Flies and Stones – Vayeishev
וַיְהִי אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה חָטְאוּ מַשְׁקֵה מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם וְהָאֹפֶה לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶם לְמֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם. וַיִּקְצֹף פַּרְעֹה עַל שְׁנֵי סָרִיסָיו עַל שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים וְעַל שַׂר הָאוֹפִים (בראשית מ, א-ב).
“The time in Cairo is 8pm and here is the evening news read by Mustafa Kamil. Scandal in the royal house today, as the second in command to the Chief Executioner was arrested early this morning for suspected rape!”
It was a very damaging scoop, but short lived. Rashi says that very soon after Yosef was arrested on false charges brought by Potiphar’s wife (וַיְהִי אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה), another scandal hit the headlines, to divert the attention away from Yosef HaTzaddik.
The episode of the שר המשקים and the שר האופים is well known and many Mefarshim slice and dice this story in every possible way. In this shiur I will bring a totally different perush of the sugya from sefer Meir Panim (2nd Edition, due for release soon) that has strong connections to Pesach. It may seem strange to be discussing Pesach just before Channukah, but this seems to be all the rage these days, before the donuts are even off the shelves you can already find Hamantaschen, so why not matzos too?
Before we begin, let us just recap the gist of the story.
The Royal Cupbearer and the Royal Baker were thrown into prison. Their crimes – a fly was found in the king’s cup of wine and a stone found in the king’s bread. They were both incarcerated in the same prison as Yosef, and while there, they both dreamed separate dreams on the same night.
The שר המשקים dreamed of a flowering grapevine with three clusters of ripe grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in his hand and he squeezed the grapes into the cup and placed the cup in the king’s hand.
The שר האופים dreamed a similar, but different dream. In his dream he saw three baskets of bread on his head. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods and the birds were eating them in the basket.
They were both perturbed by their dreams and woke up shaken. Yosef noticed their demeanor and asked what had happened. They replied that they had both dreamed disturbing dreams and couldn’t figure out their meaning. Yosef offered to help decipher the dreams. The first to relate his dream was the שר המשקים. Yosef said that the three clusters of grapes were three days and that in three days’ time Pharaoh would restore the שר המשקים to his former post. Yosef asked him to do a chessed, to remember him and help extricate him from the prison.
When the שר האופים saw that his colleague received a favorable outcome, he too told Yosef his dream. Yosef, however, interpreted his dream unfavorably, that in three days Pharaoh would hang him on a tree and the birds would peck at his flesh.
And indeed, three days later, Pharaoh’s birthday, the Royal Cupbearer was reinstated and the Royal Baker executed.
The episode ends by telling us that the שר המשקים did not remember Yosef, and he completely forgot about him.
That is the story in the psukkim.
Chazal in the Midrash (Breishit Rabba 88, 2) fill in some of the blanks. They say it was an earthenware cup (Mishna Sotah 2, 2) of wine. When the cupbearer gave it to Pharaoh, there was no fly in it, the fly flew in after he had poured it and handed it to Pharaoh. Pharaoh thus ruled that it was not negligence on the part of the cupbearer, but an accident, and he thus reinstated him.
The same Midrash says that Pharaoh found a צרור בגלוסקא, a “stone” in the bread. Sefer Hayashar (pg 151) says the stone found in the bread was an אבן נתר, a sodium stone. Professor Zohar Amar in his book חמשת מיני דגן (pg. 159) says that in ancient times bakers would add sodium based salts, like sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), to the dough to make breads lighter and more airy (In modern times this practice is uncommon and the major rising agent in bread today is yeast). According to Sefer Hayashar, the fault of the Royal Baker is that he did not mix the dough sufficiently and the baking soda remained as a solid, small “stone” in the dough. This was considered gross negligence, as he should have made greater efforts to adequately mix the dough so that all ingredients were fully dissolved. For this he was executed (thankfully for bakers today the punishment for baking malfunctions is less harsh).
