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).” (Bereshis 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 would 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 would 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 Ribono 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.
I recently heard an incident involving the same type of “ki im zechartani.”
Last Shabbos was the “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 told of two amazing incidents 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. 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 Ribono shel Olam put Gary Turgow on that board for who knows how many years? Mr. Turgow said that he felt like it was abas 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.”
The second incident he mentioned was the following:
Mr. Turgow was the president of a bank, a major financial institution in Detroit. He received a call from a Jew who started chastising him: “I don’t know how you, as a Jew, can be president of this bank. They are a bunch of wicked people.” Mr. Turgow asked, “What is the problem?” The caller explained that his wife had died and he fell behind on his mortgage payments. The bank sent him a letter that they were foreclosing on his property. The man only had $5,000 left on his mortgage and the house was worth several hundred thousand dollars. He was seven months behind on his monthly payments toward this $5000 and now the bank was foreclosing!
“How could you be president of such a bank? They are such wicked people!”
Mr. Turgow promised to look into the matter. He looked into it and found out that the facts were as the caller explained, but in truth, his bank had sold the mortgage to another bank, and the other bank saw that they could make a killing on this foreclosure. Mr. Turgow personally paid off the fellow’s mortgage and the man was able to stay in his house.
However, Mr. Turgow was surprised that he did not hear anything back from this fellow. The bank president thought to himself, I saved this person’s house, and he did not even thank me for it! However, several months later, this fellow died, and it was revealed in his will that he left the entire house to Gary Turgow with the instructions to give the proceeds from the sale of the house to any charity of his choice.
Again – ki im zechartani: That is why Gary Turgow merited to be the bank president.
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 Ribono shel Olam put me here? Why is this in my lap?” That is the lesson of “ki im zechartani“.
