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Dreams, interpretations, and outlook
Yosef is both a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams – these traits make him both a victim and a hero. I’d like to take a closer look at the process of victimization and Yosef’s dreams.
He wakes up one morning and tells his brothers (Bereishit 37:5) that he had a dream. “Meh,” they say. They have to go to work. Who has time for dreams? They make their resentment clear but he, for one reason or another, perseveres. He insists, “Come on guys, can’t I just tell you? Huh? Huh?” And before they say anything, he launches into his dream.
“So there’s this grain,” he starts. And he continues describing sheaves of grain and how some of the grain bowed to one chunk of grain. He offers no explanation.
The commentators spend much time discussing this dream, explaining allusions and symbolism, fleshing out the events in it and interpreting it many lights. But a few questions remain, the primary one being “Why didn’t the brothers ignore this dream?”
Here are a couple of interesting details:
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The brothers in the dream do not bow. Their wheat does. Wheat, in the real world, rarely bows. This was a dream – something strange and not found in the world happened so why not ignore it?
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Joseph never drew any conclusions from this! The man later defined by his interpreting skill was taken to task by his brothers because of what THEY saw in the dream!
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The dream was clearly not a reflection of reality as it depicted an agrarian scene but Joseph and his brothers (as attested to in pasuk 2) were shepherds.
Let’s start with the last one as it is the most troubling to me. If a dream has some connection to reality, then I can see being troubled by it. Tomorrow I leave on a plane. Tonight I dream of a plane. I figure my dream is connected to events in my life. But if I have no plans to fly and I dream of a plane, I discount it as being triggered by some other plane reference that isn’t really important to me. The brothers knew that they weren’t farmers. Yosef’s dream should have been dismissed as the result of spicy food before bed time. But let’s then assume that they thought that it had validity even though it was unconnected to who they were – they immediately interpret (remember, they, not Yosef did this) as pointing to his rulership over them. But they never bowed! Their wheat did. Couldn’t this just as easily have meant that some product of Yosef’s will be superior to a product of theirs, or that his skill or material possessions would outstrip theirs, and their abilities or goods (as symbolized by the grain) would look “lower” by comparison?
But the brothers jump to what they jump to and make their accusations. But if Hashem wanted them to get the picture that he was destined to (or wanted to) rule over them, why wasn’t the first dream something more clearly reflective of that future? Even the second dream (which is again, not interpreted by Yosef, but by his father) does not make it clear who or what are represented by the various celestial objects! But his father saw it as he saw it and was mindful of this dream.
I think that these dreams teach an important lesson about how we project our own ideas on other things and find what we are looking for, and this creates a new reality for us. Maybe, had the brothers discounted the dream and not let it affect their feelings toward Yosef, or had then seen it as foretelling a different scenario, and not acted so jealously, things could have unfolded differently. Had they let Yosef explain it or even protest that he didn’t understand it, maybe they could have developed a more charitable attitude towards him. Maybe, if Ya’akov has explained the dream as something else or discounted it, seeing that Yosef was making no attempt to do anything other than ask for help in understanding what he could not control, the brothers might not have had the flames of their resentment fanned. Hashem gives us choices and chances to see the best in people and situations and not the worst. If we look for how things can send us positive messages, maybe we can avoid substantial negative outcomes.
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