The last time I wrote about parshat Miketz was seven years ago for my bar-mitzvah. Then I spoke about how Yoseph used his ability to interpret dreams to advance his position in life, first out of jail and then to become the second most powerful man in the world as Pharaoh's viceroy. He accomplished this not by merely interpreting Pharaoh's dreams but rather because of his reverence for Hashem (chapter 41, verse 16: "It is not in me, G-d will give Pharaoh an answer . . . ") and his subsequent solving of the problem presented in Pharaoh's dreams, how to go about preparing for the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
Interestingly, this time when reading Parshat Miketz I noticed a new facet of the Yoseph story I did not see while preparing for my bar-mitzvah that connects well to the concept of a benai-mitzvah; I noticed that Parshat Miketz is Yoseph's coming of age story. It has been our tradition that a child reaches the age of maturity when they have their bar or bat mitzvah. At this point in their life, a child is expected to take responsibility for their actions and is now fully obligated to perform the mitzvoth. The child becomes an adult because he or she is now solely accountable for what he or she does. In Parshat Miketz, Yoseph takes on similar obligations and responsibility to that of a child who has reached his or her benai-mitzvah. Unlike in Parashat Vayeshev where Yoseph only interprets his dreams and incurs the wrath of his brothers, here, in Miketz he not only interprets Pharaoh's dreams, but also finds himself obligated to tell him how to deal with the interpretation. While in Vayeshev Yoseph did not know better and acted like a child, bragging to his brothers, in Miketz he acts like an adult, not just telling Pharaoh what his dreams mean, but also telling him what to do with the information. When I had my bar-mitzvah at the ripe old age of 13 I doubt I was ready to take on much responsibility. Now at the age of 20 I still don't feel all that ready. In Parashat Miketz we see that coming of age doesn't happen one Shabbat at synagogue or even the year before preparing for it. Instead it takes years of learning from one's mistakes and eventually rising to the challenge like Yoseph did and applying everything we've learned in the past.