Genesis Cycle Two Miketz 41:1 to 44: 17

MiKetz

Words, like snakes, wrap around and around. From one line to the next, they fill the page. The irony is, the more words, the more story and the more we (once again) need to leave story behind. Why? Because words, like the snake, constrict and conceal. They like to help us go beyond story. They like to renew, to heal. They sneak up and startle you when you sleep. And just like with a snake, a word can shed its “skin” and suddenly have a new interpretation. Words, like snakes, can take things to and from the edge (miketz). You see one for a moment and then…it’s gone. The snake, as with words, makes you careful. You stop and slow down. This is why, in this parasha, line 44:15 is so important.

First though, what has happened? Well a lot. Two years of days have passed. After interpreting the Pharoah’s dreams, Joseph is made into the big guy in the kingdom. The Pharoah even gives him his ring. He gets placed in charge of the planning for the coming famine, is given a wife and has two boys. The famine does occur and food has been wisely saved. Now, cut to Jacob. Jacob sends his sons (all but Benjamin) to buy some food from the Egyptians. While they do not recognize him, Joseph knows his brothers immediately. He accuses them of being spies and takes Simeon as a hostage while sending the others back home to get Benjamin. The brothers, attempting to interpret their fate, decide that maybe this is because they were mean to Joseph in the past. They go home and finally, Jacob allows Benjamin to leave. And so on. Joseph is not about to tell them immediately who he is. He wants to take his brothers to and from the edge…back and forth in their minds. He wants justice to fit perfectly in the mold of righteousness. This is hard to do. Finally, when the brothers are so dismayed that they throw themselves on the ground before him, Joseph says…

What is this thing you were doing? Surely you know that a man like me is a snake that acts as a snake?

Some translations ignore the use of the word nachash (snake) and replace it with divination. Don’t you know that a man like me can determine the truth by divination? In a society in which snakes are feared, this isn’t surprising. How can we, after all, compare our beautiful Joseph to a snake?

Let’s get back now to how similar snakes are to words. First, they conceal. There’s a process called tsimtsum in which God is seen as concealed. It’s not all that complicated. We know God is here. We know God is everywhere. It’s just that He is hidden. The question arises therefore, how can we be intimate with God if we can’t see Him? The kabbalists explain that the piece of God in us can be released. The more concealment, the more power to that release. And the more power to the release, the more intimacy. Did you ever take a straw (when you were a kid) and pack little pieces of paper in it? Then you would breathe into the straw and the paper would go shooting out. Trajectory would depend on blockage. The paper that blocked well would go far. Same thing (almost) with tsimstsum. Joseph has the ability to pack his divine spark real tight. All he has to do is blow into his soul, use his breath, the breath from God…and off the spark flies to ultimate consciousness.

Now, let’s pretend that the snake and the word create the ultimate straw. Solid. Strong. You’d want to describe yourself as a snake then. Let’s pretend there are many papers in that straw, each one to join with the ultimate truth. That joining is what creates intimacy with God and it’s the intimacy that enables healing. It enables interpretation of not only dreams but of reality. It’s that joining that can wake you up when you’re asleep, that can find the root of the illness as compared to the symptoms. It’s that joining that can merge justice with righteousness, that can shock you. Did you really make that straw? Is that divine spark flying through the air really yours? Or does it belong to everyone? You want to be careful now. You want to hold this pose. You plan for the next straw, the paper, the moment. The more you do it, the more you want to make sure that the timing is just right. The closer you get, the more discerning you become as to each tiny fold, the exact placement, length, breath, aim.

Sometimes, it takes years for that spark to reach its final destination. It gets such a good strong rush that you don’t even know when and how it’s going to join with God. After all, it does take 22 years for Joseph’s interpretation of his own dream to come true. As long as we recognize though that each rush, each divine spark connects one to the other…that there are two years made up of many days…that there are many interpretations that create the story…we will become greater and greater at this divine work. We will send our sacred sparks all over this earth like grains of sand . And while it seems that dreams come from elsewhere and reality comes from here, we will soon see that it all comes from that same concealed place within ourselves.

One day, there will be one spark, a rock, a consolidated whole. It will be at the center of all constriction and will fly out of our one reality to merge with the one God. Then there won’t be any more need for concealment. This will be a good day. For now, for us, it’s little by little. It’s dreams within dreams being propelled beyond the surface ever so slowly. Even Torah is a dream, open for interpretation. No wonder the gematria of nachash (358) is the same as that for messiach.

So, may we pay attention to the constriction. May we breathe with wisdom, courage and patience. May we watch carefully as our divine sparks fly out of concealment and reveal visions that used to be beyond reach. May we be gentle with the kid in the back who just hasn’t gotten the knack of it yet. May we allow our intimacy with God to heal the people we love and to bring justice into the mold of righteousness. And when we feel like we are starving, may we still do the work and bring loving kindness to our personal lives day in and day out moment to moment. And if our words bite, may we look even more closely at why we said them. May we do this not for ourselves but for God.