Parsha Story
Rabbi Tzvi Abramoff
In this week’s parsha we learn about how Yosef Hatzaddik asked the sar ha’mashkim to remember him and mention his plight to Par’oh, in order to free him from imprisonment. Chazal tell us that because he didn’t trust Hashem enough, Yosef was punished with another two years in prison. The question is, what did Yosef do wrong; aren’t we also supposed to do some hishtadlus? Here’s a little story to help us understand.
Dovie’s Zaidy was on the phone to wish him mazel tov on his big siyum. “I wish I could be there but I want to at least get you a gift,” Zaidy said. “I’ll send you money so you can buy yourself a new bike!” “Wow!” said Dovie, “thank you so much, Zaidy! That’s so nice of you!”
The next morning Sruli saw his brother Dovie looking around the front lawn for something. He was picking up rocks, searching inside bushes and climbing up trees.
“What are you looking for so desperately?” he asked.
“Well,” answered Dovi, “Zaidy said he’d send me money and I don’t know exactly where he was planning to leave it, so I’m trying to look for it.”
“Huh!?”, said Sruli, “I don’t understand you, Dovi, “if you trust Zaidy to send you the money, don’t you think he’d do it in a way that you’ll know where it is?”
This was the claim against Yosef Hatzaddik. The odds that the chief butler could and would pull any strings with the mighty king of Mitzrayim for Yosef the Ivri were very slim. This was called (on Yosef’s level) an act of desperation. Someone acting on real bitachon knows that the same way that Hashem will give him what he needs, He’ll also send him sensible ways of hishtadlus in order to receive those things. That’s the lesson to learn from here: Desperation is not hishtadlus! Let’s be careful not to be like our story’s Dovie.
