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Mikeitz: Who’s Serving Who?

The Medrash in this week’s Parsha makes a fascinating comparison. In Paroh’s dream, he saw himself standing over his god – ופרעה חולם והמה עומד על היאור. But when Yaakov dreamed, he saw God standing over him – והנה ה׳ נצב עליו. What is this Medrash trying to tell us?

R’ Simcha Wasserman explains that these dreams show how each person saw themselves in relationship to what they considered to be Divine.

Paroh worshiped the Nile in an attempt to get it to irrigate his crops. He saw himself standing over his god, because he wanted it to serve his needs.

This is also why Paroh practiced polytheism. He would “worship” any power that he thought might be able to help him. In reality, all he cared about was himself.

Yaakov was the opposite. He saw God standing over him. He viewed religion as being about us serving God, rather than God serving us. Everything he did was to come closer to and to develop a relationship with the one and only God.

In Judaism, we serve God, not the other way around. We do not keep the Torah and Mitzvos as a way of trying to get Hashem to do what we want Him to do. We do it because it is what He wants, and it is how we develop a relationship with Him.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום