Trust In All the Right Places

 

At the end of Parshat Vayeshev, Yosef correctly interpreted the dreams of the royal baker and royal butler. He pleads with the butler to remember him when the butler returns to service as part of the Egyptian royal court. Parshat Miketz opens with the words “וַיְהִ֕י מִקֵּ֖ץ שְׁנָתַ֣יִם יָמִ֑ים” thereby informing us that it was only two years later, when Pharaoh experienced some inexplicable dreams, that the butler remembered to mention Yosef. This began a series of events that ultimately led to Yosef’s ascension to viceroy of Egypt.

The Midrash explains that Yosef was destined to remain in jail for two additional years as a punishment for his request of the butler.

אַשְׁרֵי הַגֶּבֶר אֲשֶׁר שָׂם ה' מִבְטַחוֹ (תהלים מ, ה), זֶה יוֹסֵף. (תהלים מ, ה): וְלֹא פָנָה אֶל רְהָבִים, עַל יְדֵי שֶׁאָמַר לְשַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים (בראשית מ, יד): זְכַרְתַּנִּי וְהִזְכַּרְתַּנִּי, נִתּוֹסַף לוֹ שְׁתֵּי שָׁנִים

 “Praiseworthy is the person who has made Hashem his trust” (Tehillim 40:5) – this alludes to Yosef. “and did not turn to the arrogant”- (this also refers to Yosef). As a result of Yosef asking the butler twice to remember him (Bereishit 40:14) two years were added to his imprisonment.”
(Bereishit Rabba 89:3)

This is a very difficult Midrash. First, how can the Midrash identify Yosef as both a model of trust in Hashem, and at the same time criticize him for his lack of trust in Hashem? Second, how are we supposed to understand this Midrashic critique of Yosef? He was merely doing his due diligence, leaving no stone unturned in his effort to gain his freedom. While we value trust in God we also believe in the importance of human initiative. Experience has shown that often in life God helps those that help themselves.

Rav Moshe Avigdor Amiel explained that the Midrash is teaching us an important lesson. We are supposed to trust in God. We are supposed to trust in our own abilities and utilize those abilities to act. However we are not supposed to fully trust others. We make a mistake if we depend completely on others for our own salvation. As Rav Amiel puts it, quoting from the verse in Tehillim 40, Yosef was a “Gever” a man of action. He was a dreamer, and tradition teaches that dreams most commonly reflect the conscious thoughts of the dreamer. Yosef dreamed about leadership because he had ambition and passion. The greatness of Yosef was that he paired this ambition and hard work with an awareness and acknowledgement of the role of God at all stages of his life. God was with him as viceroy of Egypt, just as much as God was with him in the pit into which he was thrown by his brothers, and at all moments in between.

Yosef’s mistake was depending exclusively on the butler. Humans are fickle. Humans are forgetful. Humans make mistakes, sometimes in innocence and sometimes with malice.  Yosef’s plea to the butler was not an example of self-reliance, nor was it an example of reliance on Hashem. It was an example of relying exclusively on another human, an act that someone as righteous as Yosef should have known better to avoid.

This week people in the US (and in our community) began to get vaccinated against CoVID. It is a momentous occasion, some might even consider this achievement an overt miracle. As we marvel at human ingenuity and thank Hashem for allowing us to reach this milestone, we should learn from Yosef’s mistake. Trust in God. Trust in yourself. But never put all your trust in others.