Envisioning the Future

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

In Parashas Mikeitz, Yosef deciphers Pharaoh’s cryptic dreams. After interpreting each event in the dreams, Yosef tells Pharaoh that they are a warning. Unless action is taken, his country will starve. The government must be competent and mobilize the entire nation to ration and preserve food before the years of famine arrive.

Pharaoh, impressed by Yosef’s advice, decides that he is the best man to assume the mantle of national leadership and oversee this operation. Just moments before, he was an unknown prisoner, and now, miraculously, Yosef becomes one of the most influential figures in the entire world! Such a sudden, drastic rise to power was unheard of in Egyptian society, where social mobility was extremely limited. Slaves or prisoners could never hope to rise to such an exalted status.

In fact, such a phenomenon leads us to ask, what was Pharaoh thinking? Granted, Yosef had proven himself to be a capable dream interpreter, but how does that qualify him to be an effective ruler? Does it teach him how to successfully ward off a nation-wide famine? Moreover, even though Yosef presented a solution, that did not mean that he was the only one capable of implementing it. Why did Pharaoh feel that Yosef’s rulership was vital for the nation’s future?

Rav Yisrael Lishinshiski finds an answer to this in the Gemara (Tamid 32a): “Who is wise? One who perceives consequences.” Pharaoh understood that Yosef’s talents went beyond dream interpretation. Yosef knew how to act on the information at his disposal; he didn’t just see the problem, he saw the solution, too. A person who can sense what needs to be done and the outcome of any decision is the kind of person Pharaoh wanted to implement his governmental policies.

Pharaoh also realized that the only person who could deal with the situation was someone who truly appreciated how serious it was. Since Yosef understood the problem and its urgency, Pharaoh trusted that he would make prudent use of his resources: the seven years of abundance. This decision ended up saving Egypt.

Anticipation of and preparation for the future are central elements of a Jew’s life. Our tradition teaches that this world is just a preparatory stage for the World to Come, our final destination. To be conscious of this truth is obligatory for every Jew, and Chazal constantly urge us to remember that we will not live forever in this world. Whatever accomplishments we do hope to achieve can only be achieved in this world. As the Gemara (Avodah Zarah 3a) declares: “One who prepares before Shabbos will eat on Shabbos.” Here, Shabbos is a metaphor for the World to Come.

Rav Yehuda Zev Segal of the Manchester Yeshivah adds that we should prepare spiritually for our future in this world as well. A young person should take advantage of his years in yeshivah. Who knows how much time he’ll have to learn later, when he marries and has a family to support? A person planning to enter the business world must surely learn the laws of proper business practice. One who is planning to establish his own home should learn the laws of kashrus in the kitchen. The Gemara teaches that a Jew must learn the laws of each Yom Tov thirty days before it arrives, in order to be able to conduct himself properly when the time comes. These examples show the importance of seeing what is coming and being prepared, especially when it comes to service of Hashem.

When I was young, my father always reminded me to prepare. “The more prepared you are, the better off you will be,” he would say. My father always knew what his next move was going to be. He would project what he hoped to accomplish over the course of the day, and he even had a vision of what he would do the next day. (Obviously, he adjusted himself accordingly when new issues arose.) My father even planned out what middah to work on, when, and for how long. After he passed away, I discovered in his journal that he would even set aside whole months in which he would focus on one specific area of character perfection.

May we be zocheh to prepare ourselves for our futures!

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