[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.
Shaya, Z'L, did not have a dvar Torah on Parshas Vayeishev, so his brother, Baruch, is sharing with you a powerful vort from Rabbi Frand.
This week’s parsha contains four words that changed the course of history. Yosef was arrested and imprisoned. Shortly afterwards, two members of Pharoah’s Court were also thrown into jail.
Imagine what it was like to be in jail with two officers of Pharoah’s Court. As an analogy, this would be like having a two-bit drug dealer in jail together with two members of the President’s cabinet. These were ‘Cabinet level’ people in the Egyptian government – the person who brought Pharoah his wine was a trusted individual. He was the wine taster, a person in whom the King had implicit trust. These were people who could be compared to the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.
They were sitting in jail with a Hebrew slave – the lowest rung of society, someone who was serving time for a petty crime. We can be sure that there was not a lot of camaraderie and social interaction between Yosef and Pharoah’s officials.
The officers had their respective dreams, which upset them. Yosef saw that they were depressed and asked them “Why are you depressed?” The “drug dealer” (Yosef) comments to the “Secretary of State” (Wine Butler), “You don’t look so good this morning!” Because of that remark, because of those four words, what happens?
The dreams are related to Yosef. Yosef interprets the dreams. The Butler sees that Yosef has special powers. The Butler is eventually released from jail and, in the time-honored tradition, gets put back on the ‘Cabinet’.
Years later, the Butler remembers Yosef. Yosef is brought out of jail. He interprets the dreams of Pharoah correctly. He becomes the second in command. He feeds the entire world including his own brothers and father. And the rest – as they say — is history!
What started this entire series of events? Four words: “Madua peneichem ra’im hayom?” (Why are your faces troubled today?) What is the ethical lesson to be learned here? The lesson is that it is incumbent upon us to be a “nice guy.” Yosef was concerned about how they looked and how they felt, even though we would need to assume that these were people who did not give Yosef a second look. Merely saying a nice, kind word makes such a difference!
Four words changed history. Two words can change history — “Good Morning!” “How are you?” “How are you doing?” “How was your holiday?” “How is your spouse?” “How are your kids?” These types of words can make a difference. They made a vast difference in Yosef’s life and for Klal Yisrael’s [The Jewish Nation’s] lives.
