In the end of this week’s parasha, as Yoseif sits in jail in Egypt, God’s divine guidance develops an opportunity for him to attain his release. Par'oh's butler and baker and jailed together with Yoseif, and they each dream a strange dream. Yoseif interprets the dream of the butler to mean that the butler will be freed in three days’ time; this comes true, and sometime after the butler is released, he tells Par'oh of Yoseif’s skills, and Yoseif himself is released. As for the baker, his fate is not quite as positive. Yoseif interprets his dream to mean that he will be killed in three days, and that too comes true.
The Meshech Chochmah asks an intriguing question: we understand perfectly well why God directed events to be such that the butler would be jailed, for if he weren’t, Yoseif would not have been freed later on. However, why was it important that the baker, too, be jailed (or at least, why do we have to hear about it in the pesukim)? What does he add to the story? Wouldn’t Yoseif have been freed by the butler’s account to Par'oh anyway?
The Meshech Chochmah responds by explaining that had the baker not been there, Yoseif would have only interpreted one dream – the butler’s – and that interpretation would have been a positive one. The butler would have thought that Yoseif was giving him a positive interpretation simply to lift his spirits, and he would not have been convinced of Yoseif's abilities as an interpreter of dreams. Therefore, when Par'oh was later looking for someone to interpret his own dreams, the butler would not have thought to mention Yoseif. It was only because the butler saw the negative interpretation given to the baker that he knew Yoseif was speaking the truth and not simply trying to comfort them. Thus, when both interpretations came true, he felt confident recommending Yoseif's services to Par'oh, thus securing Yoseif's release.