Written by: Nathan Light
We mentioned last week about Joseph being sold as a slave to Egypt. The Torah explains that Joseph’s master “perceived that God was with him (Joseph)…he appointed him over his household…” [Genesis: 39: 3-4].
Later on, Joseph was thrown into prison for unjustified reasons. As a prisoner, the verses say “The prison warden placed all inmates of the prison in Joseph’s custody…as Hashem was with him…” [Genesis: 39: 22-23].
In this week’s Torah portion, Joseph was handpicked out of prison by Pharaoh himself, because Pharaoh was troubled by disturbing dreams he experienced, and he was informed that Joseph had a knack for interpreting dreams. After being told the meaning of his dreams, Pharaoh felt it necessary to put Joseph in charge of his palace, and he described Joseph as “…a man in whom is the spirit of God” [Genesis: 41: 37]. Sooner or later, Joseph was given complete dominion over Egypt.
It kind of sticks out that each time Joseph rose to power it was due to recognition of God being by his side. But how did Joseph’s master, the prison warden, or Pharaoh come to perceive that God was always with him? And just because God was “with Joseph”, why did it mean that Joseph had to become successful?I think the answer can be found by observing one of the Biblical accounts involving Abraham, Joseph’s great-grandfather. Earlier on in the Torah, it describes how three men wandering in the desert were invited by Abraham into his tent, and how he took care of them.
But immediately before Abraham runs after the men and calls them into his tent, the verse says “God appeared to him (Abraham)…” [Genesis: 18: 1].What was Abraham thinking!? God Himself appears before Abraham, and Abraham pushes Him aside for some strangers on the road!?However, later on as the men got up to leave, the verse says “The men had turned from there and went to Sodom (a city nearby), while Abraham was still standing before God” [Genesis: 18: 22].So in truth, Abraham didn’t really push God off, rather he “took Him along” while he tended his guests.
This episode was meant to teach a fundamental approach in serving God; our relationship with God is not meant to be limited within the prayer chapel, or only during the Sabbath or another Jewish holiday. Our connection to God has to take place in everything we do every day of the week. Furthermore, we may learn from this not to seclude ourselves in a corner and dedicate our lives solely to “religious” matters, we must go out in the world and make our day to day mundane encounters a religious experience as well.
We explained in last week’s portion, that Joseph recognized that everything was in the hands of God. But it wasn’t enough for Joseph to keep this idea in the realm of thought alone. Joseph allowed this overwhelming emotion to gush forth in every action he took, and he didn’t keep it to himself either, he lived this way of life openly for others to see and to learn for themselves.
The reason he was so successful was because, by possessing the ability to see God in everything and everyone, he was able peel off the layers of the physical world and understand its potential and true purpose. Being able to realize the true essence of every being allowed Joseph to understand how to relate to each and everyone he came into contact with and eventually find favor in their eyes.
Good Shabbos,
NZL
taken from: http://www.tzipiyah.com/
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