When our soldiers go to war, we must prepare a place outside the soldiers’ camp, where soldiers can go to relieve themselves. Other nations had their soldiers relieving themselves all over the place. As the Pasuk (Devarim 23:13) says, "you shall have a place..." A reason for this Mitzvah, explains the Sefer Hachinuch, is that Hashem travels among our camp, so the camp should be holy. The Jewish souls are always attached to the Shechinah, especially this camp that has had the sinners leave from it. Additionally, foreign kings come to view the soldiers and they should have a good impression.
This week, in Parshas Vayeishev, the sad saga of the brothers’ selling Yosef into slavery. However, you can’t keep a good man down, and Yosef, who was not affected by Ayin Hara (the Evil Eye) and would not be hurt. Sold as a slave, he rises to prominence in Potifar's house. Then, after trumped-up charges land him in prison, Yosef climbs the ladder of leadership there, too. While in jail, the chief wine butler and the royal baker encounter Yosef. The baker left a stone in a pastry, and Pharaoh’s chipped his tooth. Elsewhere, a fly landed in Pharaoh’s goblet, which was not really the fault of the butler, as it landed right before he served the wine to Pharaoh, and he did not notice it. In the end, he survives while the baker gets killed (he was also a Rasha who used to make fun of the “slave boy” Yosef, whom Potifar used to bring to cabinet meetings).
Rashi says both the wine butler and the baker also had the interpretation of the other’s dream. When Yosef interpreted the butler’s dream, the baker saw it was good. It’s understandable that the wine butler didn’t tell the baker the meaning of his dream, as it was a tragic end; however, why didn’t the baker tell the wine butler that his story would end well? It’s because he was a bad guy who didn’t want to help anyone. Regardless, Yosef tells the butler that he will be saved, but he asks the butler to put in a good word about Yosef to Pharaoh to relieve him of his unjust imprisonment. However, the Parsha concludes that the “butler did not remember Yosef, and he forgot him.” Well, if he didn’t remember Yosef, then obviously he forgot Yosef, so what does this mean? Our Sages tell us the butler had a daily Seder in forgetting Yosef, where he would work on forgetting him.
Rav Chenoch Leibowitz, ZT”L, wonders why it’s so hard to forget a slave boy. Rav Chenoch explains that his good inclination was needling him, “this kid helped you, so help him.” Still, he persisted and silenced that good voice inside him. We live in a generation that has a victim mentality; we should remember that we have a Yeitzer Hatov that’s urging us to be good, so let us embrace the positive voice within.
