ויהי מקץ, “it was at the end;” according to Rashi, the word מקץ means: at the end.” The reason why Rashi was forced to give this interpretation-which to most of us is quite clear, is that there are occasions when this expression means: “at the beginning.” One such example occurs in Jeremiah 34,14: מקץ שבע שנים תשלחו חפשי, “at the beginning of the seventh year you must release him to freedom” (the Jewish slave) [Seeing that his term or servitude is for six years, (Exodus 21,2) it cannot mean that he is to be released only at the end of the seventh year. Ed.] There is another verse involving this expression in Deuteronomy 15,1: מקץ שבע שנים תעשה שמטה, but this is inconclusive for our purpose, as the release of the debtor from overdue loans becomes effective only at the end of the seventh year.

ופרעה חולם, “and Pharaoh was dreaming;” G–d’s method of applying reward and punishment cannot be compared to any human system of doing so. Human beings inflict wounds with a chisel, a metal and pain causing instrument, while they apply only a flimsy plaster to heal the wound. G–d inflicts a wound that is superficial, like the application of a plaster, but when it comes to healing it, He uses immediately effective means. Joseph had been thrown into a pit on account of a mere dream he had dreamt concerning his brothers; he was healed by a dream dreamt by the then most powerful ruler on earth, the King of Egypt. In other words, G–d employed “the heavyweight” on earth in order to heal his wounds. One of our liturgists pointed this out already in a s’lichah recited on the third day of the “s’Iichot” recited before Rosh Hashanah. He points out there that the remedy G–d used to heal Joseph consists of parts of the weapon used to harm him.

והנה מן היאור, “and lo, out of the River (Nile)” seeing that famine and satiation have their origin in water, (irrigation or lack thereof of the earth) this was the symbol shown Pharaoh in his dream. (B’reshit Rabbah 89,4)

ותבלענה השבלים, “the ears swallowed;” the text is not to be understood literally; the meaning appears to be that each successively growing ear of corn completely covered the one that had grown before it, so that it could not be seen by the beholder, but it had not vanished as does the food one swallows. The expression בלע in the sense of “covering” occurs in Numbers 4,20, when the holy vessels being packed before the Israelites broke camp is discussed. According to the Talmud, tractate B’rachot, folio 55, where dreams are discussed at length, the Talmud states that G–d does not send a dream to a person in which he is shown something that does not make any sense, such as an elephant passing through the eye of a needle. This statement is to be understood as an aggadah. The plain meaning of our verse is that Pharaoh believed he had seen the ears of corns being swallowed by their hollowed out counterparts. This is why the Torah had to add that when he awoke he realised that he had not seen something real, but that it was a dream in which one does see such things. Pharaoh could understand that cows eat each other, but he was baffled by ears of corn consuming one another. Hence he was convinced that he had only dreamt, although the dream was very vivid.

ותפעם רוחו, “his mind was disturbed.” Rashi draws our attention to the fact that when the reaction of King Nebuchadnezzar to his dream is described in the Book of Daniel 2,1, the author uses a different conjugation, i.e. ותתפעם which is a combination of the passive and reflexive mode. [The latter could not even remember what he had seen that disturbed him so much. Ed.] His interpreters were required to tell him what he had dreamt as well as what it meant. Pharaoh, on the other hand, had only forgotten the interpretation of what he had seen in the dream. (B‘reshit Rabbah, 89,5.) Even though when relating his dream to potential interpreters he did not let on how deeply he was troubled and he used the same words for his reaction as are reported of Pharaoh, חלום חלמתי ותפעם רוחי, “I have dreamt a dream and my mind is disturbed,” (Daniel 2,3) the difference was that the inability of his interpreters to offer any interpretation was due to the fact that they had not been told what he had dreamt. One of the differences between the two dreams was that Nebuchadnezzar dreamt something that would occur in the distant future, whereas Pharaoh dreamt something that would occur almost immediately. If Daniel had not been able to tell Nebuchadnezar what he had dreamt, he would never have believed the interpretation that Daniel offered him. Seeing that Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream as predicting matters that would occur in the immediate future, he believed him, as otherwise he could have called him a liar within a short time and have dealt with him as a false prophet. As to Nebuchadnezzar having meted out the death penalty to all the interpreters that had failed to interpret his dream, (compare Daniel 2,12) this was partly due to their having said that no human being could interpret his dream, only angels (verse 11). Prophets had been rare already in the time of Samuel; (compare Samuel 3,1) The word ואחרון לא איתי, in Daniel 2,11, should be read as ואהרן לא נמצא, “there is no Aaron nowadays who by means of the urim and tumim in the folds of his breastplate could have secured an answer from G–d to his query.” Nebuchadnezzar, when hearing these words of Daniel, told him that he now remembered about the significance of that breastplate and the urim and tumim. He added that the Jewish people had lost their world because their priests had made unlawful use of that breastplate. This is why he decreed a similar fate for his own priests. (Tanchuma section 2 on our portion)

