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Why does the Torah (תורה) emphasize Pharaoh's anger when his butler and baker committed minor infractions? The shiur develops that Pharaoh represented himself as both king and deity, and the servants' disrespect threatened not just royal protocol but divine honor—shifting public focus from Yosef's scandal to a question affecting all Egypt: Would Pharaoh rule as a totalitarian monarch or demand the absolute submission due a god?
Rabbi Zweig analyzes Parshas Vayeishev 40:1, which begins "And it happened after these things" that Pharaoh's butler and baker sinned against their master. Rashi (רש"י) explains that Hashem (ה׳) created this scandal to divert public attention from the Yosef-Potiphar's wife incident. The shiur opens by questioning why a political scandal involving servants would eclipse a sensational story of adultery and attempted seduction involving a wealthy woman and young slave. The answer emerges from understanding the unique nature of Egyptian society. The pasuk describes the servants as sinning "la'adoneihem lamelech Mitzrayim"—to their master, the king of Egypt. The word "adon" (master) typically describes the owner of a slave, not the ruler of subjects. This linguistic precision reveals that Egypt was a totalitarian state where citizens were considered property of the regime, not merely subjects with contractual rights. Like Soviet Russia or Red China, the Egyptian state owned its people absolutely, without need for trials or due process.
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Bereishis 40:1
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