The book of Genesis tells us, "It was at the conclusion of two years, and Pharaoh was dreaming: and, behold, he stood at the Nile" (Genesis 41:1). But Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, asks a profound question: What's the significance of those two years?
It all starts with the verse from Job: "He sets an end to darkness" (Job 28:3). The Rabbis, in their insightful way, interpret this on multiple levels. First, it suggests that God actually set a limit on how long the world would spend in darkness. But why darkness in the first place?
Bereshit Rabbah proposes that darkness exists because the yetzer hara (יֵצֶר הָרַע), the evil inclination, is in the world. As long as that force is present, there's darkness and the shadow of death lurking. Think about it: when we give in to negative impulses, don’t things seem bleaker? The text even quotes Job again: "The stone of thick darkness and the shadow of death" (Job 28:3), linking the presence of evil directly to this sense of gloom.
But here's the hopeful part: the text says that if the yetzer hara were removed from the world, the darkness and shadow of death would vanish too. Imagine a world without that constant inner struggle!
Now, here's where it gets really interesting. Bereshit Rabbah takes that same verse from Job – "He sets an end to darkness" – and applies it specifically to Joseph. It suggests that God also set a limit on how long Joseph would spend in the darkness of prison. Those two years? They weren't just a random passage of time. They were a preordained period.
And when that time was up, what happened? Pharaoh dreamed a dream. The dream that ultimately led to Joseph's release and rise to power. The dream that changed everything.
So, what does this all mean? Perhaps it's a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there's a limit. That God, in God's infinite wisdom, has set a boundary. And perhaps it's a call to action, too. To work on diminishing the yetzer hara within ourselves and in the world around us, so we can bring more light and less darkness into being. Because, as the story of Joseph reminds us, even after years of darkness, dawn can break.