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Miketz: If There is a Problem, There Must Be a Solution

Sunday, 28 September 2014

The Torah relates that Pharaoh told his dream to his soothsayers, but they could not interpret it for him. Rashi says that Pharaoh did not accept their interpretations. They told him that he would conquer seven countries and lose seven countries; that he would have seven daughters and seven daughters would die. Yet he accepted Joseph's interpretation that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Why was Joseph's interpretation more acceptable to him?

The soothsayers gave him a prediction of good and bad, but offered no solution of how he could mitigate the bad. Joseph predicted seven years of famine, but gave him a suggestion of how he could survive the famine.

When you're confronted with a problem for which there is a solution, you can see the problem clearly and proceed to deal with it. If there is no evident solution, you go into a defensive denial, and you don't even see the problem at all.