In this week’s Parsha Pharaoh had the famous dreams. He woke up and needed an explanation to the dreams. He called all his top advisers and magicians to try and interpret his dreams but no one managed to give an interpretation that satisfied him.
We all know what happened next. The chief butler comes forward to Pharaoh and tells him about his and the chief baker’s dreams in prison. They had no clue what the dreams meant. But there was a Jewish boy who interpreted their dreams and exactly what he said is what happened.
Yosef is hurried out of the pit and brought in front of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh tells him about his dreams with the seven fat cows and the seven skinny cows, the seven healthy ears of corn and the seven skinny ears of corn.
Yosef interprets the dream that there will be seven plentiful years followed by seven years of famine. But Yosef doesn’t stop there. He continues to give Pharaoh advice to start saving up food during the plentiful years and store it for the years of famine.
Who asked Yosef for his opinion? He was asked for an interpretation not for advice.
The Chida explains that the advice was actually part of the interpretation. In the dream the fat cows came and stood next to the skinny cows. Yosef understood that even this small piece of information had a purpose. Yes, there will be seven plentiful years. But during those years the skinny cows are standing nearby. That meant that even during those years of abundance one mustn’t forget that there will be years of famine. Therefore, one has to prepare up front for the famine. So in fact Yosef’s advice was actually an explanation of the dream.
Hashem already put the solution to the problem in the dream as well.
Rabbi Avraham Weinberg, the Beis Avraham of Slonim explains this same idea into our daily lives. We all have times of spiritual abundance. We have light and clarity. But it doesn’t last forever. Very often after those elevating moments we enter a period of spiritual darkness. We lack the light, the clarity, we don’t feel spiritual. A stupid person just enjoys the light when it’s there and doesn’t think further. The lesson of the dreams is during those moments of light to prepare ourselves and arm ourselves with the light to use when it becomes dark.
By Rabbi Dovid Caro
