On thurday’s shir shel yom, we see an interesting phrase. Yosef reports that ‘I didn’t know but did hear sfas’ (‘sfas lo yadati eshma.’) what does this mean?
R Elon said that this relates to Pharoah’s dream in our sedra. If you look at the description of his dream, it says Pharoah was standing ON the river (41;1) but when he relates his dream to Yosef, Pharoah says that he was on the banks (‘sfas’) of the river (41;17). Why did Pharoah change the events? Because the river was their god, and for Pharoah to admit that he dreamt and saw himself above (on) the river meant that he saw himself above their god, and that would not make him popular, at the very least. Thus, he was prepared to change the words to ‘I was standing BY the river’ and reduce the chances of an accurate interpretation, just because of his image. And this is why Yosef remarks ‘I did not know sfas but I heard it’ – ie the word sfas (banks of river) that I heard from Pharoah, I didn’t know were in his dream; coz they were indeed not in his dream!
The lesson? Be sincere and try and grow, as opposed to fake and pretend to be someone they are not.
