Shabbos Parashas Mikeitz - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Mikeitz - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

Now Yosef was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Yosef left Pharaoh's presence and he passed through the entire land of Egypt.

[Bereishis 41:46]

The Torah tells us two things here, Yosef's age, and that Yosef went traveling. Why

do we need to know either of these? Further, in 41:33-34 where Yosef tells Pharaoh

to appoint a wise man to set over the entire land, Ramban tells us that he is to set

up subordinate supervisors since no man could possibly travel throughout all of

Egypt in this job. Does Ramban disagree with our verse?

Rashbam reminds us that we know Yosef was 17 when separated from Yaakov.

We know that separation lasted 22 years, so he was 39 then. We know that there

were two years of famine before Yaakov reunited with Yosef, and that there were

seven years of plenty before that. Therefore, we already know he was 30 at the time

he appeared before Pharaoh. Further, we know that Yosef was in prison for two

years, thus by subtraction, he was a servant in Potiphar's house for 11 years and

know the whole chronology of events. Thus, the Torah must be teaching that one

may only assume the mantle of high office starting at age 30.

On the question of travel, verse 34 is variously translated as "and he shall prepare

the land", or "and he shall pass through the land". Onkelos avoids the question by

translating it, "and let him equip the land". Ramban reads it that Yosef appointed

others under him who would each travel some portion of the land and report to him.

But our verse pretty clearly says otherwise.

Radak understands that Yosef did travel the whole land, but that his task was

merely supervision, so most of his time was spent on the road rather than working

at job sites. Sforno seems to agree and notes that the prophet Shmuel traveled

the "length and breadth of the land" in his day, so it could be done.

This is Shabbos Chanukah. Perhaps that leads us to an answer. The whole idea

about Chanukah is the publicizing the miracles that God did for us. Perhaps in our

verse, Yosef's ability to perform this travel was considered miraculous at the time,

and his doing so was to publicize the miracles that God was doing for him then.