Parashat Miketz: Joseph, Master of “Provenance”

Like his explosion Big bangThe book of Genesis begins with astonishing speed. The opening 35 verses cover about 13.8 billion years, from that first moment of the universe to the appearance of humans on Earth about 400,000 years ago.

In parallel with the universe, the Book of Genesis then slows down. Dutch science writer Govert Schilling points out that “in the first two billion years after the Big Bang, the expansion slowed due to the mutual gravitational pull of all the matter in the universe.” We certainly feel that slowing down in the 500 verses of the Joseph cycle that takes place over only 93 years.

In this week The Torah Portion, MiketzJoseph is quickly released from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. He is so impressed by Joseph’s intelligent interpretation of dreams, anticipating “seven years of great abundance in all the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine to follow them” (Genesis 41:29), that Pharaoh heeds his advice Joseph:

“Let Pharaoh look for a skilled and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh should appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of Egypt’s harvest during the seven years of plenty. They should gather all the food of these coming good years and gather the grain under Pharaoh’s authority to be stored in the cities for food. This food should be kept in reserve for the land, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the land will not be ruined by famine” (Genesis 41:33-36).

Joseph as a model of provenance

Joseph models for us the concept of “provenance”. Australian diplomat John W. Burton, who founded the Center for Conflict Analysis at University College London and was the author Conflict: Resolution and Preventionexplains, “Prevention involves suppression: proof is meant to involve anticipation and avoidance.”

WRITERS Finish writing a Torah scroll. (credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)

Unfortunately, we do not use this important and critical orientation and approach as much as we should. Most of the time, we think and act in the short term and are reactionary; we do not consider the long term and are not proactive. Short-term reactive thinking has its place, and there are situations where it is absolutely the right way to act. Our challenge, our very human challenge, is that too often we fall back on this approach, deny proactive long-term options.

Feike Sijbesma, co-chair of the Global Center for Adaptation, explains:

“For many, coping with long-term disruptive change is not always easy. Perhaps this is not surprising. Throughout our evolution, our minds have evolved to deal with immediate problems and threats. When, for example, we see something moving in the bushes in front of us, our first instinct is to consider danger instead of opportunity.

“While short-term thinking is not surprising, it can be problematic. In his 2004 book, A brief history of progressRonald Wright describes human beings in today’s world as running 21st century software on 50,000 year old hardware. The results can be catastrophic.”

Which brings us back to Joseph. As Torah commentator Naomi Graetz points out, “Dreams hide all kinds of hidden things, and it takes a psychiatrist or a Joseph to interpret them.” When we think of Joseph, we naturally focus on his ability to interpret dreams, with an emphasis on his ability to translate dream messages and symbols.

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But Joseph’s mastery of interpretation in general is perhaps more important. The Hebrew used in the text for “interpretation” is fitron (Genesis 41:11). As modern Hebrew developed, the related word pitaron became “solution”. In other words, to find a solution, we must correctly interpret events, words and ideas.

Too often in our search for solutions, we interpret wearing short-term reactive glasses and forget to put on our long-term proactive glasses, so we neglect to proceed, as Joseph did, with “provenance.” Joseph could not prevent the famine, but through his actions he could mitigate its impact.

With so many of the dilemmas and challenges we face around the world, “provenance” is a proven and successful tool that we should take more advantage of.

Years before the outbreak of the coronavirus, scientists and others told us that it was only a matter of time before the world experienced a global pandemic. However, we did not do enough beforehand to limit its deadly consequences, and to date the virus has killed more than seven million people.

We know there will be more deadly pandemics in the future, and yet we give up “provenance” and refuse to take appropriate action. This will have deadly consequences. Bird flu, or bird flu, which has the ability to jump to humans, is making the rounds and once again we are failing to do what we should.

This is to say nothing of the fact that we are falling further and further behind in what we need to do to address the catastrophic consequences of ongoing changes in the world’s climate.

In the past century, we have made huge strides against some of the world’s deadliest diseases, such as polio, whooping cough and measles. The voices calling for an end to vaccinations will only be endorsing needless suffering and tragic deaths. In 2019, the Prime Minister of Samoa was persuaded to stop measles vaccines. The result? Children died of measles. It’s one thing not to practice “provenance”; it is immoral to undo where it has succeeded.

Joseph’s counsel to gather one-fifth of the harvest during the seven years of good produce (Genesis 41:34) was not necessarily easy for the farmers, but by doing so the Egyptians did not “starve” during the seven years that followed (Genesis 41:36).

Recently, we learned that the expansion of the universe has accelerated, increasing cosmic distances to somewhere around 0.007% in a million years due to a mystery of empty space called “dark energy.” Tora’s pace, however, does not increase his speed. In fact, the final book of the Torah, the Book of Deuteronomy, changes at an almost snail’s pace, covering about 47 days in about 955 verses.

The accelerating expansion of the universe mirrors in so many ways the faster pace of our lives. With this, Tora reminds us of a slower tempo. While the universe operates in allegro, Torah prefers adagio. This cadence can enhance our ability to act longer-term and more proactively as we face so many dilemmas, to be more like Joseph, and to practice “provenance.” ■

The writer is a Reconstructionist rabbi emeritus of Congregation Israel in Manchester Center, Vermont. He teaches at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies on Kibbutz Ketura and at Bennington College.