Focusing on Positivity
והבור ריק אין בו מי ם
“The pit was empty, it contained no water” (Bereishis 37:24)
When Reuven heard his brothers planning to murder Yosef and throw his body into a pit, he opposed the plan. He argued that they should not shed his blood directly, but should instead throw him alive into a pit. The brothers accepted Reuven’s suggestion, and when Yosef approached them, they stripped him of his special tunic and threw him into a pit. Curiously, the Torah records that they threw him into a pit that was empty and contained no water. This is difficult to understand. If the pit was empty, isn’t it obvious that it had no water? Rashi explains that the apparent redundancy implies that although there was no water in the pit, there were poisonous serpents and scorpions inside.
The Oznayim L’Torah points out that the pit had a positive quality and a negative one. Its good point was that it was not full of water, which could cause Yosef to drown. On the other hand, it contained poisonous animals that could bite and kill him. In describing the pit, the Torah explicitly mentions the positive feature while leaving it to us to infer the negative. If this is the case for inanimate objects, how much more so must we be careful when speaking about living people to emphasize only their praises.
The Lesson of Ki Im Zechartani – So That You Will Remember Me
Yosef is languishing away in prison. The sar haofim [baker] and the sar hamashkim [wine butler] each have dreams. They tell their dreams to Yosef, who provides them with the correct interpretations. The reason the sar hamashkim was thrown into prison was that he had unwittingly served Pharaoh a cup of wine into which a fly had fallen. Yosef interpreted his dream, saying “...In another three days, Pharaoh will count you and will restore you to your post and you will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as was the former practice when you were his cupbearer (k’mishpat ha’rishon asher mashkehu).” (Bereishis 40:13).
Rav Akiva Eiger asks why Yosef needs to emphasize “as was the former practice when you were his cupbearer?”
In other words, imagine if the Secretary of the Treasury is fired. One night he has a dream. A dream interpreter says, “Guess what? You are going to be the Secretary of the Treasury again.” Does the dream interpreter need to state the job description of the Secretary of Treasury? There is no need to describe the role of Secretary of the Treasury!
Why would it not have been sufficient for Yosef to just tell the sar hamashkim that Pharaoh will give him back his job? Period. Why does Yosef need to go on to say, “And you will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just like you did originally?”
Rav Akiva Eiger asks a second question about the words “ki im zechartani...” (at which time, if you would think of me...) Yosef’s intention is surely to say, “And by the way, remember me.” How should that be expressed? Yosef should have just said “u’zechartani” (and remember me). The expression “ki im zechartani” is peculiar. It almost seems to say, “SO THAT you can remember me.”
Rav Akiva Eiger answers beautifully: If Yosef would have just told the sar hamashkim that he will get his job back, the sar hamashkim would have been a nervous wreck. He would be petrified that the same thing might happen again. If it happened to him once that a fly fell into the wine, what is to prevent that from happening again? He would be thinking to himself, “The next time if there is a fly in the wine, I will not be merely given a jail sentence. I will lose my head!”
The sar hamashkim would be so jittery about carrying out his duties that the wine would be spilled all over Pharaoh’s lap! He would be a nervous wreck! So, Yosef told him that he does not need to worry at all. I want to tell you that you did nothing wrong. It was not your fault. Every time you served Pharaoh a goblet, you checked to make sure there was not a fly in there. Do you know why this happened? It happened because it was the hand of G-d. It happened because the Ribbono Shel Olam wants you to remember me – “ki im zechartani.”
Therefore, not only are you going to get your job back, but “you will place Pharaoh’s cup into his hand” – ka’mishpat harishon – JUST LIKE YOU USED TO. You used to be calm, cool, and collected when you served Pharaoh his wine, and that is how you will be once again. You will go back to your sar hamashkim role and perform it well because the only reason Hashem made the fly go into Pharaoh’s cup is so that you will be able to remember me and get me out of here.
R'’ Frand relates a incident that he heard involving the same type of “ki im zechartani.”
He recently attended, “The President’s Conference of Torah U’Messorah” in Florida. The event was attended by presidents of institutions -– movers and shakers of Klal Yisrael. There were speeches that encouraged lay leaders to get involved in supporting large mosdos. One of the speakers was Gary Turgow from Detroit, Michigan. He is involved in many different organizations, is a premier askan (communal leader) and is a very successful businessman.
He spoke at the conference and related an amazing incident involving hashgacha pratis:
He is on the Board of Directors of Blue Cross – Blue Shield of Michigan. He was attending a meeting of the organization at which he was planning to announce his resignation. (He had been there for several years; he felt that he had done whatever he could do, and he had other obligations.) He was sitting on the dais next to a woman who was the head of Blue Cross – Blue Shield of Michigan. While sitting there, he received a text message that someone in NYU needed an emergency life-or-death operation. However, Blue Cross – Blue Shield had not yet signed off on the operation, which needed to happen now or never.
They asked Gary Turgow if he had any connections with Blue Cross – Blue Shield that can help with the emergency situation. He took his cell phone and showed it to the woman sitting next to him and within five minutes, the operation was approved by Blue Cross – Blue Shield. Gary Turgow told the Torah U’Messorah convention: “Guess what? I did not resign my post on the board of Blue Cross – Blue Shield.”
This is literally an incident of ki im zechartani. Why did the Ribbono Shel Olam put Gary Turgow on that board for who knows how many years? Mr. Turgow said that he felt like it was a bas kol coming down from heaven telling him, “You need to be on the board of Blue Cross – Blue Shield. You have been placed in that position in order to help with this life-saving incident.”
For most of us, such “ki im zechartani” moments do not happen so dramatically. But “heavenly voices” reach out to all of us and force us to ask “Why did the Ribbono Shel Olam put me here? Why is this in my lap?” That is the lesson of “ki im zechartani”. (R’ Frand)
