A chasid facing serious health issues once entered into a private audience with the Rebbe. He explained his medical situation and how the doctors were planning on performing surgery. He asked the Rebbe for a blessing that the surgery go well. The Rebbe turned to the chasid and remarked, “Why are you asking for a blessing that the surgery go well? Why don’t you ask for a blessing that you do not need surgery at all?”
The Midrash notes that it took two years from when Yosef correctly interpreted the butler’s dream until the butler finally advocates on Yosef’s behalf. The Midrash explains that this two year hiatus was actually a consequence of Yosef’s own words.
When the butler accepts Yosef’s interpretation that he will achieve his freedom in three days, Yosef urges him, please don’t forget me, bring my case up to Paro and help me go free. The Midrash continues that because Yosef placed his trust in the hands of man, and not Hashem, he languished in prison for an additional two years.
How does this make sense? Does the Gemara not tell us that we must not rely on miracles? To be sure, Yosef trusted Hashem. His words to the butler were simply creating a vehicle for divine salvation. Where did he go wrong? Why was he punished? There’s a beautiful teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that may shed light on this question.
In Tehillim we read, that Hashem is our shadow. The Baal Shem Tov explains that these are not simply words of comfort, but serve as a metaphor for the way we interface with Hashem. A shadow mimics our precise actions. When you raise your hand, your shadow does too. When you run, your When you jump, your shadow does too.
It follows your lead. Similarly, our relationship with Hashem is reciprocal. If our behavior and belief are according to the natural way of the world, Hashem allows the natural means to play themselves out. However, when we placed our trust in Hashem beyond what naturally seems possible, Hashem responds accordingly.
Our trust in Hashem is the vehicle for receiving His blessings, but how we manifest that vehicle, how strongly we believe, determines the method that those blessings come into fruition. When Yosef placed his trust in the butler, Hashem’s salvation came to him through natural means. He had to wait two years for the natural course of things to play out.
Yosef wasn’t punished. He simply received the blessing the way he asked for it. The Midrash is pointing out that had Yosef accessed a deeper level of faith, he would have tapped into a supernatural range of possibilities that could have led to his immediate freedom. Rabbi Shmuel, who later became the fourth Rebbe of Chabad, once traveled with his older brother to the Russian capital to advocate for Jewish interests.
Before they left home, they decided that they would not give any blessings to anyone. They felt it wasn’t appropriate to do so, that only their father, the Rebbe at the time, should be giving blessings. Well, it was a year later when a man came to the Rebbe’s court with a gift, thanking the young Rabbi Shmuel.
The man explained, “A year ago on your travels, you met my wife. We were childless at the time, and through your blessing, we merited children.”
“What happened?” Rabbi Schmuel’s older brother asked him. “I thought we decided we would not give any blessings.”
“I didn’t!,” protested it Rabbi Shmuel.
“Oh, but you did,” replied the man.
“When my wife approached you, you said that you could not give her a blessing and that she should go to your father. But when my wife was persistent, then she wouldn’t leave, she beseeched you with tears in her eyes until you finally told her to go eat a bagel. She was so excited by your words that she ate two bagels and thank God we were blessed with twins!”
May we all access the stubborn faith that defies all odds and allows us to transcend our natural limitations. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos.
