Two Years of Days: Repairing Trust through Torah

1“And it came to pass at the end of two years of days.”¹ Why does the verse begin with vayehi, “and it came to pass”? The Gemara teaches that this word signals distress,² yet Yosef HaTzaddik was coming out of prison, which calls for a word of joy. A second question: why does the verse say “two years of days”? What does the word days add?

2The Midrash comments: “‘Fortunate is the man who has made Hashem his trust’: this is Yosef. ‘And did not turn to the arrogant’: because he said to the chief butler, ‘Remember me … and mention me,’ two years were added to his time in prison.”³ The commentators, among them the Derashos Maharit and the Binah Le'itim, point out that the Midrash contradicts itself.⁴ First it calls Yosef a man of trust, and then it says he was punished for trusting the chief butler.

3aWe can resolve all of this along the lines of an answer to the Midrash written by my holy ancestor, the Rebbe of Ozharov, zt"l.⁵ There are two levels, he explains, in trusting Hashem. A tzaddik who has reached a high level of trust needs to make only a slight gesture of effort toward his livelihood, and the Holy One, blessed be He, provides it for him. We know this from the story of the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, who knocked on his neighbor's door, said that he needed something for Shabbos, and walked away.⁶ Simple people, by contrast, must toil a great deal, and they trust that Hashem will help them succeed through the means they use.

3bYosef HaTzaddik, in his great humility, thought that he belonged to the lower level, the one that must toil and make extra effort. So he said to the chief butler, “But remember me … and mention me to Pharaoh …” In fact, though, Yosef had fully attained the level of trust. That is why his request was counted against him as a blemish in his faith: at his level he had no need for such an effort as asking the chief butler to mention him to Pharaoh and get him out of prison. This is what the Midrash means: “‘Who has made Hashem his trust’: this is Yosef. ‘And did not turn to the arrogant.’” Precisely because his trust was complete, he was punished for making more effort than he needed, and two years were added to his time in prison.

4Building on these words, we may say that Yosef later sensed that, for a man of his level, he had blemished his faith, and he set to work on himself to repair the blemish. The way to repair one's deeds is through the Torah, as Chazal say of the yetzer hara: “If this repulsive one meets you, drag him to the beis midrash,” the house of Torah study.⁷ So Yosef began to repair this blemish by strengthening himself in Torah study. Here is why the verse says vayehi, an expression of distress: Yosef was pained that his words to the chief butler had blemished his trust, and so he applied himself all the more to Torah study to mend it. The same idea explains “two years of days.” All those two years after he had blemished his level of faith had the quality of “days,” for in them he kept rising higher in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. “Day” carries this sense in the verses “This day you have become a people” and “The day that you stood before Hashem your God at Chorev.”⁸ The rest of the verse fits as well: “and behold, he was standing by the river.” The river alludes to the Torah, for Chazal say, “‘Water’ means nothing other than Torah.”⁹

5May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us too to repair the days of our years, so that they become “days” in the sense we have described. And may we be privileged to grow ever more in Torah until the coming of Yinon.¹⁰ Amen, may it be His will.