(2000/5761)

The story of Paroh’s dreams and their interpretations is a memorable one.  Seven fat cows and healthy stalks of corn come, followed by seven skinny cows and withering corn stalks, which swallow the fat cows and corn but remain skinny and withered.  The way that Yosef interprets this is that seven plentiful years will come, followed by seven years of famine that will be so bad that the seven years of plenty will not suffice to sustain Egypt through the years of famine. 

Often, we see that people forget the good and only remember the bad.  There is a story of a man who was asked how his farm was doing.  He replied that unfortunately the economy was doing well, and the people who came to buy the produce were very picky about what they purchased.  A number of years later, during a famine, he was asked the same question and replied that business was doing well, since during the famine the buyers would buy anything they could get and pay exorbitant prices.  This parable illustrates that when good deeds are commonplace they are thought to be facts of life and are overlooked; however, when good deeds are scarce and unique they are appreciated and thought of highly.

Both dreams of Paroh convey the same message: once bad times come, the good times that precede them are forgotten.  In life, it is important to weigh the bad within the good and view the bad as if it were scattered amongst the good.  If one breaks down his daily activities and looks at every detail, he will see that the vast amount of things done to and for him are positive, while only a few are negative.  We would all have a more positive outlook on life if we would pay less attention to the bad and think more of the good.