by Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. The Parasha is called MiQeZ מקץ, namely “at the End” or rather “from the End” and reflects on several sorts of eschatological matters of going from the ending of one state to the start of another state. For PaR’OH פרעה this was a temporary awakening from his dream – vaYIQaz PaR’OH ויקץ פרעה (41:4) from the dream about the cows, then he fell asleep again and dreamt about the eyes of corn.
The cows are in the Hebrew PaROT פרות (singular PaRaH – פרה), which is akin to the name PaR’OH as well as to PiRYo פריון – Fertility; to PRI פרי – Fruit; and to POReH פורה – fruitful or Plentiful. Yet sees both fat and seemingly fertile cows, but they are consumed by “seven other cows (Parot-פרות) came up after them out of the river, ill favoured (Ra’ot Mar’eh–רעות מראה) and lean-fleshed”. This implies that the seemingly divinely blessed Par’oh–פרעה, the Great Bull, is actually a bad bull – Par-RaA
In the second, repeating, dream of Par’oh, the subject is not cows, which are associated with Par’oh, but ears of Corn, which already appeared in Yoseph’s first dream and that characterize Yoseph, who gathered the corn from all Egypt for seven years. Corn can be gathered and preserved, while cows can be gathered from the fields, but cannot be stored away. After Yoseph’s interpretation of Par’oh’s dream, it becomes evident that even the great Par’oh would not survive without having a person like Yoseph ruling in practice.
The abundance of Egypt is the abundance of summer – Qayiẓקיץ-. The Nile rises in the summer, due to strong flows from the Blue Nile, and fills with fertile sediment. When these flows do not come – there comes a dry summer, which at the times of the Pharaohs – before the Nile flows became controlled – meant Famine.
So the same word root QeZ–קץ can mean both an end and awakening. It also means (la)Quz–(ל)קוץ – to become sick of something, reach the end of tolerance, as happened with Rivqah who said “I am weary of my life – Qazti beHayay-קצתי בחיי – because of the daughters of Heth” (27:41). Yoseph, however, who has the Name YHWH in him, also has the notion of finality in him – the letters of YOSePh–יוסף are the same letters as SOPhY–סופי – that mean “Final”. So he is the master of the End. He knows the future and knows how to plan for it. At the end of the Book of Genesis Ya’aqov sets to tell his sons what will happen to them at “the End of Days” – beAharit haYamim–באחרית הימים – but he fails to accomplish that. The Midrash said that “Ya’aqov tried to reveal the End (et haQezאת הקץ- ) but this knowledge escaped him. But Yoseph evidently knew the future ends as his domain.
The two preceding dreams of Par’oh’s servants were in threes, but Par’oh’s dream was all in sevens. About the seven fat cows it is written that they would feed in the grass – vatirena ba’Ahu-ותרעינה באחו. The Zohar sees these seven as the image of the seven lower divine attributes (the Sephirot), who act in amity – Re’ut-רעות – whereas the seven lean cows represent the same attributes of “the other side” (the Sitra ahara), who is also called “Qez kol Basar-קץ כל בשר – “The End of all Flesh” (6:13). While the term Raרע- – Evil – comes once in the third-person account, when Paroh tells his dream to Yoseph he used the term three times, showing his affinity with it. But Yoseph interprets precisely that this coming evil is Raav-רעב – namely Hunger and he uses this word three times in his interpretation and two more times when presenting his plan.
The persistent thread that passes through this Parashah is the reciprocal relationship of dream and waking for realization. The covert subject of the Parashah is the messianic dream of the People of Yisra’el (Israel). Almost every Jew has some sort of a messianic dream. When the messianic interest is at the dream stage, it is full of personal-egoistic strivings for influence and rule. But when awakening and perceiving some possibility of realization, it is found that the messianic role entails an enormous amount of work, and a real reformation is needed, if not a complete managerial revolution.
When Par’oh gives the Yoseph the governance over Egypt, he gives him three things – the appointment, a new name and a wife. Yoseph’s new name was Zafnat Paane’ah, (41:45), which means “interpreter of hidden ciphers”. The wife was the daughter of the High Priest of (the Temple of) Onn (meaning in Hebrew “Potency”). The name of this father in law was Poti Phera-פוטי פרע- which is very reminiscent of the name of Ya’aqov’s first Egyptian master – Potipharפוטיפר-. So deed Yoseph marry the daughter of the wife that tried to seduce him? The text makes it impossible by telling beforehand that Potiphar was Seris Par’ohסריס פרעה-. While most translations render it as just a servant of sorts, just as the other servants are also called – the literal translation is – “Par’oh’s Eunuch” which is the opposite of being the chief of Onn (which incidentally may explain Potiphar’s wife sexual hunger).
“And to Yoseph were born two sons before the years of the famine came, whom Asenat the daughter of Poti-phera priest of Onn bore to him. And Yoseph called the name of the firstborn menashehמנשה-; for God, said he, has made me forget (nashaniנשני-) all my toil and all my father’s house. And the name of the second he called Ephrayimאפרים-; for God has caused me to be fruitful (hiphraniהפרני-) in the land of my affliction”. The names Yoseph gave to his sons reveal the attitude that Yoseph held at the time to his brothers and father’s house. “Neshiyah” is forgetting and “nashani” means “made me forget”. Yoseph’s reaching his exalted position and the birth of his firstborn were supposed to already make him forget the afflictions he suffered and forget his old family. He thought he did not need them anymore, for good or bad, and preferred to forget them. The birth of his second child appeared to him as an omen that he does not need to be a part of the whole assembly of Israel, but can beget and multiply by him. In the sequel, in Parashat vaYehi we shall see that there was something prophetic about this and that the second son, Ephraim, wins the senior status. This desire of Yoseph to forget his ancestry explains how came that he did not send a note to his brothers and his mourning father that he was alive and well. He wanted to forget them and let them forget him. Yet some guilt remained, and it later came to force through Yehudah’s address to him (at the beginning of the next Parashah).
After the first entanglement of the brothers with Yoseph, when Ya’aqov allow them to take Binyamin with them for the second expedition, he tries to appease the Egyptian ruler in the same way he appeased Esau – by sending presents. This time the presents are from the products of the Land of Kena’an, six items plus the money of the first transaction. He categorized these as representing Zimrat ha’Arezזמרת הארץ-. This name is usually translated as “the best fruit” or something like it. This is right, as it derives from Zmirahזמירה – pruning. But it is worth noting that it can also be read as “the Song – Zimrahזימרה- – of the Earth”. This would be consistent with the land being called “The Land of Yisra’el”, noting that Yisrael-ישראל is made of the same letters as ShIR-ELשיר-אל . In contrast, Egypt which is the narrow path of the Nile River is called Mizrayim, meaning literally “two straights”, and the Zohar characterizes Par’oh’s servants with the straights of the throat, where the food and drinks squeeze in and the voice is constrained through. This is reinforced with still another exegetic etymology to the name Par’ohפרעה- – as made from the same letters as Ha’OrePh-הערף – meaning the (stiff) Neck. This is not the place or situation to sing! Only after Israel’s deliverance from Mizrayim and on the sea, starting towards the Promised Land, do Yisra’el sing and embody the Shir-El – the Song of God
For full exegesis of this Parashah, www.global-report.com/thehope/?l=en&a=112
