DECEMBER 14 • 2023 | 45

from prisoner-without-hope to 
viceroy of the greatest empire of 
the ancient world.
Why this extraordinary 
chain of events? It is telling 
us something important, but 
what? Surely this: God answers 
our prayers, but often not when 
we thought or how we thought. 
Joseph sought to get out of 
prison, and he did get out of 
prison. But not immediately, 
and not because the butler kept 
his promise.
The story is telling us some-
thing fundamental about 
the relationship between our 
dreams and our achievements. 
Joseph was the great dreamer of 
the Torah, and his dreams for 
the most part came true. But 
not in a way he or anyone else 
could have anticipated. At the 
end of the previous parshah — 
with Joseph still in prison — it 
seemed as if those dreams had 
ended in ignominious failure. 
We have to wait for a week, as 
he had to wait for two years, 
before discovering that it was 
not so.
There is no achievement 
without effort. That is the first 
principle. God saved Noah 
from the Flood, but first Noah 
had to build the Ark. God 
promised Abraham the land, 
but first he had to buy the 
Cave of Machpelah in which 
to bury Sarah. God promised 
the Israelites the land, but they 
had to fight the battles. Joseph 
became a leader, as he dreamed 
he would. But first he had to 
hone his practical and admin-
istrative skills, first in Potiphar’s 
house, then in prison. 
Even when God assures us 
that something will happen, 
it will not happen without 
our effort. A Divine promise 
is not a substitute for human 
responsibility. To the contrary, it 
is a call to responsibility.
But effort alone is not 
enough. We need siyata diShe-
maya, “the help of Heaven.
” We 

need the humility to acknowl-
edge that we are dependent on 
forces not under our control. 
No one in Genesis invoked God 
more often than Joseph. As 
Rashi says, “God’s Name was 
constantly in his mouth.
” He 
credited God for each of his 
successes. He recognized that 
without God he could not have 
done what he did. Out of that 
humility came patience.
Those who have achieved 
great things have often had this 
unusual combination of charac-
teristics. On the one hand, they 
work hard. They labor, they 
practice, they strive. On the 
other, they know that it will not 
be their hand alone that writes 
the script. It is not our efforts 
alone that decide the outcome. 
So we pray, and God answers 
our prayers — but not always 
when or how we expected. (And 
of course, sometimes the answer 
is “No.
”)
The Talmud (Niddah 70b) 
says it simply. It asks: What 
should you do to become rich? 
It answers: Work hard and 
behave honestly. But, says the 
Talmud, many have tried this 
and did not become rich. Back 
comes the answer: You must 
pray to God from whom all 
wealth comes. In which case, 
asks the Talmud, why work 
hard? Because, answers the 
Talmud: The one without the 
other is insufficient. 
We need both: human 
effort and Divine favor. We 
have to be, in a certain sense, 
patient and impatient — impa-
tient with ourselves but patient 
in waiting for God to bless our 
endeavors.
The week-long delay between 
Joseph’s failed attempt to get 
out of prison and his eventual 
success is there to teach us this 
delicate balance. 
If we work hard enough, God 
grants us success — not when 
we want but, rather, when the 
time is right. 

SPIRIT

Develop Your 
Talents
J

oseph is a man on a 
lengthy journey to 
become the person he is 
meant to be. As a rabbi, I am 
particularly aware of the myriad 
actions I do every sin-
gle day that shape who 
I am and how others 
see me. In Joseph, 
I find a model who 
grows from self-ab-
sorption to being in an 
active relationship with 
God. Joseph’s three 
instances of dream 
interpretation shine a 
light on his spiritual 
development over time.
When we initially 
encounter him, Joseph 
is a swaggering youth. He 
eagerly shares his dreams and 
their interpretations with his 
family, who seem to consider 
them irritating delusions of 
grandeur that simply add to the 
list of his annoying behaviors. 
Joseph comes off as self-aggran-
dizing and obnoxious, with no 
regard for how others might 
experience him. The early ver-
sion of Joseph is highly self- 
oriented.
The next time Joseph has the 
chance to interpret dreams, we 
encounter a person living in 
entirely different circumstanc-
es with an entirely different 
attitude. He has been sold into 
slavery by his own brothers, 
bought by an Egyptian man to 
serve in his household and then 
sent to jail after falsely being 
accused of rape.
When his fellow inmates 
mention that they are trou-
bled by bad dreams and lack 
an interpreter, Joseph steps in 
right away. Yet this is hardly the 
egotistical Joseph of yesteryear, 

eager to show off and unaware 
of the impact of his behavior. 
Instead, he responds, “Surely 
God can interpret. Tell me 
[your dreams].
” (Genesis 40:8)
Joseph has the same tal-
ent as before and does not 
deny or minimize it. Yet, 
now we find that God is a 
key part of the team as well. 
In fact, this is the first time 
that Joseph acknowledges 
God in any way. Through 
the same inborn skill that 
previously got him into 
trouble, Joseph now finds 
room to connect with the 
Divine.
Joseph’s transformation 
is further underscored in 
this portion when, two years 
later, he is called upon to inter-
pret Pharaoh’s dreams for him. 
Pharaoh summons Joseph 
from jail and remarks on his 
skill. This time Joseph’s answer 
is even more dramatic, “Not 
I. God will see to Pharaoh’s 
welfare. (Genesis 41:16) Now 
Joseph claims to remove himself 
entirely from the process while 
also running the risk of offend-
ing the most powerful man in 
his universe with his answer. 
Yet, Joseph is determined to 
honor God with is gift.
We, like Joseph, can choose 
to seek out God in whatever 
form He might take and to 
connect with God through the 
practice of our own skills and 
talents.
I pray we will all pursue the 
transformation and connection 
that Joseph found that led him 
to his better self. 

Rabbi Megan Brudney is a rabbi at 

Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township. 

This article originally appeared in the 

JN on Dec. 29, 2016.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Megan 
Brudney

Parshat 

Mikketz: 

Genesis 

41:1-44:17; 

I Kings 

3:15-4:1.

