Dear Friends,
When Yosef comes to his father, Yaakov, and tells him about his dream – how the sun, the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to him, his father berates him immediately and says, “What is that dream that you dreamt? Will I, your mother and your brothers come to bow down to you to the ground?!”
But then there is the next Pasuk, which says that “his father kept the matter in mind.” Rashi explains: “He was waiting and looking forward to when it will come true.”
In other words, as a father, Yaakov had to educate his son and berate him for this prideful dream, but deep inside Yaakov knew that there was something to that dream, and therefore he “kept the matter in mind.”
The Rebbe explains that Rashi uses two expressions: “he was waiting (Mamtin) and looking forward (Metzapeh).” The first – waiting – is suitable for anything, be it good or bad. The second – looking forward to – is used only when we are talking about something good that is in store.
A person can wait for something bad, Chas Vechalilah, but he does not look forward to it as he would for something good.
When Yaakov heard Yosef’s story of his dream, he probably remembered what he had been told at home, how 193 years before that, when his grandfather Avraham was 75 years old, Hashem said to him: I have a plan. You will have a son who will grow up to be a nation. They will go into exile, will suffer there, but at the end, they will come out of the exile with much wealth.
It is a process; and in a process every detail is important, including the down periods. The down periods are necessary, since they play a part in bringing about the better periods. The expression in Hebrew is “Yeridah Letzorech Aliyah” – Going down for the purpose of rising up.
So when Yosef comes to Yaakov with his dream, Yaakov understood that the down period is on the way. It is hard, it is distressing; it is not good. But he waited for it, and prepared himself for it. At the same time, he was also looking forward to it, looking forward to the good thing that was about to happen. He knew the details of the program well, and remembered that there is a deep reason for the going down. He understood that the Yeridahis for the purpose of Aliyah, and so, the Aliyah, too, will surely come about.
My friends, not much has changed in the structure of Hashem’s plans. Today, as well, in this last exile, we must remember, know, understand and internalize that going down is a prelude to coming up. Any problem, any difficulty, is part of the plan. True, it is sometimes painful and difficult, but, like Yaakov, let us not stop looking forward, because the true good will surely come about, when the Mashiach comes, speedily in our days.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zalmen Wishedski