ידבר נא עבדך דבר באזני אדני ואל יחר אפך בעבדך כי כמוך כפרעה
There are times that one speaks words which may sound like words of praise, yet to those who recognize what the words really mean, they are disparaging words. A person lacking intelligence came before a Gaon in order to receive a letter of approbation to show the people of the town where he was headed, so that they would greet him and treat him with great respect. The Gaon wrote: If you want to know the worth of this man, know that if he lived in the days of Elisha Hanavi, and was standing near the wife of Ovadiah while she was filling all the jugs with oil, the oil would have never stopped flowing. (The wife of Ovadiah was in dire straits due to the great Chesed she and her husband did for many Tzaddikim. Elisha performed a miracle. He told her to gather as many empty jugs and vessels as she could, and to take the small amount of oil she had and pour from it into the empty jugs. As long as there were empty jugs, the oil kept pouring).
The man was overjoyed with this glowing letter he received for it portrayed him as a real tzaddik. Had he been there with the wife of Ovadiah, in his zechus the oil would have continued to flow. The man travelled to the other town, and as soon as he arrived there, he went directly to the Rabbi to give him this letter of approbation. In that town there were seven classes of people, and each person would be a guest by the host befitting his caliber. If the guest was a great man, he would be put up by the wealthiest in the city, while if a person of inferior stature came, he would be sent to the home of the shamash of the bais hakneses – the lowest of them all. The Rov read the approbation and realized what it said. He understood the value of the man in front of him and immediately sent him to the home of the shamash.
The man was completely dumbfounded. He was pained over being sent to the shamash, but had no choice. When he got to the home of the shamash, he told the Shamash what happened and asked him to explain how this could have happened. The shamash responded to him: You thought that letter you have states your greatness, and that the Gaon lied stating you were great. The Gaon did not lie in the letter, rather he stated the truth. He stated that you are like an empty vessel with no wisdom and of no value. Had you been with the wife of Ovadiah the oil would not have stopped flowing. As soon as there were no more empty vessels, the oil stopped flowing but had you been there, you are an empty vessel, so the oil would have kept on flowing. We see from this story that the fools do not understand the meaning of words, but the wise do understand. (עוד יוסף חי)
Yehudah said to Yosef, “כי כמוך כפרעה” – The fool would think that Yehudah was praising Yosef, but the wise man would understand that Yehudah was deriding Yosef, that just as Paroah was a liar and said that he was the one who controlled the Nile River, so too you, Yosef, think you know all the hidden secrets of the worlds – but you don’t.
