(14) Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes, and he appeared before Pharaoh. (15) And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it. Now I have heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning.” (16) Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “Not I! God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare.” (17) Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile, (18) when out of the Nile came up seven sturdy and well-formed cows and grazed in the reed grass. (19) Presently there followed them seven other cows, scrawny, ill-formed, and emaciated—never had I seen their likes for ugliness in all the land of Egypt! (20) And the seven lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven cows, the sturdy ones; (21) but when they had consumed them, one could not tell that they had consumed them, for they looked just as bad as before. And I awoke. (22) In my other dream, I saw seven ears of grain, full and healthy, growing on a single stalk; (23) but right behind them sprouted seven ears, shriveled, thin, and scorched by the east wind. (24) And the thin ears swallowed the seven healthy ears. I have told my magicians, but none has an explanation for me.”

(25) And Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same: God has told Pharaoh what He is about to do. (26) The seven healthy cows are seven years, and the seven healthy ears are seven years; it is the same dream. (27) The seven lean and ugly cows that followed are seven years, as are also the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind; they are seven years of famine. (28) It is just as I have told Pharaoh: God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do. (29) Immediately ahead are seven years of great abundance in all the land of Egypt. (30) After them will come seven years of famine, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. As the land is ravaged by famine, (31) no trace of the abundance will be left in the land because of the famine thereafter, for it will be very severe. (32) As for Pharaoh having had the same dream twice, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and that God will soon carry it out.

(33) “Accordingly, let Pharaoh find a man of discernment and wisdom, and set him over the land of Egypt. (34) And let Pharaoh take steps to appoint overseers over the land, and organize the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty. (35) Let all the food of these good years that are coming be gathered, and let the grain be collected under Pharaoh’s authority as food to be stored in the cities. (36) Let that food be a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will come upon the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine.” (37) The plan pleased Pharaoh and all his court iers. (38) And Pharaoh said to his courtiers, “Could we find another like him, a man in whom is the spirit of God?”

When God began to create heaven and earth— the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water— God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

So that they may know, from east to west,That there is none but Me.I am the LORD and there is none else, I form light and create darkness,I make weal and create woe—I the LORD do all these things.

And to the darkness, He called night: The Sages, of blessed memory, explained in the beginning of Tractate Pesachim, that the Holy One, blessed be He, called to darkness and appointed it over the night. [By this,] our Rabbis taught us that we should not say that darkness is only the absence of light, like when - in the middle of the day - we close the windows, it becomes dark. For, if so, it would not be a creation. But in truth, darkness is a creation, on its own as well, as it is written (Isaiah 45:7), "and created the darkness." And it is great distortion to say that darkness is only the absence of light. But rather, God makes both of them, just as He concerns Himself over holiness and impurity. (And see what I have written later, Genesis 27:9.) And to the question, "what does this creation help, behold, even without [its] creation, there would be darkness in the absence of light?," the Sages, of blessed memory, have taught us (in the chapter "Chelek" and in Bereshit Rabbah, Parshat Noach and in the Talmud Yerushalmi in the first chapter) that the light of a fire does not shine during the day in a dark place, [with the same brightness] as it does at night when darkness reigns. And from this, lofty people were able to know while they were sitting in the dark, when it was day and when it was night - in which darkness rules. And as it is with the light and darkness of day and night, so too is it thus with all things that are compared to light and darkness; since there are many bounties that man does not feel so much when he is successful, until he becomes poor and he sees the bounty [that he once had]. And [He], may He be blessed, implanted this into His world. And it was evening and it was morning: The explanation is that at the time that it was evening here, it was morning in another place on the face of the earth (Ba'al HaMeor, Tractate Rosh Hashanah, Chapter 1).

The Sages taught: When Adam the firstsaw that the day was progressively diminishing, he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven, as it is written: “And to dust shall you return” (Genesis 3:19). He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer.Once he saw that the season of Tevet, (i.e., the winter solstice, had arrived), and saw that the day was progressively lengthening , he said: this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observedtheseand these eight days, as days of festivities. He,established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they, the gentiles of later generations, established them for the sake of idol worship.