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continued from page 44
unfolding of a script.
This allows us to resolve one of the great
paradoxes of the religious life — the seem-
ing contradiction between Divine provi-
dence and human free will. As Rabbi Akiva
put it most famously: “
All is foreseen, yet
freedom of choice is given.
”
On the face of it, these two propositions
cannot both be true. If God knows in
advance we are going to do X, then we are
not free not to do it. If, on the other hand,
we are genuinely free, then no one can know
what we will choose before we choose it.
The paradox arises because of the nature
of time. We live in time. God lives beyond it.
An analogy: Imagine going to see a soccer
match. While the match is in progress, you
are on the edge of your seat. You do not
know — no one knows — what is going
to happen next. Now imagine watching a
recording of the same match on television
later that night. You know exactly what is
going to happen next.
That knowledge does not mean that the
players have had their freedom retroactively
removed. All it means is that you are now
watching the match from a different time
perspective. When you were in the stadium,

you were watching it in the present. On
television you are watching it as an event in
the past.
So it is with life itself. As we live it day
by day, we choose in the present in order
to shape what is for us an unknown, unde-
termined future. Only looking back are we
able to see the consequences of our actions
and realize their part in the unfolding of our
autobiography.
It is then, with hindsight, that we begin
to see how providence has guided our steps,
leading us to where God needs us to be.
That is one meaning of the phrase spoken
by God to Moses: “Then I shall take away
My hand, and you will see My back, but My
face cannot not be seen.
” Exodus 33:23
Only looking back do we see God’s prov-
idence interwoven with our life, never look-
ing forward (“My face cannot not be seen”).
How subtly and deftly this point is made
in the story of Joseph — the supreme
example of a life in which human action
and Divine intervention are inextricably
entwined. It is all there in the verse about
the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream. By
delaying this information until later in
Joseph’s life, the Torah shows us how a later

event can force us to re-interpret an earlier
one, teaching us the difference between
two-time perspectives: the present and the
understanding that only hindsight can bring
to the past. It does so not by expounding
complex philosophical propositions, but by
the art of story-telling — a far simpler and
more powerful way of conveying a difficult
truth.
These two perspectives on time are
embodied, in Judaism, in two different
literatures. Through Halachah, we learn
to make choices in the present. Through
aggadah, we strive to understand the
past. Together, these two ways of thinking
constitute the twin hemispheres of the
Jewish brain. We are free. But we are also
characters in a Divinely scripted drama. We
choose, but we are also chosen. The Jewish
imagination lives in the tension between
these two frames of reference: between
freedom and providence, our decisions and
God’s plan.

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have

been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. This

essay was written in 2010.

SPIRIT

Learn to Be Prepared
A

s Michiganders, we
are no strangers to
rapid changes in the
weather. Especially at this time
of year, as fall transitions into
winter, you never quite know
how fiercely, how cold or from
what quarter the winds
might be blowing at
any given moment.
In ancient Egypt,
on the other hand,
farmer and Pharaoh
alike could count on a
steady desert climate
and regular flooding
of the Nile River. One
can only imagine
the uncertainty and
fear that a significant
disruption to this
rhythm would have
caused. No one in ancient

Egypt ever needed to keep
their sandals, sneakers, rain
boots and snow boots all at the
ready at the same time.
Pharaoh must have
been in a state of panicked
desperation then when he
agreed to his butler’s
suggestion that Joseph,
an unknown Hebrew
kid, be brought into his
presence to interpret
Pharoah’s dreams, which
directly referenced the
Nile’s bounty. Pharaoh
even seems to let his
composure slip in Genesis
41:19. In telling Joseph
about the second set of
cows to emerge from the
Nile, Pharaoh says, “…
never had I seen their
likes for ugliness in all the

land of Egypt!” This reaction
suggests that this Pharaoh has
had nothing but fair winds
during his reign and is facing
a potential calamity for which
he is unprepared.
Joseph, by contrast, has
faced significant volatility in
his fortunes. He was born
the favored son of his father’s
favored wife and spent a
childhood imagining himself
as the brightest star of his
family. Since then, Joseph has
been sold and resold, been
subject to the whims of greater
men (and women) and finally
found himself in prison.
Joseph is in an ideal position
to understand Pharaoh’s
dreams and help Egypt
undertake plans to cope with
what is to come. He knows

what it is like to live in times
of plenty but also the shock of
that plenty being consumed by
the lean and ugly. Joseph has
made the best of his situation
at every turn, first rising in
Potiphar’s house and then
making an ally of Pharoah’s
jailed butler. Joseph is clearly
the kind of person who has
learned to keep an umbrella
and rain boots by the door.
He’ll certainly need them by
the end of the parshah when
his brothers show up.
Hopefully, we are also
equipped to weather the
storm, no matter what the
winds blow our way.

Rebecca Strobehn is a Jewish studies

instructor at Frankel Jewish Academy in

West Bloomfield.

TORAH PORTION

Rebecca
Strobehn

Parshat

Mikketz:

Genesis

41:1-44:17;

I Kings

3:15-4:1.