It is hard to imagine Yosef ever reconciling with his brothers after their cruelty in selling him into slavery. This is exactly why it is so interesting reading the ornate theater around Yosef and his brother in Miketz, this week’s Torah portion. Having come to Egypt due to the famine in Canaan the brothers need food. Yosef demands to see Benjamin and hold Shimon as collateral. It is clear that Yosef is scheming. Benjamin is his only full sibling. Yakov agrees to send Benjamin only after Yehudah assumes responsibility for him. This time Yosef receives them kindly, releases Shimon, and invites them to an eventful dinner at his home. But then he plants his silver goblet, in Benjamin’s sack. When the brothers set out for home the next morning, they are pursued, searched, and arrested when the goblet is discovered. Yosef offers to set them free and retain only Benjamin as his slave. On a simple level we see that this is all a test to see if the brothers have learned their lesson. Will they stand up for Benjamin or see him as expendable just like they did with Yosef? That is cleary, but what is the deal with the goblet? It could have been anything, in the bag. Why a goblet?

I wanted to offer a reading from the end of Vayeshev, last week’s Torah portion. There we see Yosef at the nadir of his existence. In prison, Yosef meets Pharaoh’s chief butler and chief baker, both incarcerated for offending their royal master. Both have disturbing dreams, which Yosef interprets. There we read:

And they said to him, “We had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” So Joseph said to them, “Surely God can interpret! Tell me [your dreams].”Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Yosef. He said to him, “In my dream, there was a vine in front of me. On the vine were three branches. It had barely budded, when out came its blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” Yosef said to him, “This is its interpretation: The three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will pardon you and restore you to your post; you will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, as was your custom formerly when you were his cupbearer.

Genesis 40: 8-13

In three days, he tells them, the butler will be released and the baker hanged. Yosef asks the butler to intercede on his behalf with Pharaoh. Yosef’s predictions are fulfilled, but the butler forgets all about Yosef and does nothing for him.

At the start of his life Yosef the chosen one. He was his father’s favorite. He had his own dreams of his siblings and the world around him bowing to his greatness. And just like that his stock dropped. His brothers sold him into slavery. There in Potiphar’s house he thrived. He still had his wits about him and he was good at business. And then he is put in prison by Potiphar despite his innocence. So what does he have left? It turns out that he has divine gift of dream interpretation. Here he proves that he’s still got it. But, then just like that he is forgotten.

It is not surprising that the cup from the Butler’s dream captured Yosef’s sense of divine neglect. As much as this is a test for his brothers, through the use of this cup we see that this might also prove to be a test for God. A similar image is captured in Psalms. There we read:

Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me. You spread a table for me in full view of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

Psalms 23: 4-5

Last week we saw Yosef at the bottom. He was forgotten by his family, his employer, and via the butler by God. There he was in “a valley of deepest darkness.” It was not not enough for him to make peace with his new employer. He put the something of value in Benjamin’s bag to test his family to make that right. It is clear that he used a goblet to smooth things out with God. When they pass the test, we see Yosef’s “cup runs over”.

From this use of the goblet I learn three main lessons. Firstly, when things are tough we should all be blessed to feel the protection of our family, friends, colleagues, and even our God. Secondly, even when things are great we also need to feel seen by our family, friends, colleagues, and even our God. Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l famously said, “If you see what needs to be repaired and know how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that God has left for you to perfect. But if you only see what is wrong and what is ugly, then it is you yourself that needs repair.” The final lesson I take from Yosef’s choice of the goblet is that we are all God’s agents through which others will experience God’s presence.