It is also interesting to note the chronological appearance of this story in the timeline of events. It occurs between the episode of אשת פוטיפר and Yosef rising to greatness as viceroy of Egypt.
Now we can begin the shiur.
The entire episode of the שר המשקים and the שר האופים is a mashal for the חטא עץ הדעת. I have mentioned the sequence of events in the sin of Adam and Chava in many of my shiurim, quoting Meir Panim and for clarity I will bring them again here, this time highlighting the parallels to our story above.
The protagonists in our story above are referred to in two different ways – המשקה/שר המשקים and האופה/שר האופים.
When they are generically referred to as the “cupbearer”, the “baker” המשקה, האופה, the term used for the king is מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם. Note in the first passuk (בראשית מ, א) above, the word מֶלֶךְ is repeated twice, both for the “cupbearer” and in addition, for the “baker” the word לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶם is also added. Also the term חטאו is used – the “cupbearer” and the “baker” sinned.
When they are referred to as שר המשקים, שר האופים, however, the term used for the king is פַרְעֹה, not מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם and the word פַרְעֹה is only written once as opposed to the word מֶלֶךְ in the first passuk which appears twice. In addition, the derogatory word here is וַיִּקְצֹף, Pharaoh was angry, as opposed to “sinned” in the first passuk.
We begin to notice a pattern. When the word שַׂר is mentioned, it is in connection with פַרְעֹה, when the generic term המשקה, האופה is used, it is in connection with מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם.
Adam was tardy in performing the mitzva of פרו ורבו as commanded by HKB”H. The reason for this is that he was totally removed from the יצר הרע, which is an essential factor for performing this mitzva. Chazal say that without the יצר הרע there is no procreation and the world would cease to exist דאמר ר"ש אם אין יצר הרע נמצא, פריה ורביה אינו מצוי (זהר, חלק א', דף קכח, ע"ב, מדרש הנעלם). The yetzer harah contributes a vital ingredient for performing this mitzva, שמחה and Adam was lacking this שמחה.
Chava decided to take matters into her own hands and speed things up by giving Adam wine to drink הא תנינן סחטה ענבים ויהבת ליה (זהר חלק א, לו א). Chava was the generic “cupbearer” המשקה. The description of how Chava squeezed grapes in the Zohar bears uncanny resemblance to the dream of the שר המשקים, as it says in the passuk וָאֶקַּח אֶת הָעֲנָבִים וָאֶשְׂחַט (בראשית מ, יא). How did Chava think this would help? She thought it would give Adam the שמחה that he was lacking, as it says in Tehilim ויין ישמח לבב אנוש (קד, טו).
Instead of davening to and asking HKB”H for help, Chava took matters into her own hands, a kind of כוחי ועוצם ידי. Similarly Yosef asked the שר המשקים to help extricate him from the prison, instead of davening and asking HKB”H for help and was thus punished that the שר המשקים, not only did he not remember Yosef – he “forgot” him and Yosef had to endure another two years of imprisonment (Rashi).
Why does the Mishna feel it necessary to tell us that the cup was an “earthenware” cup? What difference does it make if it was earthenware, gold, silver or wood? It is because Chava “poured” wine into Adam – who was created from … the earth!
However, she must have overdosed, because the end result is that instead of what she intended, Adam fell asleep. Chava had good intentions, she wanted to facilitate observing HKB”H’s commandment, but unintentionally, בשוגג, she invited a foreign element in, the נחש, or by another name the יצר הרע, or by another name זבוב – a fly! The yetzer harah is compared to a fly, because just as you swat at a fly and it keeps coming back again and again, the yetzer harah is relentless.
While Adam was asleep and out of the picture, the נחש tempted Chava to take from the fruit of the עץ הדעת which was wheat, grind it up into dust (flour) and mix it with water into a kind of dough. The snake’s ruse was to trick Chava into thinking she could procreate alone (without Adam and without HKB”H), by using the same technique HKB”H used to create Adam – taking earth/dust, mixed with water into a kind of dough.
