Parshat Mikeitz - The Blessing in the Curse
The hero Parshat Mikeitz is the mighty Yosef (Joseph).
Learning sections of the Torah like this are very challenging for me, since I already know the end of the story.
Sometimes it's really hard to imagine what it must have been like to have been Yosef throughout all those so very frightening, traumatic years prior to his success.
How many of us have lost jobs, only to to look and find something far superior than the previous job? If you were a prophet and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the better job truly was around the corner, then great.
Good for you.
Joy during the interim is easy.
But keeping your head up high when others have pushed you down to the ground is certainly no easy task.
Usually when people tell you "it's all for the best", you just want to slug them.
But then it turns out to be true! When Yosef was younger he seemed to have a knack for having amazingly clear dreams, easy as pie to interpret.
Unfortunately for him, those dreams were just gasoline for the fire burning in the hearts of all of his brothers.
I imagine at first he would hate his gift.
His uncanny ability to interact with dreams went from detrimental to cute parlor trick, but for all intents and purposes remained absolutely useless throughout.
A "gift" indeed! Useless...
That is, of course, until his masterful dream interpretation landed him a completely unexpected visit to the grand dictator of all of Egypt.
And what blessing could there possibly be in being chucked into a pit by your brothers? What blessing could there possibly be in being sold into slavery? What blessing could one ever find in being estranged from a beloved father? How could you ever possibly find blessing in wrongful imprisonment!? All seemingly unanswerable questions.
Well, until all that pain and torment lands you in charge of an entire nation with the world's most expansive financial project under your command.
I can't help but flashing to a harder time in my own life, when I thought everything was over.
But in the end, every moment of misery was a fundamental step in arriving at ultimate joy.
Everything was and still is a piece of the puzzle.
Yosef's life was filled with so many blessings, as are all of ours.
Some of those blessings are clear as day, while others are hidden in the deepest, darkest pits of misery.
But they're all blessings!
Learning sections of the Torah like this are very challenging for me, since I already know the end of the story.
Sometimes it's really hard to imagine what it must have been like to have been Yosef throughout all those so very frightening, traumatic years prior to his success.
How many of us have lost jobs, only to to look and find something far superior than the previous job? If you were a prophet and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the better job truly was around the corner, then great.
Good for you.
Joy during the interim is easy.
But keeping your head up high when others have pushed you down to the ground is certainly no easy task.
Usually when people tell you "it's all for the best", you just want to slug them.
But then it turns out to be true! When Yosef was younger he seemed to have a knack for having amazingly clear dreams, easy as pie to interpret.
Unfortunately for him, those dreams were just gasoline for the fire burning in the hearts of all of his brothers.
I imagine at first he would hate his gift.
His uncanny ability to interact with dreams went from detrimental to cute parlor trick, but for all intents and purposes remained absolutely useless throughout.
A "gift" indeed! Useless...
That is, of course, until his masterful dream interpretation landed him a completely unexpected visit to the grand dictator of all of Egypt.
And what blessing could there possibly be in being chucked into a pit by your brothers? What blessing could there possibly be in being sold into slavery? What blessing could one ever find in being estranged from a beloved father? How could you ever possibly find blessing in wrongful imprisonment!? All seemingly unanswerable questions.
Well, until all that pain and torment lands you in charge of an entire nation with the world's most expansive financial project under your command.
I can't help but flashing to a harder time in my own life, when I thought everything was over.
But in the end, every moment of misery was a fundamental step in arriving at ultimate joy.
Everything was and still is a piece of the puzzle.
Yosef's life was filled with so many blessings, as are all of ours.
Some of those blessings are clear as day, while others are hidden in the deepest, darkest pits of misery.
But they're all blessings!
