The wise king and the tyranny of excellent intentions Miketz (Genesis 41:1 - 44:17)

When the wise king goes overboard... You’ll own nothing, and be happy, Egypt-style?

As this week’s reading opens, Joseph has been temporarily forgotten in the dungeons (so much for the gratitude of royal cupbearers) – and then, Pharaoh dreams his twin dreams. Seven lean wheat stalks eat seven fat ones, and seven unsuspecting fat cows get brutally ingested by seven lean ones (it says much for the role of symbolic storytelling that no one even blinks at this, and no one suggests Pharaoh maybe hit his head a bit too hard; then again, when plants turn cannibal, who’s to blink at a carnivorous cow?). When Pharaoh’s own counselors for supernatural affairs fail to come up with a good explanation, the cupbearer ‘suddenly remembers’ Joseph (maybe, because now he can benefit by playing this card). Joseph is brought up, cleaned up, and teed up before Pharaoh. And – not before making clear God’s doing the interpreting, not Joseph (“Not me! God…” 41:16) – he proceeds to give his equally famous interpretation: “Look, Boss: 7 good years, see? But then, pay attention here, see, seven bad ones after that. Maybe you better prepare – maybe, see, get some folks in charge of gathering all the food up before time runs out.” (41:25-36)

Almost unnoticed in the hustle is Pharaoh himself: willing to admit he had a scary dream and can’t make heads or tails of it; willing to seek counsel and to heed it, and from a foreign-born slave at that, this is Pharaoh the wise king. Who admits his own insufficiency, heeds Divine warnings of coming disaster, and places the kingdom’s welfare ahead of his own pride so he can best prepare Egypt to face the disaster, using the best tools he can find no matter their provenance. Remarkable, considering this is a pagan king… that is, if you assumed the Torah to be a tribal document, and not what it is: a how-to manual for optimal human existence, whose purpose is to teach, inter alia, how to build and govern a good, moral, and godly society.

Also almost unnoticed is a lesson we Moderns have learned so well it’s become invisible. In the ancient world, too often fate was fate. If you were special enough to get a forecast, that was usually bad news, and try as you might, in the end it turned out your fate remained the same. Read any Greek tragedy. Not so with Joseph, who says: OK, yes, hard times are coming; but God sends us warnings so we have a chance to work to alter that ultimate fate. That’s the story of Noah and the flood, and of Jonah and Nineveh (in the ‘warning heeded’ column); and (in the ‘not so much’ column) it’s the story of ancient Jerusalem, or the Egypt of Exodus. We are not to be passive victims of fate. We are to actively do what is needed (usually, that means getting our lives in order) to deserve a better one. The warnings are meant to be acted upon.

Impressed with Joseph and his ideas, Pharaoh makes him, as it were, Famine Czar. In special charge of absolutely everything, with total emergency powers, and one goal: get Egypt through the famine, by any means necessary…

And there’s the rub.

This was Joseph’s process (41:33-36, 46-49, 53-56; 47:13-26): first, gather in all the food of the fat years (41:48). Note – “all the food”, not “extra food”. Then, when famine bites, ‘redistribute’… Here, ambiguity creeps in. Originally, the word used (41:56) can be read as ‘distribute’ – literally, break it out. But soon enough, just as the need becomes pressing, Joseph is selling the food back to the same people it was taken from (47:13-14). When the people run out of money, Joseph answers, ‘no problem – we take cash, and we also take cows’ – and the Egyptians’ livestock is sold to Pharaoh for more of their own food (47:15-17). Predictably, that also runs out… In their desperation, the Egyptians sell themselves and their land off – just don’t let us starve! Best of all, seems it was their idea! (47:19) And voila, the Egyptians are serfs, paying Pharaoh a heavy double tithe, in perpetuity (47:18-26). For good measure (to make sure the link between the Egyptians and their land is broken?) Joseph moves them around from one end of Egypt to the other (47:21).

The Egyptians are saved… and they are serfs, enslaved to Pharaoh.

To recap, the process is: do a giant food grab; resell food to the same people you grabbed it from… until they have nothing left…; and when they’re desperate enough, just enslave everyone.

No, Egypt was never a liberal republican democracy… Pharaoh was always Pharaoh, long before Joseph showed up. And still, it seems clear that Joseph’s policies vastly increase Pharaoh’s power (not to mention wealth). That probably did not displease Pharaoh. And it does get Egypt (and the Israelites, and probably a few more people in the area, judging by 41:57) through the famine in one piece. And, the gratitude of the Egyptians is undeniable (“You have given us life! Let us find favor in my lord’s [Joseph’s] eyes, and be slaves to Pharaoh.” 47:25)… here’s another case where consent may be given, but the deed remains reprehensible?

Joseph, probably, meant well. And, succeeds in saving Egypt. But also, he may just have turned a monarchical Egypt into a totalitarian one – one used to the idea that an entire population can be slaves to Pharaoh. Did Joseph just create, with his own two hands, the machinery which will enslave, and later attempt to exterminate, his own people? It’s telling that no benefit accrues Israel… Perhaps, less than none, if Joseph’s policies and wealth were triggers for the fear and resentment which will break out so negatively, a couple of Pharaohs later (Exodus Ch. 1).

Initially, Joseph brings the whole family down to Egypt to get them through the five remaining famine years (45:11)… but somehow, as tends to happen to Jews in Diaspora, everyone gets stuck there long after the famine is over. Did they get too comfortable in wealthy, high-culture Egypt? Did Pharaoh get jealous of this too-successful minority that fast? Whichever, Joseph will not be buried in Hebron like Jacob. And then, well, things will go south from there.

We must be careful not to read too much back into the text. We must not commit the sin of the Howard Zinn historians or the 1619 Project, judging History from a stance of self-conferred moral superiority… It would be unreasonable to expect Genesis to read like Wealth of nations or Road to serfdom. But, it’s not unreasonable that the highly specific description of Joseph’s measures as Famine Czar have a purpose beyond showing us how smart Joseph was, or how exactly the Israelites wind up in Egypt in the first place. That could have been done more succinctly. And, it’s reasonable for us to seek to learn from this account of our past. See it in context, and appreciate what was done right in that context, and also look at what could have been done better, when seen in the light of other lessons we learned along the way. Feeding the people – good. Doing so on a zero-sum basis… not as good. Reselling the people what was taken from them… and then enslaving them… not OK. The Wise King and his vizier now look like WEF-style elite-totalitarian grabbers of land and power. You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy – Pharaonic Egypt-style. Suboptimal.

So maybe it’s just possible that, woven into this narrative, is a warning – one about the dangers of absolute power, even when wielded with the best of intentions. And even in an emergency.

Hear any talk of emergencies lately? Is your allegedly well-meaning government reaching for exceptional power, because “Something Must Be Done”? Huh.

Buyer beware.

And God help us all.