Torah Readers Reflections

In the long running British Sci Fi TV show (of which I’m a great fan), Dr Who, there is a concept that the time traveling "Time Lord" can influence certain aspects of history through people he meets on his travels through time and space. What is in fact influenced is not History itself but the path that players take to arrive at a set point in time.  The show makes clear that there are set points in time that can not be changed, they are immutable and it is against the laws of time and nature to change them. Certain predefined events must occur on or around the defined time. In short, the path that leads to those points in time can be different, the experiences of the people involved can be different from what History has recorded, however the point in time will occur exactly as predefined and is immutable. These are points in time that are guideposts that guide humanity to a seemingly predefined destination.

If you’re not a fan of DR Who and don’t know anything about it - follow this link to learn more: https://www.doctorwho.tv/

Whoever wrote this concept into Dr Who must have read and understood this week's portion of Miketz which opens on that exact theme.

At the end of last week's portion we learn that the butler forgot Joseph after being released from prison. He didn’t do as he promised and told Pharaoh about Joseph's predicament.  This week's portion opens with the words, “At the end (miketz) of two full years”. This tells us that Joseph languished in prison for an additional two years - but why?

On face value it might make sense; The time was not right for the butler to intercede on Joseph’s behalf. Perhaps the right opportunity for the butler to speak with Pharaoh didn’t arise. In the meantime he might have forgotten about Joseph until Pharaoh had his dreams two years later. If this was the case then we can ask the question, why didn’t Pharaoh have the dreams two years earlier and at that time the butler could have interceded on behalf of Joseph?

The midrash provides an answer to that exact question by explaining that in fact Pharaoh did dream two years earlier, in fact he dreamt every night but couldn’t remember the details of the dreams when he awoke. Then two years later he wakes up remembering the details of the dreams but has also dreamt about the interpretation of the dreams - this he can’t remember clearly. 

He had all the soothsayers and magicians in Egypt try to interpret his dreams yet he was sure that none of their answers were correct. It was at this point that Joseph was remembered by the butler.

Had Pharaoh clearly dreamt two years earlier and the butler had remembered Joseph, at best he would have become one of Pharaoh’s magicians and not been rewarded with the high station he subsequently received. Had not all the magicians and soothsayers tried and failed to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, prior to Joseph’s attempt, they would have said that they too could have easily interpreted the dreams in this manner.

A bookmark in time

This brings us to the point of this sermon; “At the end (miketz) of two full years” - this is a fixed point in time (ketz). The fixed point in time is independent of other events that preceded it. Joseph went through many ups and downs to reach this point in time, he could have taken a different path, but he would still reach this fixed point in time. “And it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed”. The assigned time for this event has come and now the rest of the story of Joseph can unfold - the same story but changed for having gone through this way point in time.

The same concept can be applied to our own lives; We live our lives in a present that is between a known past and an unknown future. In the present we make choices. We look at the options and decide on the best path forward. Only in retrospect do we understand the effect that those choices had on our lives. What might have, at the time, seemed like a consequential decision could have had no real effect on the path of our lives, however small decisions might have changed our whole trajectory forward. We can only see the path we have taken, the right and wrong decisions we made, the effect and cause that those decisions had on our life through the clarity of time.

A religous Paradox

This brings us to one of the greatest paradoxes of religious life: the contradiction between free will and divine providence, i.e. events are predetermined by God. Are our lives predefined or do we have the free will to define our lives for ourselves? Rabbi Akiva addressed this subject by famously stating, “All is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given” (Mishne Avot 3:15).

This paradox exists since we can only view our timeline of events in two dimensions, past and present. We don’t have the ability to fast-forward and view our lives from a future perspective where we see not only the events that defined our lives but how they influenced others and possibly humanity as whole. This is something that only God can do since he lives beyond time.

We live day to day in the present, we make our best decisions based upon our experiences and knowledge we have gained from past events. Only when we take a step back do we see the consequences of our actions. Only when we have the perspective of time can we notice how events have unfolded with a devine prod here and there. We might notice that there are key events in our personal stories that were critical junctions - these are our set points in time. These are the events that had to happen at a set time in order to fulfill God’s plan for us and humanity as a whole. In between those points in time are multiple paths that we can take to reach the next milestone. These paths represent our free will and the decisions we make will define the type of path we lead.

So it was with Joseph. Joseph made decisions that defined his personal path towards an event that had to happen at a set time, an event that would shape the rest of the story of humanity. That event, Pharaoh dreaming twice could only happen when all the players were in their right positions on a stage set by God. Time flows through this one point in time and it was the precursor that enabled everything that transpired after this. 

Looking from a Perspective view

From a perspective now we can see that events that unfolded earlier in Joseph’s life and were unclear, such as his dreams of the sheaves of corn bowing down to his sheave and the dream of the sun and the moon and stars bowing down to his star; now have clarity.

So it is in our lives. I am sure that everyone has that one event (sometimes more than one) in their lives that changed everything for them. That point in time that defined their lives. It might have been when you were younger or it could have happened recently. You will notice a set of events that lead up to that moment, a set of decisions that you made (or were made for you) that led you to that point in time, to a very specific event that had to happen in your life in order to define the rest of your life. For some this event would have been a recognizable turning point in their lives - when everything changed. For others it will be almost unnoticeable, however it is always the divine proding us into our right places on a stage that he has set for an event that must happen at a fixed point in time - we are here to enable God’s plan. 

I will end in the immortal words of the twelfth Dr Who, David Tennant (who was the best Dr): 

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff” 

Gideon Paull.