ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים, two whole years according to Leviticus 25,29-30 ימים תהיה גאולתו, “it may be redeemed until the end of one year.” Here the Torah speaks of שנתים, i.e. twice a year. The word ימים as meaning a year has already occurred in Genesis 24,54 ימים או עשור, “a year or at least 10 months.” Also in Exodus 13,10 we find the expressionמימים ימימה, which means: “from year to year, annually.” When the words מקץ שנתים occur without the addition of the word ימים, they mean “one year.” When an animal did not yet reach the first anniversary of its birth it is called as being בן שנתו, “an up to one year old.” (compare Leviticus 12,6)

והנה מן היאור עולות, it is a common practice to water all the animals at the same time after which they all return to graze in the meadows. [as opposed to what occurred in Pharaoh’s dream. Ed.]

באחו, a place where herbs grow as we know from Job 8,11 ישגא אחו בלי מים, “can bulrushes grow without water?”

ויקץ פרעה, ויישן (מיד) ויחלום, normally when a person has dreamt a dream and has woken up going to sleep again thereafter, any dream during the second sleep will focus on another subject. As a result, he is not even aware yet that that he had completed his first sleep and had become wholly awake. Pharaoh, on the other hand, was immediately fully awake, even before going back to sleep and having another dream. Only after his second awakening did he realise that the whole vivid pictures he had seen while asleep were not reality but were a dream. (verse 7)

בקנה אחד, this was a symbol of plenty, seeing that each stalk had seven ears of grain

והנה חלום. Just as Yaakov had faced a new reality in 29,25 when he woke up finding that Leah had been his mate in bed, so Pharaoh now faced a new reality, i.e. he found that what he had considered as reality, the images he saw while he had been asleep, had only been a dream.

ותפעם רוחו; his mind was thoroughly disturbed so that he felt the urgent need to explore the meaning of this dream. We find that King Nevuchadnezzar’s mind was similarly disturbed by a dream when he called in Daniel in Daniel 2,3.after his own experts had failed him. [Of course, on that occasion the king was not even able to recall what he had dreamt and he set his interpreters an impossible task, not like here. Ed.]

פרעה קצף על עבדיו, the word Pharaoh in Egyptian means “king.” All the Egyptian kings are known as “Pharaoh,” whereas the kings of the Philistines are known as “Avimelech” even as late as the time of King David when the latter pretended to be mentally disturbed (Psalms 34,1) The city of Jerusalem used to be known as “Tzedek,” as we know from Genesis 14,18 as well as Joshua 10,1) During the reign of David, compare Psalms 110,4, G’d refers to Jerusalem as such, seeing that Malki Tzedek is described as “King of Jerusalem. The kings of the nation Amalek were known as “Agag,” [not only the one mentioned in the Book of Samuel. Ed.] (Numbers 24,7, Samuel I 15,8) In our verse here Pharaoh is not the name of an individual but that of the title accorded the Egyptian head of state. The proof for this is simple. Who would dare to address the King by his first name or even by his family name instead of by his title? Certainly not a cup bearer or a recently released prisoner such as Joseph at the time! This is also why Joseph was renamed אברך, meaning אב למלך, “father of the king,” provider. The author of the book לקח טוב has also written in this vein.

איש כחלומו פתר, “according to the meaning of the dream he interpreted.” [this could only be said with hindsight, of course, after the interpretation had proven itself as correct. Ed.] The words following prove this.

AND IT WAS AS HE INTERPRETED ETC. Me he restored to my post.

תשמע חלום, you understand a dream and are able to explain its meaning.

בלעדי, this matter does not depend on me but on G’d; He may let me know how to put your mind at ease.

ולא נודע כי באו אל קרבנה, thus Pharaoh said to Joseph at this time; he only now remembered that at the time that he had been dreaming it had appeared to him as if there was no trace of these seven fat cows having come into the lean cows. However, at the time when he had dreamt, i.e. when the Torah told us what he had dreamt it would not have been appropriate to describe anything beyond the facts, i.e. that the lean cows had eaten the fat cows. At that point in the narrative there had been no call to describe Pharaoh’s subjective reaction to what he had seen.

וצנומות, its meaning is in accordance with the context in which the word appears. It is unique in Scriptures. One may suggest that the word means the same as in the Talmud Baba Batra 18 where it refers to something hard as stone, devoid of any moisture.

אשר האלוקים עושה, He has told Pharaoh what He will do in the near future. One king spoke to another king, seeing that the king is charged with making provisions against all eventualities.

שבע גדול; the word שבע being a noun here and not a participle, has the vowels kametz under both the letters ש and ב, seeing the stress is on the last syllable. Other similar examples are the words דבר, davar, בקר, bakar, רעב, raav. and numerous more such examples.

ונשכח כל השבע , similar to the expression used before ולא נודע in verse 21.

ועל השנות החלום, if Joseph’s dreams of the stars and the sheaves of corn respectively, would have been dreamt by him in the same night, he would not have had to wait for 13 years until they would prove themselves as a true forecast of his rise to power.

ויפקד פקידים...וחמש, the general population would be required to hand over one fifth of the non-perishable parts of their harvest to a central storage facility administered by the government. According to Samuel warning the Jewish people of taxation that a king would impose upon them, (Samuel I 8,14-15) such taxation normally amounted to ten percent. Joseph now suggested that during the seven years of plenty this level of taxation be increased to twenty per cent, (a reserve for the people for the years of the famine to follow), not for the king’s needs as regular taxation.

ויצברו בר תחת יד, someone appointed for the task by Pharaoh.