However, there was one ingredient missing. To create Adam, HKB”H breathed into this “dough” נשמת חיים, a neshama, something only HKB”H can do.
There are שלושה שותפים באדם, three partners in the creation of life, HKB”H, the man and the woman (Nida 31a).
The נחש said to Chava, “Leave it up to me to add the final ingredient.” The יצר הרע told Chava to leave her dough unattended. Don’t read הנחש השיאני , but rather הנחש השהני, from the lashon of השהייה – delay. The נחש added chametz to the dough, that is what happens to dough if left unattended. Chametz (שאור) is another name for the יצר הרע (Brachot 17a).
How do Chazal in Breishit Rabba describe the stone in Pharaoh’s bread? They don’t use the word אבן, instead they used the word צרור, from the lashon of צורר.
Chava was the generic “baker”. This second part of her involvement was not בשוגג, like the first part with the wine. This was premeditated and deliberate, with the intent of excluding Adam from the procreation process and trying to create life on her own. For this she was punished בעצב תלדי בנים, which in gematriya is שהתה, for her sin in “delaying”, leaving the dough unattended.
As if that were not enough, she then caused Adam to sin by also eating this chametz bread, out of jealousy that she would die and HKB”H would create another wife for him (Pirkei de’Rebi Eliezer, chap 13). This was the final part of the sin, the סוף מעשה, that is symbolized by the תאנה (the gematriya of עלה תאנה is סוף מעשה). Everything connected to the bread was a combination of gross negligence and premeditation.
And if you think it was only Chava, you are mistaken.
Adam was also participant in the fiasco with the wine, he drank too much and fell asleep and was not there to protect his wife from the נחש. He did not intend to drink too much, it was בשוגג.
However, Adam demonstrated gross negligence by not diligently performing the mitzva of פרו ורבו and, as a result, giving rise to the catastrophic chain of events that was the חטא עץ הדעת.
When Adam also ate from the chametz bread, it was not בשוגג, it was gross negligence. Instead of placing blind faith in his wife regarding the kashrut of his “kitchen”, Adam should have at least have asked “What is this?” (it was a type of food he had never eaten before), “What bracha do I make on this?” Adam was not complicit in preparing the chametz bread, but he demonstrated lack of gratitude by eating bread that was man made and not created directly by HKB”H, like all other food in Gan Eden, which was picked off the trees ready to eat. For this he was punished בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם, which in gematriya is תשמיש המיטה.
So in fact there was not one “cupbearer” and one “baker”, there were two, who “sinned” חָטְאוּ against the king לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶם לְמֶלֶךְ - against HKB”H. The משקה part was בשוגג so it was a sin against the מֶלֶךְ, but the אופה part was a sin against אֲדֹנֵיהֶם המֶלֶךְ, it was במזיד and therefore unforgivable.
The number three repeats in the story of the cupbearer and the baker. The significance in this context is that in the 9th hour Adam was commanded to refrain from eating from the עץ הדעת and three hours later he was expelled from Gan Eden for disobeying.
There are three opinions in the Gemara (ברכות מ, ע"א; סנהדרין ע, ע"א) as to what kind of tree the עץ הדעת was, grapes גפן, wheat חיטה, or figsתאנה . They are all right and they simply refer to the different stages of the sin, Chava giving Adam wine, Chava making chametz bread and finally סוף מעשה/עלה תאנה Chava feeding Adam, who willingly ate, the chametz bread.
As a result of their sin, they initiated a totally different path in history than that which was originally intended during the Creation. Just before Shabbat came in, before the sun set on the 6th day, HKB”H had to create, at the last minute, all the required elements in this new historical dimension to facilitate the tikkun, namely – the elements of Mashiach.
One of these elements was יציאת מצרים. Then entire process of our slavery and Exodus from Egypt was part of the tikkun for Adam and Chava. Once they had sinned, Adam and Chava were no longer המשקה, האופה, and the king in question was no longer המֶלֶךְ – they gave rise to the שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים and the שַׂר הָאוֹפִים and to פַּרְעֹה. The שַׂר in question is שרו של עשו, the yetzer harah! Pharaoh, התנים הגדול, was a reincarnation of the נחש.
