Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

Joseph asks the cup bearer to remember him to Pharaoh. The cup bearer forgets about him. This teaches us that, while we have to make all preparations to succeed, we have to remember that it is God who will redeem us in the end.

This week’s parsha ends with the story of Yosef and the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker. They come to Yosef troubled, and they somehow sense that he can interpret dreams. Yosef tells the baker that in three days he will be executed, and the cupbearer that in three days he will be restored to his position.

Yosef asks only one thing of the cupbearer: “When things go well for you, remember me to Pharaoh.” But the Torah emphasizes that the cupbearer promptly forgets him.

There’s an interesting detail here. Chazal note that Pharaoh would hold his goblet resting in the palm of his hand. Many Jews have a custom to hold the Kiddush cup this way on Shabbat—because Shabbat is the day when we are like royalty. Why does the Torah bother to tell us such a detail? Perhaps to remind us that even small moments in Torah contain hints meant to elevate our lives.

But back to the cupbearer: when he finally remembers Yosef in next week’s parsha, he refers to him dismissively: “A Hebrew boy, a slave…” Rashi says this teaches us that even when a wicked person tries to do good, he does it in a degrading manner.

Yosef had done everything he could to create his own salvation. He interpreted the dream correctly, built a relationship, and made a request. He did the hishtadlut, the human effort. But in the end, salvation didn’t come from the cupbearer at all—it came two years later, directly from God.

And that’s the lesson:
We prepare. We plan. We train. Soldiers drill. Doctors practice. We put in effort. But ultimately, the results are in God’s hands. We are obligated to act—but never to assume we control the outcome.

There’s a story from the great earthquake in Safed in 1837. A rabbi leading Mincha had a sudden premonition and motioned for everyone to flee the synagogue moments before it collapsed. Everyone survived. Only the rabbi himself suffered a broken arm from falling debris.

When asked why he alone was injured, he explained:
“God was giving me a message. If I believed there was danger enough to tell others to leave, I should have left as well. You don’t rely on miracles. Do the right thing—and trust God with the results.”

That captures our message perfectly.
We must take action—but we must also remember that the outcome rests entirely with Hashem.

Something to think about as we head into Shabbat.

When Esau and Jacob meet after many years, Esau invites Jacob to be with him. Jacob does not. He knows that Esau is bad and will be detrimental to his family. To keep the peace between them he goes his own way. He had to build a wall between himself and his brother.

The struggle depicted in the portion of the week is symbolic of the struggle we have with God and ourselves. We should try to be spiritual, but we cannot forget that we have physical needs as well.

The reason that Jacob was upset at the actions of Shimon & Levi was that he felt that they acted outside the law. He was against vigilante justice. He felt that their reasoning was sound but that they took the law into their own hands.

When Jacob had his meeting with Esau, he hid his daughter Dina for fear that Esau would want her. According to the midrash, she was supposed to be Esau’s wife. The reason was that she would have made him a good man.

One of the problems that we face is that we think everyone is like us. When we run into someone who doesn’t we are shocked. Esau made clear his intentions. Our enemies throughout history have made their intentions known. The problem is that we do not listen to them.

When Lavan accuses Jacob of stealing his idols, Jacob not only says that he did not but cursed anyone who did. He did not realize that Rachel had stolen them. She did so with all the good intentions, but it was still wrong, and she suffered for it.

The name of the Jewish people is derived from the naming of Judah, 4th son of Leah. She realized that she was supposed to only have three sons but had a 4th. So, she named his Judah, meaning, thanks to God.

Jacob learns how to defraud people from Lavan. He uses this knowledge to defend himself against Lavan. When he feels that he is in danger of becoming like Lavan he decides it is time to leave.

Lavan was a deceiver but not a liar. He would use words in a way that would confuse the person who was negotiating with him. Like when he switched Leah for Rachel. He agreed to let Jacob marry his daughter, he just didn’t say which one.