ויתן אותי במשמר....ואת שר האופים, “and he placed me in jail, together with chief of the bakers.” Why did the chief of the cup-bearers repeat the word: אותי, “me,” in this verse? I have heard from Rabbi Yehudah the priest, that he said so to Pharaoh in order that he should not think that in his foolishness he had believed that he deserved to be reinstated in his position anymore than did the chief of the bakers who had been hanged. He and the chief of the bakers had always been good friends, they had been together, and he did not feel superior or more deserving. He realised that only due to Pharaoh’s magnanimity had his life been spared at the time.

ויחלף שמלותיו, “he changed his clothing.” Our sages saw a hint in these two words that Joseph was brought before Pharaoh on Rosh Hashanah, as stated by the Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah folio 11. The numerical value of the letters in these two words is the same as in the words: בחד בתשרי on the first day of the month of Tishrey (Rosh Hashanah) Our author questions this as the word שמלותיו has the letter ו missing in the middle of the word.

ורקות בשר, “of poor quality flesh.” The descriptions of these cows/ears of corn as either רקות or דקות are nuances of רעות, how poorly they appeared to Pharaoh in his dream. [Personally, I have always thought that by varying the adjectives applicable, Pharaoh wanted to test Joseph to see if he had really been shown his dream by G–d. Ed.]

יהיו שבע שני רעב, “will be seven consecutive years of famine.” The word יהיו should be understood as a prayer by Joseph, who was aware that actually 42 years of famine had been decreed for Egypt. How did Joseph know this? You will note that the number שבע appeared in Pharaoh’s dream 6 times. Twice seven when Pharaoh had the dream, once with the cows, once with the ears of corn. The same was repeated when he related his dream to his interpreters. It was repeated again when he related the dream to Joseph. Joseph’s prayer achieved that the 42 years which had been decreed were shrunk to only seven years. The arrival of Joseph’s father Yaakov in Egypt and his blessing to Pharaoh reduced the famine further so that it lasted only two years. The 40 years that were chopped off the decree did not disappear but were “paid back” to Egypt in later years as we know from Jeremiah that Egypt experienced 40 years of total drought predicted by that prophet. (Ezekiel 29,9 and 12)

וחמש את ארץ מצרים, “and impose a tax of one fifth of the harvest to be given to those in charge for storage under safe conditions.” It is from this stored grain that distribution started to be made as we read in Genesis 46,24.

וילבש אותו בגדי שש, “he dressed him in fine linen garments.” According to Rashi, this kind of linen was considered as extremely valuable in Egypt. Some people query Rashi’s comment on Genesis 2,11, where the river Pishon is mentioned which Rashi identifies with the river Nile, pointing out that flax, פשתן, from which linen is made, grows in Egypt, the country that is home to that river. The author believes that linen was indeed grown in Egypt in larger quantities than elsewhere and that it was considered very valuable. Furthermore, it is most likely that the fabric mentioned here as שש, was hemp, a fiber, פשתי העץ, grown on trees as we know from Joshua 2,6, where the spies are described as hiding among accumulated piles of such fibers. Rashi calls it קנבוס. The fabric שש mentioned here was no doubt cotton, which at that time did not grow in Egypt, hence its being described as an expensive imported material.

צפנת פענח, this name is an acronym, describing a person who is steadfast in the presence of strong urges to satisfy his libido through sleeping with partners legally forbidden to him. Potiphar had had no reason to believe that Joseph could not withstand such temptation. [Pharaoh wanted the world to know that Joseph had been completely innocent of any accusation. Ed.]

