Daily Archives: December 22, 2006

Parshas Mikeitz

The Rebbe says:

1. The beginning of this week’s Parshah tells us all about Pharaoh’s dreams. Verse 1 through 45 (Chapter 41) tells us about Pharaoh’s 2 dreams with all their details, how Yoseph was called to interpret them, how Yoseph actually interpreted them and how Yoseph became ruler of Egypt.

To summarize these 45 verses:

Pharaoh King of Egypt has a dream. He dreams that out of the Nile comes 7 healthy cows and they start grazing. Right after this 7 sickly cows come out of the Nile and eat up the 7 healthy cows. The 7 sickly cows don’t even get fatter.

A Tale of Two Dreams

“Nothing you have acquired is real unless you worked for it. If you were born a nice guy, the niceness isn’t yours. If you started off not so nice, and now you do a little, that’s divine.”
– Tzvi Freeman Be Within Stay Above

“Nothing of real substance comes without work. Our pioneer forebears could never plow a field by turning it over in their minds. They had to put their hands to the plow and walk forward. The work is, by and large, easier now than in earlier times, but the principle is the same. There must be work, and what a great and wonderful privilege it is.
Again, there is no reason to be averse to some recreation. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a dull girl. But when pleasure or recreation becomes an end in itself, we are in danger. We are in trouble. We simply cannot expect to refine the substance of character from hunks of pleasures.
– Gordon Hinckley, Standing For Something

Never having flown in an airplane, an old-timer was about to embark on just such a trip. While standing at the check-in counter, he queried the ticketing agent: Nu, so tell me, how does the plane stay up in the air?
”Well,“ said the agent, ”there are four engines which impel the jet forward. The force of the impulsion keeps the jet from falling.”