5786 - "And Yaakov dwelt": Rashi: "Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility; the anger over Yosef sprang upon him." Why can't a righteous person dwell and serve Hashem in tranquility? Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld,…

00:02 “And Yaakov dwelt in the land where his father had lived.” Rashi quotes the Midrash: “Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility, and the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him.” That seems to imply that seeking tranquility was something negative. So what was wrong with Yaakov wanting to dwell in tranquility? He wasn’t asking to go to a resort, put his feet up and do nothing. Yaakov Avinu was one of the Patriarchs, one of the supports of the Divine Chariot. So what was wrong with his wanting to live in tranquility? Surely what he sought was also a matter of holiness. Why, then, does Hakadosh Boruch Hu say, “Is it not enough for the righteous that they have the World to Come? Do they want this world too?” What is wrong with that? The answer is that the tranquility Yaakov sought meant a spiritual life, not material comfort. He didn’t mean sitting and resting and doing nothing; he meant a spiritual life. As the Rambam says, the Sages yearned for the days of Moshiach so they could be free of all kinds of distractions and devote themselves to Torah study. That was what they sought. In the same way, Yaakov sought to dwell in tranquility. That was his intention: a spiritual life. But to reach such a level of tranquility, which is a foretaste of the World to Come, something like receiving a reward, one must first toil. One has to toil here to reach that tranquility. So it was as though—true, Yaakov Avinu had already toiled and gone through all kinds of suffering and hardship, and he did live in tranquility during those years until Yosef was sold. But he wanted to reach an even higher level of tranquility, and then the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him. Yes, the precise wording is “the trouble of

02:14 Yosef.” In other words, to reach such a level of tranquility, a foretaste of the World to Come and of receiving a reward, one first has to toil for it. That is why the trouble of Yosef sprang upon him. More broadly, our parsha speaks a great deal about dreams: Yosef’s dreams, then the dreams of the chief baker and the chief cupbearer, and later Pharaoh’s dreams. A lot of dreams. The Gemara says in the book—in Tractate Berachos—that the outcome of dreams generally follows the interpretation given by the person who interprets them. It gives the example of Bar Hedya, who interpreted dreams. Abaye and Rava both had a similar dream, and they came to Bar Hedya to interpret their dreams. But Abaye paid him, so he interpreted his dream favorably. Rava did not pay him, so he interpreted it in exactly the opposite way. In other words, the outcome follows what the interpreter says. If so, a question arises. The Torah tells us that Yosef, in prison, saw that the chief cupbearer and the chief baker looked troubled. He asked them, “Why do you look troubled?” They said, “We have had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it.” So he told them, “Please tell me; tell me about it,” and then he interpreted their dreams. He gave the chief cupbearer a favorable interpretation. The chief baker, on the other hand, was later hanged. Yosef interpreted his dream unfavorably. The question is, logically, the chief cupbearer’s offense would seem to have been more serious than the chief baker’s. Why? Some little pebble fell into the baker’s dough. Once it fell in, he could no longer see it, so of course he didn’t notice it. It fell in, and afterward he couldn’t see anything. But when something fell into the cupbearer’s wine, even after

03:58 it fell in, he could still have seen it. Usually, if there’s something in wine, you can see it. Yet he didn’t notice it and served it to Pharaoh. So the chief cupbearer’s offense would seem to have been more serious. Why did Yosef interpret their dreams the other way around, giving the chief cupbearer a favorable interpretation? They explain it along the same lines as the story in Berachos. Yosef told them, “Please tell me.” The Hebrew word for “tell” can also mean “count”—as in counting money. Pay me, and I’ll interpret your dreams. It says, “And the chief cupbearer told”—he immediately gave him money; he “counted.” So Yosef interpreted his dream favorably. With the chief baker, it does not say, “And he told.” It says that the chief baker “saw that he had interpreted favorably, and he said to Yosef, ‘I too, in my dream...’” It does not say “and he told.” He did not count out any money. Since he did not pay, Yosef interpreted his dream unfavorably. Have a good Shabbos and good news.