The parsha of the שר המשקים and the שר האופים is sandwiched between the episode of Yosef with אשת פוטיפר and his rise to glory as viceroy in Egypt. By passing the test with Potiphar’s wife, Yosef proved he was worthy of becoming the Mashiach, משיח בן יוסף.
If the story of the cupbearer and the baker symbolizes the sin of Adam and Chava, it also contains the tikkun for that sin.
In the story the word כוס is mentioned five times –
יא. וְכוֹס פַּרְעֹה בְּיָדִי וָאֶקַּח אֶת הָעֲנָבִים וָאֶשְׂחַט אֹתָם אֶל כּוֹס פַּרְעֹה וָאֶתֵּן אֶת הַכּוֹס עַל כַּף פַּרְעֹה.
יג. ..... וְנָתַתָּ כוֹס פַּרְעֹה בְּיָדוֹ כַּמִּשְׁפָּט הָרִאשׁוֹן אֲשֶׁר הָיִיתָ מַשְׁקֵהוּ.
Immediately after the 4th כוס the passuk says - כַּמִּשְׁפָּט הָרִאשׁוֹן אֲשֶׁר הָיִיתָ מַשְׁקֵהוּ, a tikkun for אדם הראשון when he and Chava were the משקה. These are the ארבע כוסות we drink on Pesach corresponding to והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי.
But there is a 5th כוס –
כא. וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים עַל מַשְׁקֵהוּ וַיִּתֵּן הַכּוֹס עַל כַּף פַּרְעֹה
This is the כוס של אליהו symbolizing the Mashiach, when things will be restored to way they were before the sin, from the שר המשקים back to the משקה.
The three baskets of bread on the head of the שר האופים symbolize the three matzot we eat on Pesach, corresponding to כהן, לוי, ישראל - a tikkun for the chametz breads prepared by Chava. Chava prepared two chametz breads, one which she ate and a second which she fed to Adam (incidentally the two loaves, Lechem Mishneh, that we eat at each meal on Shabbat are also a tikkun for this). The top, third basket containing the matzot, is the only one being eaten by the birds, the יונה, a synonym for כנסת ישראל (Shabbat 49a) as a tikkun for the lower two baskets, the two chametz breads prepared by Chava. The gematriya of מִכֹּל מַאֲכַל פַּרְעֹה מַעֲשֵׂה אֹפֶה (בראשית מ, יז) is the same as וַיֹּאמֶר ה' סָלַחְתִּי כִּדְבָרֶךָ.
Another symbol we eat on Pesach is כרפס. The word כרפס is ראשי תיבות for – כוס, רשע, פת, סוף מעשה, referring to Chava giving Adam wine, the evil נחש, Chava making chametz bread and finally, the סוף מעשה, giving Adam to eat from that bread.
Even the Afikoman is symbolic of the above, אפיקומן in gematriya is אַצְמִיחַ צֶמַח, referring to the עץ הדעת and its tikkun, the Mashiach.
As we can see, the episode of the Royal Cupbearer and Royal Baker is in fact a mashal for something far deeper than appears on the surface.
I must end of with at least one connection to the upcoming festival of Channukah. The Tur says that if there is a special event during the week, it is hinted to in the parsha preceding it. The Mefarshim bring other hints from the parsha, like the pit Yosef was cast into (at least twenty amot deep) which has halachic ramifications regarding how high you can place the Channukiyah (not higher than 20 amot). However, I found another hint which ties into to our shiur above. The passuk וישמן ישרון ויבעט (דברים לב, טו) literally means “And the honest/straight man becomes fat and kicks”. In Meir Panim I bring the principle that this passuk is referring to Adam Harishon who ungratefully sinned against HKB”H and as a result ended up “kicking”, because there were “snakes” around his feet. The word וישמן is from the root of the word שמן, oil.
Happy Channukah
