Miketz: seeing the future

Miketz: seeing the future

I prefer not to take this week's parsha at face value. What do we make of dream interpretation and the patterns left by wine dregs  as methods for predicting future events. I was taught to reject such techniques as alien to my culture...poo, poo, poo.

In this century, we, Jews,  are a people of science: the producers of 20% of Nobel Prizes, the victor's over polio, founders of Facebook. The dybuks are the subjects of movies with special effects.

The preservation of beliefs that I would now call magical is  a problem in some types of Orthodoxy.  Drawing the line between customs  whose significance we don't understand and  superstition can be challenging.   Preservation above understanding is an Orthodox principle,  it is a humility of spirit that demands obedience before analysis. Change requires the imprimitur of high authority, and the authorities are generally change averse.Communities vary in their Spectra of customs and magic, but we all have some.

There is a way to rationalize Miketz.  Although the classic nature of the story makes it seem as if Joseph's interpretation of Pharoah's dream is inevitable and correct, the text tells us that the scholars of the age were baffled. The dreams were open to a broad range of interpretations. Joseph's prediction of  bumper crops pushed down the price of grain in the first seven years.  In a time of surplus, the farmer needs to sell a lot of wheat to buy a tunic. The incessant working of the land depletes it, leading to famine. The speculators -who bought in the times of plenty- now have a dear staple.  The  interpretation of the dream has led to rescuing the people from a famine that the same interpretation generated.  It has also amassed all of the area's wealth to the Pharoah. What a great adivsor! The significance of a dream is in it's interpretation.(see Brachoth 55b)

I don't think that Pharoah was a gullible fool, either.  The story can be read as this weird, young man, Joseph, coming out of prison and presenting a brilliant dream interpretation.  But Joseph had a history. He had managed Potiphar's  estate and he had been extraordinarily successful.  He was the prison commissioner. He's had a great track record. He was no rookie.

I have previously talked about the unwritten challenges that Joseph overcame, preserving the  grain for years and the echo of Fritz Haber.

The parsha ends with the framing of Benjamin for stealing Joseph's chalice.  The text has Joseph saying that one should assume that a person in his position practices divination.  הֲל֣וֹא יְדַעְתֶּ֔ם כִּֽי־נַחֵ֧שׁ יְנַחֵ֛שׁ אִ֖ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֥ר כָּמֹֽנִי׃ Rashi rescues us from hocus pocus, interpreting Joseph's words to mean that viceroy can figure things out logicality, including who stole the chalice.   הֲלֹא יְדַעְתֶּם כִּי אִישׁ חָשׁוּב כָּמוֹנִי יוֹדֵעַ לְנַחֵשׁ וְלָדַעַת מִדַּעַת וּמִסְּבָרָא וּבִינָה, כִּי אַתֶּם גְּנַבְתֶּם הַגָּבִיעַ Yay Rashi!

One of the best parts of the yeshiva model is meshing the texts and the traditions with evolving science... Without surrendering to it.