Miketz: From the Bor to Barur |
The Double Rise of Yosef. Here is a whisper in the words the Torah chooses. In Vayeshev, when the brothers drag Yosef out of the cistern, it says simply “Vayalehu Min Ha’bor” – they raise him from the pit, seemingly with a struggle to lift him. But hidden inside “Vayalehu” is the root “Ila” עילה – reason and cause. This was not random cruelty. This was the Ila Hashem spoke to Avraham: “Your seed will go down, taste servitude, learn what it means to be owned, so that one day they can truly stand free.” The descent itself carried divine reason. Every foot of rope was measured by Heaven.
Years later, in Parshat Miketz, the scene repeats, only now it is prison, and now it is Pharaoh’s panic. The Pasuk uses the word “Vayirtzihu Min Ha’bor” – derived from the word “Ratz” רץ, they rushed him; they caused him to run out of the pit. Ratzah has another meaning – “will and desire” derived from the word רצון. The same man, the same darkness, but now the pull upward is Ratzah, Hashem’s own will, injecting........