And Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same: Pharaoh has been told what God is about to do.” (Gen 41:25)
Why did God reveal to Pharaoh what was going to happen? Pharaoh is the leader of an idolatrous and cruel nation. Why did he get insider information?
The Ohr HaChaim, in his answer to the question, points us to Tractate Brachot, “Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Three matters are proclaimed by the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself: Famine, plenty, and a good leader.” (Berachot 55)
The Ohr HaChaim continues that Pharaoh was in a position to appoint a leader, and when he saw Yosef’s gifts, he had the opportunity to choose him.
But I find his answer so challenging. At this time, Jacob was still alive! Why didn’t God speak with Jacob about the upcoming famine that would drive him and his family to Egypt?
This minor episode in the Torah reveals something critical about how God works.
While we naturally want God to be very communicative and tell us everything that is happening, God doesn’t.
God didn’t reveal what would happen in the world to Jacob but worked through Pharoah to bring Yosef to power. Consequently, Yosef prepared Egypt for the famine and for his family to have a place to thrive. Then we have another nearly three centuries of servitude.
The Jewish people’s enslavement in Egypt was part of how the small House of Jacob would become a nation. As hard as that time was in Egypt, we would not be the Jewish nation without our experiences of servitude in Egypt, the ten plagues brought on Egypt, and our eventual redemption.
The pain we are all experiencing today for our brothers and sisters murdered, injured, and kidnapped by Hamas, the pain of families losing their loved ones fighting evil, the swarms of evildoers around the globe calling for Israel and the Jewish people’s demise - this is all deeply painful. It was excruciating because we thought that this part of Jewish history FINISHED with the Holocaust.
We thought that the pain of exile among the nations of the world was waning or gone because God brought us Israel and began the ingathering of the exiles! As students of the turbulent history of our people, knowing what happened to our ancestors was unjust still does not prepare us for the pain and shock of facing the current attacks on Israel and Jews around the world. It wasn’t alright then, and it is not alright now.
But in the meantime, as Jews, we have to continue to work every day to make this world a dwelling place for God, spread light, elevate the world around us spiritually, lift those who have fallen, and end our bickering. All Jews are on this ride of Jewish history together regardless of what language we speak, what clothes we wear, and what we think or do as Jews.
May God send another message soon, in the hands of the ultimate messenger, the one who brings word of redemption for the Jewish people and the world.