidic Rebbe,of Berditchev, once led the High Holiday prayer service. Before he began Kaddish, he declared: ‘The Prussians say that their Kaiser is the greatest. The Russians say that their Czar is the greatest. The French say that their Emperor is the greatest. And I, Levi Yitzchak ben Sarah Sosha say... Yitgadal v’Yitkadash Shemei Rabba (Exalted and hallowed be His Great Name).
I am inspired by a Torah-observant mother of five. Batya (Beatie) 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 5 years 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 before 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 later post. “Because I’ve been pretty public about my Olympic dream ... and I’ve invested a lot to get myself there ... and what if, 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 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.
She won the Tiberias Marathon in January in a time of 2 hours, 42 minutes, 18 seconds — the fifth best for a woman in Israeli history but short of the tougher new standard of 2:29:30 needed to qualify for the Olympics. 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 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. She is not drunk on her power and success. Like Joseph, she knows that Shabbat comes first.
Shabbat Shalom and a Happy Chanukah,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
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