The parsha begins with the words “And it was at the conclusion of two years, Pharaoh dreamt...” (Bereishis 41:1) The Medrash on these words references the pasuk in Iyov (28:3) “Ketz sam l’choshech” (He set an end to the darkness...) and states that “Hashem set an end to Yosef’s imprisonment, determining ahead of time how long he would need to remain in prison. Once the end arrived, Pharaoh immediately had his dream.”
There is a very important vort from the Beis HaLevi, which is an important insight into how to understand life, and how to understand current events and history. For instance, if a person has property or merchandise to sell and he sells it and makes a windfall profit, how do we look at that? We say, because he had this merchandise or this property and he sold it, that is why he made money. We view the “cause” as the merchandise and the “effect” as the profit.
The Beis HaLevi says that is not how it works. Those labels need to be reversed. The Ribbono Shel Olam decided that this person will make X amount during this year. It is because it has been determined in Heaven that he will make X amount this year that he got a hold of the merchandise and was able to sell it at the windfall profit.
This is like the old issue of ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg?’ In Rabbinic terminology, we need to know what is the “seebah” [cause] and what is the “mesovev” [effect]. Many times in life, we confuse cause and effect. By the story of Yosef and Pharaoh, someone could say “Pharaoh had a dream. He had no one to interpret it. Yosef was a great interpreter of dreams. Therefore, he summoned Yosef to the palace. That is why Yosef got out of prison!” We see Pharaoh’s dream as being the cause and Yosef’s freedom being the effect.
The Medrash views the matter differently. Ketz sam l’choshech (An end was set for the darkness). Yosef needs to get out of prison because he was in there for X amount of time, per Heavenly decree. He won’t stay there a minute longer. (“And they hurried him out of the pit.” (Bereishis 41:14)) Yosef needs to get out. (This is the cause). Therefore, what needs to happen? “And Pharaoh dreamt.” (This is the effect.)
I saw the following interesting incident brought in the name of Rav Yaakov Galinsky:
Rav Galinsky’s mother wrote for a newspaper known as Tag Blatt (“The Daily Page”) in Poland, which was published by Agudas Yisrael. There were women there who spoke Polish and understood Polish but could not read Polish. This was not uncommon. There are people who are illiterate even though they can understand and speak a particular language. Especially in Poland in those days, women did not go to school so they did not learn to read. Yet, these women wanted to know the news. What did they do? Every night, they gathered in Mrs. Galinsky’s house and she read the Polish paper to them. This is how they got their news. They understood Polish and Mrs. Galinsky not only understood Polish, she could read it and write it as well.
One night, a certain women came into the Galinsky home earlier than usual. While Mrs. Galinsky was peeling potatoes in the kitchen, the women picked up the newspaper and gave out a shout. She ran into the kitchen. “Devorah!”, she shouted, “A boat sank in the ocean and you are here in the kitchen peeling potatoes?”’ (The picture was a picture of a new ship that set sail from England. It was such big news that it made the front page of the Tag Blatt.)
Mrs. Galinksy did not know what this woman was talking about. She came into the front room and saw that this woman (who could not read Polish) was holding the paper upside down. Held upside down, it looked from the picture like the boat sank into the water. Mrs. Galinsky showed her the proper way to hold the paper. There was no tragedy of a boat sinking.
Rav Yaakov Galinsky drew a homiletic lesson from this story to understanding world events. He said that we often read the paper upside down! We look at world events and we say “Aha, because of ‘X’, that is why Y happened.” We believe that X is the cause and Y is the effect. But so many times in life, what we see as the cause is really the effect and vice versa.
This is especially true because we know that everything in the world happens because of the Jewish people (“HaKol bishvil Yisrael”). When there are wars or political turmoil in the world, wait to see what happens. Everything is for the sake of Klal Yisroel. We look at these events backwards and say because of “X” that is why “Y” happens. We need to approach the matter with wisdom. We need to know how to read the newspaper. We need to read it right side up. (R’ Frand)
