Knowing the Inside Scoop of God's Plan

Parshat Vayigash

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Shortly after revealing himself to his brothers, Yosef tells them that “It has already been two years of famine throughout the land, but there will be five more years where there will be no plowing and [no] harvest.” (45:6)

 Why doesn’t he just say there will be no food? Ramban translates Yosef’s statement here to mean exactly that. But if that’s what Yosef meant, why didn’t he just say it? Furthermore, why mention both? Isn’t it obvious that if you’re not plowing, you won’t be harvesting?



 To the latter question, Rabbenu Tam noted that there are lands that do not require plowing to be fertile. When they have a Nile River which provides as a constant source of water, harvesting can take place without the plowing.

 But the former question still remains. Why is Yosef so specific when all he needed to say was “There won’t be food. I will provide the food for you”?

 The Baal HaTurim notes that Yosef was actually quite careful with his language. There is one other place in the Torah when the concept of people harvesting is noted – in Parshat Noach, after the flood, God promises that for the remainder of the existence of the world, seeding the ground which will lead to harvesting will never cease to be a function of the natural world (8:22). If you know how to farm, you’ll produce food to eat. The terminology God uses there is “Zera V’Katzir,” while Yosef says there will not be “Charish V’Katzir.” Yosef’s point was that we have “zera” – the seeds to plant. But we will be much better off eating those seeds than having them go to waste during a time in which the plowing will not produce a harvest.

 But how did Yosef know that the seeding of the ground will not work? All he told Pharaoh in his interpretation of the dream was that there would be years of famine! Maybe if they could somehow bypass the dryness and build some super plumbing system, they too could make the desert bloom!

 I believe the answer can be understood when one considers that as much as Yosef transmitted to Pharaoh the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream that Pharaoh needed to hear – including the suggestion that rocketed Yosef to greatness – Yosef did not give Pharaoh all the details of what Yosef read in Pharaoh’s dream.

 For example, Yosef told Pharaoh that his two dreams were one and the same. But if, in fact, they were the same, why didn’t he have the same dream twice? One dream took place at the river and involved two sets of seven cows, while the other dream took place in a field and involved two sets of 7 stalks of grain. They are most surely not the same dream. So how could Yosef say they are?

 Because Yosef saw multiple messages in the dreams . There was one for Pharaoh, there was one for Egypt, and there was one for Yosef. For Pharaoh – he needed to know that his nation would be in distress, and that, through culling together all his powers and authority, he could be the leader that saves Egypt.

 For Egypt, they needed to know that a famine was coming.

For Yosef, he saw in Pharaoh’s dreams a fulfillment of his own dreams. But, as Abravanel explains, he also understood from the different symbols in Pharaoh’s dreams, cows and stalks, that there would be an end to plowing (which is often done by cows), and an end to harvesting grains.

 Perhaps Pharaoh even realized that Yosef was holding back in some of the interpretation, holding out and hoping or trusting that Pharaoh would catch the hint and realize that the best person to take on the job of saving Egypt is the person who understands all the intricacies of Pharaoh’s dreams.

 So, when Yosef confided in his brothers what would be taking place in the next five years, he told them the truth. Not just that there’s famine. But that there is no hope to even try anything. Plowing and harvesting will not be happening. This is the message Pharaoh received, and only I Yosef understood the details, which I am sharing with you now.

 This is a micro reflection of the faith that the Jewish people have. We go about our business, we do our thing. But we are well aware of the prophesies that have kept our people going throughout the generations.

 A friend of mine recently encountered a man preaching gospel on the street, who, noting my friend’s kippah, challenged him to agree that the Jews know who the “real Messiah” is. My friend said, "Well, let me put it this way, there is a reason that after thousands of years of torture, exiles, forced conversions, and suffering, us Jews are still Jews. I think that tells you all you really need to know."

 We have the inside scoop. We know the story. And we will continue to do what we need to do to see through to the day when the promises made to us, that we understand in the way they were meant for only us to understand, will be fulfilled.

 Amen.