MOST people can make at least of the following statements:
I moved to [fill in the name of the city.] Im not even sure why. It was the best decision I ever made.
All my life I thought I wanted to be [fill in the blank]. Then I switched majors. It surprised everyone who knew me. I never looked back.
I always thought Id marry this kind of person. But then [fill in the blank] came along. The rest is history.
Growing up, I thought religion was ridiculous. Its a long story, but now Im religious.
I saw drug and alcohol abuse all around me. I got into it, too. Not anymore.
I hated my first job. I had no choice but to stick with it. Now, I wouldnt give it up for anything.
I was a homebody. Never wanted to travel. Ive traveled more than all of my friends put together.
You get the idea.
Things change.
How so?
A comment by Netziv on an early incident in the Joseph story provides a surprising possibility.
JOSEPH and his dreams anger both his siblings and his father. They send the message that Josephs siblings and parents will bow down to him at some future time.
Here are the dreams:
Joseph and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field. Josephs sheaf stood up and the other sheaves gathered around and bowed down to his sheaf (Gen. 37:7).
The sun, the moon and the stars were bowing down to Joseph (Gen. 37:9).
Josephs brothers hated him (a strong word, but its the word in the text) even before his dreams, due to his slandering his brothers to their father, and to their fathers favoritism toward Joseph (Gen. 37:2-4).
The dreams only exacerbated an already tense relationship, and the meaning of the dreams was perfectly clear, as the text testifies:
And he [Joseph] related it [the second dream] to his father and to his brothers; his father scolded him, and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamt! Are we to come I and your mother and your brothers to bow down to you to the ground? (Gen. 37:10).
Angry beyond control, Josephs brothers conspire to kill him. Here is where the text records a seemingly empty, innocuous phrase that, under the sharp eye of Netziv (1816-1892), projects an important life lesson, beyond Joseph and his brothers.
The telling phrase is at the end of the verse: So now, let us kill him [Joseph], and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, A wild beast devoured him. Then we shall see how his dreams turn out (Gen. 37:20).
Stop.
This doesnt make sense.
Consider: If the brothers will toss Joseph into a pit with a wild beast, he will die. Then, of course, the brothers know how Josephs dreams will turn out. They will not come true. So, what can the biblical text mean when it says, Then we shall see how his dreams turn out?
Rav Yitzhak of the midrash, cited by Rashi, colorfully put it: This text demands: Interpret me!
Rashi interprets: These incomprehensible words of the brothers were uttered under the force of Divine inspiration.
NETZIV expands upon Rashi:
Rashi cannot mean that the brothers themselves did not utter these words; it was only that a Divine voice uttered them. That cant be, for if the brothers heard a Divine voice, then they would be stupid to try to act against it, to continue with their plan to throw Joseph to a wild beast. And if the brothers did not hear the Divine voice, then why should the Torah mention it at all?
Netziv poses the only alternative to this interpretive impasse: The brothers said the words themselves.
They made the statement that made no sense.
But they did not do so willingly, on their own thought or volition.
Rather, something popped into their head. Beyond their control.
Midrash puts it this way: Three things are under human control the mouth, the hands and the legs but only when one is privileged by G-d to be in control. If G-d removes that privilege, a person says things beyond his control.
So it was. The brothers said something beyond their control that clearly implied that the Joseph would live and so, it was up for grabs how his dreams would turn out.
The brothers spoke as if with a Divine voice (bat kol).
The brothers spoke under the force of Divine inspiration.
AND so it is, says Netziv, with every human being.
At some point in everyones life, he or she says something beyond his control.
It may turn out for the best, as in the examples I cited at the beginning of this column. It may turn out not for the best.
Either way, it is as if a person experiences a form of prophecy, of seeing, accurately or inaccurately, what the future seems to require.
Concludes the Netziv:
Take care.
When you have a rare, decisive moment powerful enough to change your life: Stop. Think. Understand that Heaven may have placed words in your mouth.
Realize what is going on.
Do not be like Josephs brothers, who utter words as if they were prophecy, yet remain oblivious.
Great things can happen in our lives and we dont get the message.
Netziv says: Awaken!
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
