Towards the end of
the parsha Yosef is falsely accused and placed in an Egyptian prison. One
morning Yosef finds two of the Royal servants very distressed. They had strange
dreams and Yosef offers to interpret them. He gives brilliant interpretations to
their dreams, and exactly as Yosef predicted the Royal Wine Pourer is freed from
prison and returned to his position of honor. Before being freed Yosef beseeches
him to appeal to Pharaoh for Yosef's pardon from prison. In the end he forgets
all about Yosef.
"And the Royal
Wine Pourer did not remember Yosef and forgot about him." (Breishis
40:23)
The Baal Haturim
comments that the Royal wine pourer was a kafuee tova, an ingrate. He
didn't appreciate the kindness that Yosef did for him.
Rashi comments on
the seeming redundancy of this verse. Not remembering and forgetting would seem
to be the same. Rashi explains that he didn't remember Yosef on the day he was
freed. In other words he didn't mention Yosef to Pharoah on the first day. After
that he forgot all about Yosef. On the day the Royal Wine Pourer was freed he
obviously remembered about Yosef but chose to push off mentioning him to
Pharaoh. In the ensuing days he totally forgot about Yosef.
Had the Royal Wine
Pourer had a sense of appreciation he would have made a point of immediately
trying to help Yosef. Instead, because of callous lack of appreciation, he
allowed himself to forget about Yosef over time. After two years, when it served
his own self interest to help interpret Pharaoh's dream, he remembered about
Yosef.
A person with a
sense of appreciation will go out of his way to show appreciation. He won't
allow forgetfulness to stand in the way of showing gratitude. When something is
important to us we make a point to remember.
I thank Rabbi
Beryl Glaser, my neighbor and friend for this interesting word.
Have
a great Shabbas and I'll send out my Hanuka word shortly
Important Numbers
