Parshah Summary – P’shat
Joseph’s imprisonment finally ends when Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows that are swallowed up by seven lean cows, and then of seven fat ears of grain swallowed by seven lean ears. Joseph interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of hunger, and advises Pharaoh to store grain during the plentiful years. Pharaoh is pleased with Joseph’s advice and appoints him governor of Egypt. Joseph marries Asnat, daughter of Potiphar, and they have two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim.
In time, as the famine spreads throughout the region, food can be obtained only in Egypt. Ten of Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to purchase grain; the youngest, Benjamin, stays home, for Jacob fears for his safety. Joseph recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him; he accuses them of being spies, insists that they bring Benjamin to prove that they are who they say they are, and imprisons Shimon as a hostage. Later, they discover that the money they paid for their provisions has been mysteriously returned to them. Jacob agrees to send Benjamin only after Judah assumes personal responsibility for him. This time Joseph receives them kindly, releases Shimon, and invites them to dinner at his home. But then he plants his special silver goblet in Benjamin’s sack. When the brothers set out for home the next morning, they are pursued, searched, and arrested when the goblet is discovered. Joseph offers to set them free and retain only Benjamin as his slave.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיְהִ֕י מִקֵּ֖ץ שְׁנָתַ֣יִם יָמִ֑ים וּפַרְעֹ֣ה חֹלֵ֔ם וְהִנֵּ֖ה עֹמֵ֥ד עַל־הַיְאֹֽר׃ And it was at the end of two years to the day, Pharaoh dreamed, and behold – he was standing by the Nile… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 41:1, Parshat Mikeitz
Rabbi Elazar fell ill. His teacher Rabbi Yoḥanan came to visit and found him lying in a dark room, so he uncovered his arm, which miraculously beamed forth light and illuminated the whole house. Then he could see that Rabbi Elazar was weeping. He asked, “Why do you cry? If it is because you did not study enough Torah, we have learned: One who brings a substantial sacrifice and one who brings a meager sacrifice have equal merit, as long as one directs their heart toward Heaven. If it is because of your great poverty, we have learned: not every person merits to eat off of two tables. And if you are crying over the deaths of your children, this is the bone of my tenth son.”
Rabbi Elazar replied, “I am not crying over my misfortune, but rather, over this beauty of yours that will decompose in the earth.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him, “Over this, it is certainly appropriate to cry.” And they both broke down and cried together. - Talmud, Berakhot 5b In the story, Rabbi Yoḥanan considered three possible reasons for Rabbi Elazar’s sorrow: self-judgment (not learning enough), self-lack (poverty) and the sorrow of loss (the deaths of his children). He then offers consolation for each possible reason. But when Rabbi Elazar reveals the true reason, that Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty will turn to dust, Rabbi Yoḥanan approves, and they both share the sorrow. הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ אָמַ֣ר קֹהֶ֔לֶת הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים הַכֹּ֥ל הָֽבֶל׃ “Vanity of Vanities,” said The Preacher, “Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.” - Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 1:2 The fact of change and the temporary nature of all things is the beginning of King Solomon’s treatise on human existence as well. And yet, despite the dark tone of his book, he does, in fact, supply a solution: כֹּ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת בְּכֹחֲךָ֖ עֲשֵׂ֑ה... Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might… In other words, the solution to the sorrow of the havel is: don’t put your energy and focus on the future, but on the task of the moment; that is, be present. This is the essence of meditation. תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת – your hand finds to do… Furthermore, meditation is not philosophical concept; it is completely practical – it is the application of awareness and focus on whatever we are doing, Now. וַיְהִ֕י מִקֵּ֖ץ שְׁנָתַ֣יִם יָמִ֑ים – And it was at the end of two years to the day… Mikeitz means “at the end” – referring to the end of a two-year period after which Pharaoh had the dream about the cows וַיִּיקַ֖ץ פַּרְעֹֽה – Pharaoh awakened… But when Pharaoh wakes up from his dream, the same word is used again in a different form: Vayikatz Paro, hinting: to “awaken” is for our “dream” of the future to come to an end. For most of us, there is no awareness of dreaming while we’re dreaming; it’s only in waking up that we realize, “Oh, it was only a dream.” We say, “Only a dream” because it has no external reality; it is just an experience generated by the mind. Then, when we wake up, we become aware of what is actually going on. Life is real, and unlike the dream, there are real consequences in the world external to your mind. And yet, as King Solomon seeks to correct, there is also the waking dream of life, the illusion of permanence to things. When we wake up from this illusion, it can be a big disappointment. Like the weeping of the rabbis and the overall dark tone of Ecclesiastes, the function of the dream was to provide comfort גַּלְיֵיהּ לִדְרָעֵיהּ וּנְפַל נְהוֹרָא – he exposed his arm, and light filled the house… But, there is a deeper dimension to waking up which is hinted at by both Solomon’s advice and the “illuminating arm” of Jewish meditation in action. Right now, your awareness perceives the richness of this moment – the activity and movement, the objects and beings in space, the sense of your body, your feelings and your thoughts. Ordinarily, you perceive some things as external to you, such as these words right now, and some things as internal to you, such as your thoughts. There are physical things “out there,” and emotional and mental things “in here.” But notice: everything in your perception, from the ground under your feet to the clouds in the sky to the feelings in your gut, are all nothing but consciousness, exactly like a dream. This recognition means that when you judge people, or complain, or in any way resist the truth of whatever arises in the moment, you’re actually resisting yourself – you’re creating a split within yourself, which creates a sense of being not whole, of being incomplete. And that’s the dream – that’s the illusion – we tend to think that we need something “out there” to change in order to feel whole or complete “in here.” Just like the gaunt and hungry cows who eat up the full cows, we will never satisfied if we’re constantly “pulling away” from ourselves, creating an inner split. But when we awaken to realize that everything “out there” is always only perceived “in here,” then we can relax and accept everything in our experience as forms of our own being. When we do that, our consciousness that has become split in two can merge back into oneness, bringing that sense of inner duality to an end. And this is the deeper reason why the word for “awaken” is also the word for “ending” – קץ katz – because it is an end to inner duality. It’s also an end to the mental creation of time, because in Presence, there is no longer any journey toward wholeness or fulfilment; Wholeness is simply what we are when we stop pulling ourselves apart. And they both broke down and cried together… And yet, paradoxically, it is the full feeling of our sorrow that grants access to depths of Wholeness beyond all emotion; this is the Portal of א Aleph the leads to the Portal of ג Gimel.
Read past teachings on Mikeitz HERE
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