פרעה, All of this would be enforced against the wishes of the population. This is why Joseph spoke of the appointment of פקידים, overseers with powers of enforcement,ויצברו, this expression is also used when King Ahasverus appointed officials to bring all good looking virgins to his court so that he could eventually make the selection of a new queen replacing Vashti from amongst one of the. (Esther 2,3)

The expression ויקבצו, “and they shall gather in,” is applied here to produce, whereas in Esther it was applied to people. [the reader can form his own opinion about human rights of women in Persia of old. Ed.]

אוכל בערים, there would be such storage silos in every city so people could buy during the years of the famine without having to travel far from their homes.

אשר רוח אלוקים בו, if he is able with G’d’s help to interpret intangibles such as dreams, he must certainly be smart enough to arrange administrative earthly affairs in a competent manner.

נבון, he understands the future, having been able to foresee it.

ישק, he will motivate people through clever use of weaponry to attack their enemies. The use of the word נשק meaning weapons occurs in Kings II 10,2 as עיר מבצר והנשק, “a fortified city and weaponry.” We also find it used in this sense in Psalms 78,9 נושקי רומי קשת, “being armed and carrying bows.”

נתתי אותך, “I have placed you.” Pharaoh said this to Joseph at the time he handed over his ring (seal of office) to him.

בגדי שש, the finest Egyptian garments made of superior linen. We know from Ezekiel 27,7 that such garments formed a well-known Egyptian export.

רביד, this describes something that is draped over a person. The word is similar to מרבדים in Proverbs 7,16 מרבדים רבדתי ערשי,”I have decked my couch with covers.”

במרכבת המשנה, a horse or mule especially designated for the King’s second in command to ride on.

אברך, “father of the king.” We have some proof for this from Baba Batra 4 לא רכא ולא בר רכא, “neither a king nor a king’s son. [since we can discount the letter א at the end, this being an Aramaic ending, if בר רכא means son of a king, then אברך means father of a king. Ed.] This is proven further from 45,8 when Joseph speaks of his position beingוישימני לאב לפרעה, “He (G’d) has placed me in the position of being a father (provider) for Pharaoh.” In effect this made Joseph “father” of the king. The word פרעה, after all, is simply a title, meaning “king,” not the personal name of an individual as we explained already on verse 10.

אני פרעה, “I am king;” this was another way of saying that he was Joseph’s superior only by the formality of occupying the throne. (verse 40)

לא ירים איש את ידו, to countermand your authority, such as Jerobam who is described as “מרים יד, raising a hand against the king” (Solomon) in Kings I 11,27. Jerobam (a member of the tribe of Ephrayim) had first been appointed as in charge of all the forced labour from his tribe, the House of Joseph.

צפנת פענח, as translated by Onkelos, someone who reveals hidden things. It is a name taken from the Egyptian language. It was a common practice to link the name of a newly appointed official to his office in some manner. Moses changed the name of Joshua when he became selected to be one of the twelve spies. (Numbers 13,16) Similarly, Daniel, when appointed to high office by the king was renamed בל טשצר, (Daniel 1,6 and Daniel 4,5).

פוטיפרע, this is not the Potiphar who had acquired Joseph as a slave.

כהן און, a minister in the city of that name, as we know from Samuel II 8,18 ובני דוד כהנים היו, “the sons of David were priests.” [seeing that they belonged to the tribe of Yehudah, how could they have been priests (who were descended from Levi)? The meaning of כהן therefore, both in Samuel and in our verse, must be that they were in exalted positions.

בן שלושים, and old enough to assume the burden of high office.

ותעש הארץ, it produced bountiful harvests. We find the root עשה use in the same sense in Leviticus 25,21 when the Torah describes the bountiful harvests preceding the shemittah year in the words ועשת את התבואה לשלוש השנים, “it will produce a harvest sufficient for the three years.”

לקמצים, a single stalk of grain would yield several handfuls of flour.

בטרם תבא שנת הרעב, seeing that Yaakov arrived in Egypt at the beginning of the second year of the famine and he died at the end of seventeen years of having lived in Egypt, he said to Joseph prior to his death: “the two sons of yours who were born before I came i.e. Ephrayim and Menashe, will be to me as Reuven and Shimon.” Any children of Joseph, and he had such, who were born to him after his father arrived in Egypt would be considered as regular grandchildren of Yaakov in respect of the eventual parceling up to the tribes of the soil of the Holy Land. (48,5-6).

נשני, the construction of the word from the root נשש is similar to a similar construction of the root חנן in 33,11 where Yaakov explained to his brother Esau that he was looking at his children. The proof of this is the dagesh in the letter ש. [which effectively doubles that letter. Ed.] If the word nashani had been derived from the root נשה as in Isaiah 44,21 לא תנשני, or as in Lamentations 3,17, נשיתי טובה, where the root is one that loses its last root letter, the Torah here should have written nishani, instead of nashani. It then would have been parallel to the construction in Samuel II 19,27 עבדי רמני, rimani from the root רמה, to deceive, and other similar examples.

ובכל ארץ מצרים היה לחם, because Joseph had stored food in the cities.

וישבר, a term used for trading in food and drink, as we know already from Yaakov having said to his sons, לכו שברו לנו מעט אכל. We also find the expression including the dealing in liquids in Isaiah 55,1 ולכו שברו בלא כסף ובלא מחיר יין וחלב, “come for water, even if you have no money, come buy food and eat, buy food without money, wine and milk without cost.”

וכל הארץ באו מצרימה אל יוסף לשבור, [dear reader please note that the author’s commentary consists of his reversing the sequence of the words לשבור אל יוסף, written in the text of the Torah. If the meaning had been as it appears from the written text at first glance, instead of writing אל יוסף, the Torah should have written מן יוסף, from Joseph. Ed.]