“Pharaoh sent and summoned Joseph, and they rushed him from the dungeon . . . And Pharaoh said to Joseph; See, I have set you in charge over all the land of Egypt.”

-Mikeitz 41:14-41

Joseph’s early period in Egypt was filled with difficulties and hardship. First, he was a slave in the house of Potiphar, and from there he was thrown into a dungeon where he suffered for many years. The imprisonment itself, however, brought about a drastic change: concurrent to his release from prison he became a ruler! When Joseph interpreted correctly the dreams of Pharaoh, he also solved the riddle of all his troubles to that point, for everything led progressively to his becoming the viceroy without whose permission “no man is to lift a hand or foot in all the land of Egypt” (Mikeitz 41:44).

The Jewish people, too, are presently in the dungeon of a harsh and bitter galut. For many years we have been bound and fettered by the shackles of the galut. We must realize, though, that just as Joseph went from confinement to rulership, so too our whole nation will speedily leave the prison of galut and simultaneously ascend to the status of royalty-“children of the King of all kings.” The mystery of the “dream of the galut” will be solved and explained at that point.