ויתן לו את אסנת, “he (Pharaoh) gave him Ossnat (as a wife) If you were to ask why Joseph who was Royalty would marry the daughter of a commoner, remember that Joseph had previously been a slave in the household of Potiphar. He therefore reasoned that if he were to refuse to marry Ossnat, the daughter of his former master, the latter would spread the word that Joseph was really a slave and that he had no business to have risen to such an exalted position. On the other hand, if he would agree and marry this woman, his former master would honour him henceforth, being proud that through this marriage he himself now had connections to the highest social circles in Egypt. There is an additional reason why he agreed to marry this woman, as she was actually a descendant of Yaakov, as Rashi has explained on Genesis, portion Vayishlach, quoting Pirke de rabbi Eliezer, chapter 38, according to which she was the daughter of Dinah from her rape by Sh’chem. According to that chapter, the angel Michael had transported that infant to Egypt where she had been adopted by Potiphar. This is why the Torah calls her the daughter of Potiphar. We find that Moses similarly was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, and that in Chronicles I 4,18 Calev is reported as marrying (also) Bityah-the daughter of Pharaoh, who had at the time adopted Moses. When Joseph was paraded throughout Egypt (Genesis 49,23,) and according to the Torah, all the young ladies threw flowers or jewelry at him, when Ossnat, did not have anything to throw, she threw her amulet, which she had worn around her neck at all times, at him. When Joseph looked at the inscription on it, he realised that the girl wearing it was descended from Yaakov, and he went ahead and married her.

לקמצים, “in fistfuls.” Joseph’s overseers took a fifth of a fistful, even of the last fistful remaining in the farmer’s barn, as part of the grain to be stored for the future.

בטרם תבוא שנת הרעב, “before the year of famine arrived.” The Talmud in tractate Taanit folio 11 teaches that from this verse we learn that during a famine man and his wife are not to cohabit [so as not to add more hungry mouths at that time. Ed.] In light of this it is difficult to understand how Levi could have sired Yocheved during those years as we have been told that she was born when her mother entered Egypt on her way there with Yaakov’s family. (Compare Genesis 45,6) Rabbi Yehudah hachassid, opined that the prohibition of cohabiting with one’s wife during periods of famine is valid only for a prophet who has been told by G–d directly that there was going to be such a famine. Joseph was such a prophet who had been inspired by G–d to advise Pharaoh of future events. Levi who did not have any direct knowledge concerning the origin of this famine, and who had caused it, was therefore not obliged to abstain from the commandment to be fruitful and to multiply. According to a different interpretation, the brothers Levi and Joseph took different sides in an argument aired in the Talmud, tractate Yevamot folio 61 concerning that if the commandment to be fruitful has already been fulfilled if one has fathered two sons. A second opinion holds that until one has sired both a son and a daughter, one cannot claim to have fulfilled the commandment. Since Levi at this time had not yet sired a daughter, he had felt entitled to maintain normal family relations with his wife. Joseph had already sired two sons, and he held that thereby he had fulfilled the commandment.

קרא אפרים, “he called Ephrayim.” This was a reminder of the two founding fathers of the Jewish people, Avraham and Yitzchok, both of whom had described themselves as ashes, אפר. Compare Genesis 18,27 and Yitzchok, who when bound on the altar on Mount Moriah, considered himself as soon being burned to ashes. This is why the entire Jewish nation is on occasion called אפרים, compare Jeremiah 31,19: הבן יקיר לי אפרים, “truly, Ephrayim is a dear son to Me.”(G–d speaking)

ותכילנה, “they came to an end;” according to B’reshit Rabbah, 90,6 the word is to be understood as derived from כלולות as in כלולותיך in Jeremiah 2,2, a reference to physical beauty, i.e. the seven years of plenty had resulted in the whole Egyptian population having a more pleasing and healthy appearance.

ותחילנה, “they commenced;” our author, following his interpretation of the expression ותכילנה, understands this word as derived from חולי, sickly, meaning that during the years of famine, the Egyptians began to look very sickly. (B’reshit Rabbah 90,6)