Two Extra Years – Understanding Bitachon

After having interpreted the chief butler’s dream as saying that he would be released from prison in three days’ time and restored to his former position, Yosef asks that he remember him to Pharaoh. However, as our parsha concludes, the butler did not remember Yosef. Indeed, as we are told in the beginning of the following parsha, it would be two years before he did so.

As is well known, the Midrash[1] states that these two years were a punishment for Yosef’s words at that time, for they represented a breach of bitachon (trust in Hashem) on Yosef’s part. However, we need to understand why this request was looked upon in such a negative light. By that stage, Yosef had been in jail for ten years and the butler’s release presented an opportunity for him to secure his own release. Is it not acceptable to engage in hishtadlus (effort) alongside bitachon? Was he expected to do nothing? Additionally, why did this infraction lead to two extra years?

Bitachon is typically referred to as a “trait”. However, a more meaningful understanding of bitachon is that it is a mood. After all, when one trusts in someone else and relies on him, one’s mood is free from the anxiety that would exist if he had to deal with the situation by himself. Indeed, this is the description of bitachon as found in the classic work Chovos Halevavos:[2]

“Trust” is the peace of mind that one has as he relies on someone else.

In other words, bitachon is not defined by what one does or does not do. Those actions are expressions of bitachon; bitachon itself is a mood and a state of being.

In this light, let us consider the following fascinating and profound approach as to where Yosef was found wanting, provided by R’ Shlomo Kluger. It may well have been acceptable for Yosef to ask the butler to remember him, as that represents basic hishtadlus. However, even if the request itself was legitimate, the question remains — when is the right time to ask? Yosef has just established, through his own interpretation of the dream, that the butler will be released from jail in three days’ time. This means that until day three, he is not going anywhere. But Yosef asked him immediately, even though he does not need to mention this to the butler for another two days. Why does he ask now? In terms of the exceedingly high standard of bitachon expected of Yosef, making this request two days early was a symptom of unease and anxiety. It was as if he couldn’t afford to wait another two days. For the level of reliance expected from Yosef, this was a breach of the mood of bitachon, for which he spent another two years in jail. Moreover, we now understand why the extension was for two years specifically, one for each day that preceded his request.

As always, we are not expected to conduct ourselves in accordance with the level expected of the greats of the Chumash. We are, however, fully expected to learn the relevant lessons from them, to be applied at our own level. Every application of the mood of bitachon into our own experience will serve to give more meaning to those two extra years through which the Torah taught it.

[1] Cited in Rashi to Bereishis 40:23 s.v. vayishkacheiyu.

[2] Shaar Habitachon chap. 4