Divrei Simcha on Parshas Miketz 5767

Welcome to the Soap Opera of Yosef’s life! As a seventeen year old, he is doing great. Then his brothers want to kill him. He’s sold to Egypt and he’s serving his master faithfully. Then his master’s wife falsely accuses him of committing a terrible crime to her. Yosef is rushed off to jail and sits there for ten years. Finally, two head servants of Pharoah show up in jail also and they have these crazy dreams. Yosef interprets the dreams, but still sits in jail for two more years. Pharoah has a crazy dream and the head butler tells Pharoah all about this Jewish boy who can interpret dreams. Yosef comes and saves the day. He is immediately made into a national hero.

There is a very interesting line in this week’s parsha when Yosef is brought before Pharoah to interpret his dream. It says in Bereshis 41:15: “Pharoah says to Yosef, I have dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret it. I have heard it said about you that you listen to a dream to interpret it.” This is very strange language at the end of the verse. Why does it say the word listen? Why didn’t Pharoah just say that I have heard that you interpret dreams? It seems like the Torah is wasting words by saying that Yosef “listens to dreams” to interpret them.

The answer is quite simple. The reason why Yosef could interpret the dream was because he listened to it. He listened to what the person was saying. He did not interpret and then listen — he listened and then interpreted.

Many times we enter conversations and although we think we are talking with another person, neither person is really listening. We have an agenda that we want to accomplish and focus on that solely. When the other person is talking, we are already thinking about what we are going to say next. We do not focus on their words, but only concentrate on the point we want to express.

This was not the way Yosef behaved. He listened carefully and silently before thinking of a response. He listened and then interpreted. And this is the reason why he was able to interpret the dreams. No one else actually listened to Pharoah’s dream. They all heard that Pharoah had a dream about seven large cows and seven thin cows and drew their conclusion before the dream was over. Yosef listened to the whole dream and then gave his conclusion — and what he interpreted was absolutely correct.

When we are having conversations with other people, we should try to focus on what they are saying. If we really want to understand other people, we need to focus all of our attention on what the other person is saying. And once we understand people more, we will see why they do the things that they do. This will make us speak less Lashon Hara and will bring more peace to the world.
Good Shabbos!

-yes

Any questions or comments should be sent to [email protected].

By Rabbi Yaacov Seltzer
[email protected]
(305) 652-0186