After interpreting the dream of Pharaoh’s cup-bearer accurately, Yosef had hoped to also be freed from prison. And yet, despite the Divine assistance he has been granted until now, Yosef is forced to spend an additional two years in Pharaoh’s prison:
And it was at the end of two years that Pharaoh was dreaming . . .
(Bereishit 41:1).
Why must Yosef suffer so?

The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 89:2) says that the saintly Yosef is being punished for lack of faith:
(Tehillim 40:5): “Fortunate is the man who has made Hashem his trust”— this is Yosef; “and turned not to the arrogant, and to those who stray after falsehood” — since he said to the cup-bearer “remember me . . . and mention me” (Bereishit 40:14), two years were added for him.

However, this is difficult to understand, for it describes Yosef simultaneously as both “the man who has made Hashem his trust” and yet, by seeking help from the cup-bearer, as one who “turned . . . to the arrogant, and to those who stray after falsehood”. How are we to interpret this Midrash?

R. Ben-Tzion of Shkud (quoted in Kehillat Yitzchak, by R. Yitzchak ben-Nissan) begins by examining Yosef’s words to the cup-bearer in prison:
In three more days Pharaoh will raise your head and restore you to your position, and you will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as was the first manner when you were his butler. If only you will remember me with yourself when it shall be well with you, and please show kindness to me, and mention me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. Because I was surely stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing that they should have put me in the pit (40:13-15).

Since Yosef was offering to interpret the cup-bearer’s dream, he should have said nothing more than the first sentence. Asking to be “remembered” and “mentioned” to Pharaoh is extraneous to his purpose. In addition, Yosef undoubtedly must have protested his innocence from the moment he arrived in the prison, and he was ignored. Why should anyone believe him now after he has interpreted the cup-bearer’s dream?

All this is superfluous. That is, unless they are meant as part of the interpretation!

When Yosef, the slave in the house of Poti-fera, was arrested, the expected place to jail him was with other slaves. And yet, he was put in
the place where the king’s prisoners were imprisoned (39:20).
This, explains Malbim, was where offending officers and advisers to the king, like the cup-bearer and royal baker, were incarcerated. Yosef reasoned that he was placed in this particular prison — this house — through Divine Providence, so that he could encounter someone close to the king, and thereby gain his freedom.

The cup-bearer, for his part, never expected to return to his former position after being stripped of it by Pharaoh. The king would either have him executed, tortured or exiled, if found guilty, or simply set free, if found innocent. Therefore, when Yosef predicted that he would be reinstated, he did not take him seriously. After all, what does a slave know of the inner workings of Pharaoh’s court?

Anticipating this, Yosef incorporated it into his words
If only you will remember me with yourself when it shall be well with you.
By this, Yosef meant to say: “Do not be surprised at this unexpected interpretation; when it comes true, you will realize that, like you, I am innocent. And this will show that I was imprisoned through Hashem’s will. Furthermore, I am not by birth a slave, but am of the noble family of Avraham (well-known to the Egyptians). The only way I could have been sold as a slave was by kidnapping:
“Because I was surely stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing that they should have put me in the pit.”

Throughout, Yosef does not display any lack of faith; on the contrary, he sees the hand of Hashem in all that has befallen him. He is truly
the man who has made Hashem his trust.

Yosef’s error, however, lies in his words
and please show kindness to me (v.14).
Instead of stating, plainly and simply, that the cup-bearer will recognize himself too as an instrument of Divine Providence, Yosef asks him to do an act of kindness. By putting it this way, Yosef gives the impression that it will be the cup-bearer’s charity, and not Hashem’s will, that will free him. In this light, the two words, remember me . . . and mention me (ZECHARTANI . . . V’HIZKARTANI), change from being expressions of Yosef’s trust in Hashem to lapses in that trust. Of course, only someone at Yosef’s general level of faith in Hashem would be so severely punished for this transgression. The two words become two years added to Yosef’s captivity.

With just a subtle change of perspective, the events of Yosef’s life could be seen as natural, or as manifestations of Hashem’s intervention. Similarly, the events of the Chanukah story can be viewed as a series of stunning military victories. However, the House of the Maccabees did not see things that way; they attributed all their successes to Hashem. And the miracle of the oil demonstrated clearly that Hashem gave His approval to their achievements.

The events that shape our lives also show the hand of Hashem. We need, with the guidance of Torah leaders, to be able to see this and where Hashem is leading us.