Willful Forgetfulness: Parashat Miqetz

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Parashat Miqetz/Hanukah/Rosh Hodesh
Genesis 41:1-44:17

Our story is about forgetting and remembering. The Chief Butler had forgotten his promise to Joseph for two years, after he had been restored to his position in Pharaoh’s court. But, after Pharaoh cannot find a satisfactory interpretation for the dreams that torment him, the Butler remembers, saying, “It is my sins that I recall today.” (Gen. 41:9) Joseph is raised from his jail cell to hear Pharaoh’s dreams, and Joseph interprets the dreams to be saying that the country will be swept over with seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine. And the famine years will devour the years of plenty, “and all the satisfaction in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will destroy the land.” (Gen. 41:30)

The Butler’s years of abundance and good fortune were years of amnesia. Whatever other reasons the Butler may have had to try to forget his period of incarceration and near execution, the satisfaction of returning to his former life certainly helped him forget. And now the forgetting would come from the other direction, from the years of misfortune and famine. They will erase the years of abundance from all memory. But what about remembering? The Butler finally remembers his troubles and his sins. Would it be possible to remember the years of abundance after the seven bad years got them forgotten? Could their memory ever be retrieved? And what would the nature of that recollection be?

The solution that Joseph offers to Pharaoh is a plan for survival, of endurance. But it transforms the remembering and the forgetting of those 14 years into a mixture that changes both periods and both states of consciousness. Memory becomes projection and abundance and destitution merge together. During the years of plenty the “memory” of the lean years would have to be taken on early, to force the people to collect and store up the abundance for later. Thus, the abundance is forgotten before the lean years actually arrive. And the “memory” of this abundance would then be extended into the years of famine. The recollection of those years would be in the collection of the food stores during those years.  But this memory would not be sweet. It would be a bitter residue of disappointment.

And what would happen afterwards, after these 14 years of extremes? We find out later that permanent changes result in Egypt’s economy, changes that may have seemed acceptable at the time, but that actually prepared the future disasters that afflicted the country and Joseph’s people, as well.

As our world hurtles toward a period of catastrophe, ushered forward by our own willful forgetfulness, we are challenged to find solutions for survival and endurance, solutions that will require the overturning of our notions of abundance and famine. Do we have the strength to do this? Are we able to recall our sins this day?

Shabbat Shalom – Hodesh Tov – Hag Urim Same`ah!
Rabbi David Greenstein

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Thank you to John Lasiter for suggesting the title and selecting an image for this Torah Sparks – Rabbi Greenstein

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