Pharaoh's praise of Yosef

After Yosef interprets Pharaoh's dream and advises him what to do, the king exclaims on Yosef's having ruach Elokim and possessing unusual understanding and wisdom The two terms navon vechacham refer to different forms of intelligence. According to the Ramban navon refers to yosef's understanding of how to manage the inhabitants of Egypt with respect to allocating bread according to the household numbers, to supply them with sufficient amounts to sustain them and to sell the surplus to other land in order to acquire wealth for Pharaoh. The term chachamrefers to his wisdom in knowing how to keep the crops from rotting, what to mix with each type in order to preserve it.

My grandfather adds that Yosef was unusal in that he not only had the spiritual connection to G-d but that he also was street smart about managing daily life in earthly matters. Pharaoh recognized this combined ability in Yosef's identifying the solution to the problem when giving the interpretation of the message G-d was sending in the form of a dream.

Related post  http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2015/10/dvar-yehudah-parsha-points-from-my.html




Comments

That's a very strong point, that even the greatest level of torah knowledge and middos is enhanced by gadlus in worldly matters. I'm not surprised that your grandfather would see that in the parsha. One might coin a phrase and call it Towro im deirech eiretz
Ariella's blog said…
+Eliezer Eisenberg this grandfather was a Litvak. My Yekke background is from the other side of the family. However, this grandfather did pursue a secular education. I posted about that here: http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-justifies-yeshiva-bachurs-study-at.html

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