VaYeshev Excerpts

וישב

Shabbat Shalom

Yosef is in charge of the jail where the head of the cup-bearers and the head of the bakers are sent by Paroh. He is a prisoner, but put in charge. I don't trust any of this new board with making any decisions. Being in charge of the synagogue baseball outing was a nightmare. Truth is, I would trust a felon with the Tzedakah box before... We already lost $300,000 since Mrs. Coflowitz became president. Your investments show you have no insight into...

Because Yosef was able to interpret the dreams, he was able to see that the cup-bearer would be reinstated. 

(40:14-15) Yosef asks the head of the cup-bearers to remember him, so that Paroh will take him out of prison. He had it great in prison, but he was still confined. Ever felt like you are locked up? You are the head of a congregation and yet you want out?! He was the head of everything there. He wants out. Even a great life in prison is not that great. He had commissary, but he wanted more than... Maybe this congregation is not everything.

Yosef goes onto explain '...For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and also here. I didn't do anything wrong for them to put me in a pit.' No. Yosef was legit. He got framed. This isn't like the time Moshe got caught taking kiddush before we made the blessing... You were like a child. It was embarrassing. And then the buffet at the wedding...

The word pit is used to describe jail. Like his brothers threw him in a pit, jail is a pit. It is lonely there. It is a feeling of nobody thinking of you. You are gone from this world. Ever sit at lunch with the Markowitz family? You would know what it feels like to be in a pit... Then get the seedless grapes.

(40:16) The head of the bakers sees that Yosef's interpretation of the head of the cup-bearers dream goes well. He might as well try getting an interpretation of his own dream. Not everything goes well. I have a friend who is a rabbi in Sarisota. He loves it. My dream of being a rabbi was translated differently... The Koneisfelds wanted another child. Didn't turn out like your first one. Did it? Your first one is an angel... I know that is why she is in Israel. All the good ones leave.

We know how that interpretation of birds eating baked goods out of a basket on his head ends up?! Hanging him on a tree and birds eating his flesh. He should've know his dream was worse than pouring wine into a cup that goes into Paroh's hand... We all see it coming. 

Sometimes you guys can't figure out the simplest things. You don't invest in Coflowitz Coffee Co. The three 'c's is not a reason to invest... We know it is your company. We got it. We know youa re the president and...

(40:23) 'The head of the cup-bearers doesn't remember Yosef, and he forgets him.' The next level of forgetting. Not just to not remember, but he totally erases any thought of Yosef. He forgets him. Why? Because things are good. Nothing here is that good, which is why we remember.

Once he is back in his regular way of life, snobby cup-bearer pouring wine into Paroh's hands, forgets the interpretation of the dream. No Hakart Hatov to Yosef. The same way the Pinskees never thanked their rabbi for telling them their son wouldn't amount to anything... It is true. A little Hakarat Hatov.

You know, the Feldbergs had a great summer. I told you to leave Topeka. You did, and you loved it.

When life is good, you all forget everybody else. Thank Gd, life has not been good here in a while.

None of this means the head of the cup-bearers was better than the other guy. The head of the bakers might have remembered Yosef, unlike Frank who doesn't remember anything I have done for him... Yes. Your family too.

What was Yosef asking the cup-bearer to remember? He was a good man. Not just an interpreter of dreams. (20:6) He saw that they were angry. After their dreams, they were disturbed and not in a good mood. Yosef noticed that. That is a humane thing to do. Their dreams would've never come to Yosef if he didn't care enough to ask them (40:7) 'Why are your faces sad/bad today?'

All this starts with an act of חסד, kindness. Like your rabbi has done for you. But do you remember the kindness? It isn't about seeing the future. It is about paying back kindness. My being here with you all, and dealing with the Coflowitz Coffee counterfit fiasco. But you all forget when things are good. Good is relative. Getting out of jail, all seems good. You are not in a pit anymore. Has anybody from the Feldbergs called since they moved to Miami? No... They forgot that we told them to move.

The cup-bearer shouldn't even have to be told to remember the person who cared enough for them, to be honest with them and interpret their dreams. I told you that your dream about your child eating pig was because your child was going to eat non-kosher... Because you only keep kosher in the home. Eating non-kosher out does not mean you keep kosher. Try eating kosher and we will eat by you. That has nothing to do with Hakarat Hatov. Recognizing good is not what you deserve. We can recognize a bad herring. Only good Jews can make good herring. Only good Jews care enough to ask...

Yosef has it bad, because nobody remembers him. Nobody cares about him. All of the people around him mess up his life

When his brothers visit, they don't even realize it is him. Nobody remembers Yosef.
Will you remember that your rabbi kicked the new president off the board?