A couple of days ago I was asked by my friend Sasha Borenstein if I would be the gabbai for her reading of the second aliyah in parsha Mikketz this coming Shabbat. I was honored by the asking and enthusiastically said yes. We studied this particular section of the Torah together which is about Pharaoh's dream and Joseph's interpretation of the dream. As Sasha chanted beautifully in hebrew, I followed along. The aliyah began with Pharaoh describing his dream to Joseph. After Pharaoh was finished it came time for Joseph's interpretation. I felt a dramatic shift in the Torah trope from a neutral matter-of-fact description of the facts of the dream by Pharaoh, to an enlightened explanation of the dream by Joseph. I felt waves of IT (Invisible Ta'anug) ripple through my body and I realized that Joseph was, in that moment, understanding Pharaoh's dream from the realm of IT consciousness when giving his interpretation. Joseph's entire life up to that point had prepared him just for this moment. This was his gift and opportunity to transcend his past and step into his future as the savior of the Egyptians and the Jews. And the reason that Joseph had access to the IT was because he had surrendered his small egoic self by telling Pharaoh that he, Joseph, was not the interpreter of the dream, "it is not in me; God (IT) will give Pharaoh an answer of peace". Joseph was fulfilling his mission by getting out of his own way and allowing The IT to work through and as him.
Each of us has IT given gifts and abilities that can either frustrate us (when we are not using them out of fear, unawareness, or because we are concerned what others might think), or can elevate us to experience the IT directly and powerfully. We have the choice. What are we doing with our gifts and abilities? Are they being locked up and/or misused by our ego? Or are we able to surrender our small selves and open to the possibility for IT to direct our thoughts and actions to create Shalom, peace and wholeness?
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