09 Dec PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING VAYEISHEV – MINDING SOMEONE ELSE’S BUSINESS

Sometimes it’s
important to mind
someone else’s
business.

Yosef sat in prison for more than a decade
before he was released to become viceroy
of Egypt. His path toward redemption
began when he interpreted the dreams of
his fellow inmates: Pharaoh’s butler and
baker. However, Yosef ’s great achievement
was not his accurate interpretations; as
Yosef repeatedly emphasized, that was
really the work of Hashem.
Instead, Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l noted,
Yosef ’s success can be attributed to his
sensitivity in realizing that the officers
had a need for dream interpretation in
the first place. While making his rounds,
Yosef noticed that the two chamberlains
looked particularly unsettled one
morning, and he made it his business to
find out why (40:6-7). By demonstrating

concern for their wellbeing, Yosef put
himself in a position to relay the dreams’
interpretations, which would prove to
be his “Get Out of Jail Free Card.” Had
he not taken the time to initiate this
conversation, one can only wonder how
much longer he would have been forced
to languish in that prison.
Let’s take this one step further by
contrasting Yosef ’s thoughtful regard for
others with the callous disposition of the
officers themselves.
Consider the comment of Rashi (v. 5)
that, in addition to his own dreams,
each officer had also received the correct
interpretation of his companion’s dream.
In other words, the baker had dreamed
the solution to the butler’s dream, and
the butler had been shown the fate of the
baker’s nightmare. If each had not been
so self-absorbed in his own problems,
he might have realized that his cellmate

was tossing and turning all
night as well. Had the two of
them cared enough to inquire
about the other’s troubles,
they would have immediately
discovered that the answer they
so desperately needed was lying
in the very next bed. A moment
of consideration could have
spared them hours of agony.
Yosef, too, had plenty of his own problems
to worry about. He was ripped away from
his beloved father at the hands of his own
brothers; he was sold repeatedly as a slave;
and he was now rotting in prison for a
crime he did not commit! But instead of
retreating inside his difficulties, he used
his predicament as a means to empathize
with others in distress, to be attentive
when they were feeling down as well. This
sensitivity was not only Yosef ’s ticket to
freedom, but the very quality that made

him deserving to serve as head of state
and provide for the needs of the whole
world!
True, sometimes people would rather be
left alone, preferring that others mind
their own business. But, by noticing
when others are upset and reaching
out to show that we care, we can put
ourselves in a position to help whenever
they are ready to share. When done in a
sensitive and non-intrusive way, it can be
very appreciated to mind someone else’s
business!