Dreaming and waking, forgetting and remembering, recognizing
and hiding, “that we may live and not die.” These are the refrains, the poles
of this week’s parasha.
Pharaoh dreams of skinny cows eating fat cows and skinny
corn eating healthy corn, and when he awakens, he is anxious. The royal
cupbearer who forgot Joseph at the end of last week’s parasha remembers Joseph
now and recommends him to Pharaoh as a dream interpreter. Joseph is raised up
from the dungeon to the heights of power, as Pharaoh entrusts the land and the
storage and distribution of its produce to him during the famine. Joseph’s
brothers come down to Egypt for food “that they may live and not die,” because
of the famine in Canaan. Joseph recognizes them; they do not recognize him. As
they bow in front of him, Joseph, who named his son “he who makes me forget my
father’s house,” remembers the dreams he had while in his father’s house, of
his brothers bowing down to him.
In this parasha, we are making our way towards Egypt, and
toward nationhood. The brothers are now calling themselves by the collective, “we,”
and we can envision the People forming. The themes of remembering and
forgetting appear, themes which will dominate the Book of Exodus, in which the
new Pharaoh does not know Joseph, God forgets us as we slave away for 400
years, and finally, God remembers the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “That
we may live and not die.” Egypt –our collective dungeon - is the place where we
thrive – where we survive famine and multiply into a nation.
The parasha ends with a cliff hanger. Joseph is testing his
brothers to see if they have turned around – to see if they will take responsibility
for their brothers Shimon, and then Benjamin, and above all, their father.
Perhaps this is a test of whether nationhood is something we are capable of.
Perhaps a test of whether we will get out of Egypt alive – of whether we are
worth remembering.
Happy Thanksgiving and Chanukah!
