Mikeitz

The Parsha starts off stating, “and it was the end of two years and Pharaoh had a dream.” The Midrash writes: “Praiseworthy is the one who puts his faith in Hashem,” this is Yosef, “and doesn’t turn to haughty, powerful people.” Since Yosef said to the sar hamashkim “remember me,” he was punished to remain in jail for two more years.

The mefarshim are bothered: There seems to be a contradiction in this Midrash. First the Midrash praises Yosef for being a great ba’al bitachon and then belittles Yosef that he trusted in the sar hamashkim, as it writes that he turned to the powerful, haughty people.

Rav Shternbach answers that putting in the effort of mentioning himself to the sar hamashkim was definitely fine for Yosef to do. However, the wrong-doing was that Yosef put his faith in the sar hamashkim, thinking that through him the salvation will come. That was wrong! A person needs to invest some effort, but he needs to realize that the action he does, is not what bring out the results. Only Hashem brings the final outcome! Since Yosef put his faith in the sar hamashkim, thinking that he will be the one whom will bring the yeshua, Yosef was sentenced to stay in prison for two more years.

Rav Shternbach told over the following story that illustrates this point. His Rebbe, Rabbi Shneider sent a student in the Yeshiva to collect money because the financial situation was very difficult. Although he tried very hard, he was unsuccessful and returned with less than what he started off with. Rav Shneider saw that the student was disappointed; not only did he not learn but he also was unsuccessful raising funds. He said it’s ok, don’t worry. A couple of days later a wealthy person came and gave a generous contribution. Rabbi Shneider quickly came and praised the student that because of his effort, with Hashem’s help the Yeshiva got a generous contribution. The student responded, “I had nothing to do with this specific donor.” His Rebbe explained that a person needs to do some sort of hishtadlus, put in effort to bring out accomplishments, which he did, but Hashem is One who brings forth the results.

May we remember that we are meant to put in the effort to accomplish, but Hashem solely causes it to come to fruition!