People used to say that there is no better school than the school of life. Like other popular sayings, this one also has an inner truth. Experience and aging can provide wisdom that is impossible to achieve in the best college or school in the world.

However, this popular saying can be true only if people believe that it really is. Let me explain myself. In order to get wisdom from life and from past experiences, first of all we must recognize the educational character of life and such experiences, and then, we need to reach the right conclusion about them. And of course, those are very difficult steps to do.

Some people we know about have had so many and complex experiences, that they have enough material to start a "Life Experience College". War, hunger, lost family, death and sickness, are only a few among many painful experiences that have the inner potential to bring a new insight to our life. Also positive experiences, like the miracle of life, recovering from a long illness, or a redemption from bondage, have the same potential.

However, only a few of these experiences have the ability to transform their painful or ecstatic feelings into meaningful insights for life.

A person who survived a war –for example- can focus either on the terrible loss he experienced or on the fact that he survived and the meaning of this fact. Some times, also negative feelings of anger, revenge, sadness and pain come before a complete spiritual recovery and are part of a normal inner process.

Nevertheless, people can not be judged based only on their first reaction to both painful and pleasant experiences. Some times, we need time to reach a spiritual change.

Regarding painful experiences we read in the Talmud (Berachot 5a):

Instead of blaming God, family, friends, society or the entire world, the sages tell us: focus on yourself, learn from the experience, draw right and positive conclusions, try to be better!

The beginning of our parasha, parashat Miketz, tells us: "It happened at the end of two years to the day" (Genesis 41:1). RaSHI, the great Torah commentator sees the need to link the obscure beginning of our parasha to the end of the previous one. He explained:

"Because Joseph depended on the Chamberlain of the Cupbearers to remember him it necessitated his remaining imprisoned for two years, as is stated: ‘Fortunate is the man who has made God his trust, and has not turned to the arrogant’ (Psalms 40:5)"

Life slapped Joseph again. Two more years in prison led Joseph to recognize God’s presence in his life, and when Pharaoh asked him to interpret his dreams, Joseph answered humbly: "That is beyond me; it is God Who will respond with Pharaoh’s welfare" (Genesis 41:16). The spoiled seventeen year old boy became an adult. Suffering and pain helped him understand that –despite his wisdom and intelligence- he was not the center of the Universe. He also understood that a painful experience could lead him to a position from which he could help other people.

In any event, in the next parasha Joseph kept growing spiritually and overcame these negative feelings.

We find that the Rabbinical literature calls Joseph by the nickname of "Joseph the righteous". Not because he had a perfect life, but because he kept working on himself. Not because of his painful experiences, but because he learned from them, not because he was without faults, but because he overcame them.

Life gives us every day –like Joseph- many opportunities to learn from it, and we can transform our experiences, both the painful and the ecstatic ones, into a spiritual way to approach God’s presence in life.