- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Jun 17, 2022 3:59:02 GMT -8
This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Genesis 40:1-23
Haftara- Isaiah 49:1-23
D’rash: The thesis for this and the following reading can be found in our haftara:
Isaiah 49:23c, 14-15 Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” …
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Our story here is of the second of three pairs of dreams that Yoseph will interpret which will determine his destiny. Pharaoh’s cupbearer and his chief baker committed some offense and were put into prison with Yoseph, probably awaiting the outcome of an investigation. Due to their high office, Yoseph was appointed to attend them. Both these men dreamed, and in ancient cultures to ignore what a dream told you could cause you to anger the gods; not really a good thing if one is already in prison or under investigation. However they now had no access to priests or interpreters. Yoseph, seeing their discomfort encourages them “surely God can interpret” (v. 8) This may be a passing criticism of Egyptian methods of reading dreams, which was regarded as a strict discipline based on a body of knowledge taught in schools called ‘houses of life.’ Yoseph will show these conceptions to be wrong. His God holds the key to interpret all dreams.
Genesis 40:9-14 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.” Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.
v.13 “Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office” means to count, pay attention to, or see. Pharaoh either will find no fault in his cupbearer, or he pardons the man.
The chief baker dreamed a similar dream, and eagerly asks for an interpretation:
Genesis 40:16-19 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.”
The baker completely misses the crux of the “method” used by Yoseph- that of divine revelation. To this Egyptian, similar dreams must yield similar interpretations using similar techniques of explication. But to Yoseph it is his God who interprets dreams, and who has given him the gift of interpretation. Moreover recall that when he told his dreams to his family years earlier no interpretation was necessary for them to understand their meaning. Paying attention to the details and imagery, they knew. Here Yoseph picks up on a detail missed by the baker- not Pharaoh but the birds would eat from his basket. So we are told that “Pharaoh will lift up your head” means he will be examined, found wanting, and executed. In verses 19 & 20 the phrase “lift up [one’s] head” is again used twice, continuing the theme of couplets we observed in previous parashot:
Genesis 40:19-22 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
As we are told in vs.19 the phrase means to kill by hanging, but in vs. 20 it means to “count, pay attention to, or see; to take stock of” as the one was found worthy, the other put to death. The use of this euphemism in vs. 19 seems to be more a play on words.
Genesis 40:14,23 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house … Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
That the chief cupbearer “forgot” and “did not remember” refers not to his memory, but to his failure to act on Yoseph’s behalf. This is in stark contrast to the nature of Yoseph’s God, who remembered Noach and all with him in the ark” (Gen 8:1), who heard the groaning of the Hebrew slaves and He remembered His covenant with their fathers (Ex 2:24), and who In Numbers 10:9 told the Hebrews He would remember them when they went to war. Ps 98:3 says, “He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel.” And as Pharaoh remembered the apparently faithful cupbearer and unfaithful baker, so God still remembers those faithful to Him:
Acts 10:31 and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
as well as those who are wicked:
Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
“God remembered” effectively means He acted on behalf of or towards someone.
The failure of the cupbearer to act on Yoseph’s request would mean two more years imprisonment for Yoseph. But as we will later see even this betrayal did not make him bitter. He trusted his God, trusted the prophecies given him that his family would one day bow before him, and he waited on His God to act on his behalf.
Mekorot: all scripture from the ESV unless otherwise noted; JPS Study TNK; Dr Eli of the IBC; Dr D Stern; FB Meyer; R Alter, Genesis; my father and others
Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Gen 41:1-38
Haftara- Is 29:1-24
* Apostolic references will be given in the darashot
Parashah- Genesis 40:1-23
Haftara- Isaiah 49:1-23
D’rash: The thesis for this and the following reading can be found in our haftara:
Isaiah 49:23c, 14-15 Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” …
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Our story here is of the second of three pairs of dreams that Yoseph will interpret which will determine his destiny. Pharaoh’s cupbearer and his chief baker committed some offense and were put into prison with Yoseph, probably awaiting the outcome of an investigation. Due to their high office, Yoseph was appointed to attend them. Both these men dreamed, and in ancient cultures to ignore what a dream told you could cause you to anger the gods; not really a good thing if one is already in prison or under investigation. However they now had no access to priests or interpreters. Yoseph, seeing their discomfort encourages them “surely God can interpret” (v. 8) This may be a passing criticism of Egyptian methods of reading dreams, which was regarded as a strict discipline based on a body of knowledge taught in schools called ‘houses of life.’ Yoseph will show these conceptions to be wrong. His God holds the key to interpret all dreams.
Genesis 40:9-14 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.” Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.
v.13 “Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office” means to count, pay attention to, or see. Pharaoh either will find no fault in his cupbearer, or he pardons the man.
The chief baker dreamed a similar dream, and eagerly asks for an interpretation:
Genesis 40:16-19 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.”
The baker completely misses the crux of the “method” used by Yoseph- that of divine revelation. To this Egyptian, similar dreams must yield similar interpretations using similar techniques of explication. But to Yoseph it is his God who interprets dreams, and who has given him the gift of interpretation. Moreover recall that when he told his dreams to his family years earlier no interpretation was necessary for them to understand their meaning. Paying attention to the details and imagery, they knew. Here Yoseph picks up on a detail missed by the baker- not Pharaoh but the birds would eat from his basket. So we are told that “Pharaoh will lift up your head” means he will be examined, found wanting, and executed. In verses 19 & 20 the phrase “lift up [one’s] head” is again used twice, continuing the theme of couplets we observed in previous parashot:
Genesis 40:19-22 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
As we are told in vs.19 the phrase means to kill by hanging, but in vs. 20 it means to “count, pay attention to, or see; to take stock of” as the one was found worthy, the other put to death. The use of this euphemism in vs. 19 seems to be more a play on words.
Genesis 40:14,23 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house … Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
That the chief cupbearer “forgot” and “did not remember” refers not to his memory, but to his failure to act on Yoseph’s behalf. This is in stark contrast to the nature of Yoseph’s God, who remembered Noach and all with him in the ark” (Gen 8:1), who heard the groaning of the Hebrew slaves and He remembered His covenant with their fathers (Ex 2:24), and who In Numbers 10:9 told the Hebrews He would remember them when they went to war. Ps 98:3 says, “He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel.” And as Pharaoh remembered the apparently faithful cupbearer and unfaithful baker, so God still remembers those faithful to Him:
Acts 10:31 and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
as well as those who are wicked:
Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
“God remembered” effectively means He acted on behalf of or towards someone.
The failure of the cupbearer to act on Yoseph’s request would mean two more years imprisonment for Yoseph. But as we will later see even this betrayal did not make him bitter. He trusted his God, trusted the prophecies given him that his family would one day bow before him, and he waited on His God to act on his behalf.
Mekorot: all scripture from the ESV unless otherwise noted; JPS Study TNK; Dr Eli of the IBC; Dr D Stern; FB Meyer; R Alter, Genesis; my father and others
Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Gen 41:1-38
Haftara- Is 29:1-24
* Apostolic references will be given in the darashot
