Vayeshev – Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

I had a disturbing dream the other night.  Upon awaking, I thought it best not to share the details with my wife.  Why upset her (too)?  As the Mussar giant Reb Israel Salanter said,

Not everything you think should be expressed, not everything you say should be written. Not everything you write should be printed.

לא כל מה שחושבים יש להביע לא כל מה שמביעים יש לכתבו. לא כל מה שכותבים יש להדפיס

At least one scientist has cautioned us not to share the contents of our dreams with others.  Professor Jim Davies writes that “most dreams are negative” [anyway], and uniquely emotional to the dreamer in ways that cannot be appreciated by others.^[1]  His conclusion (which is also the subtitle of his article) is that dreams “are really meaningful to you but not to anybody else.”

Not everyone agrees.  Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung created a cottage industry out of dream interpretations.  They, of course, were not the first to see that dreams were a window into the soul.  Millennia of classical Jewish thought has taught us that dreams are God’s way of giving us a cloudy glimpse into the possible.

Joseph did not have the benefit of reading Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams”.  Nor did he have the ability to google “should I tell my estranged bothers about my amazing dreams”.  Still, he surely should have known that revealing his egocentric dreams would not endear him to his brothers.  After all, they already detested him, as the Torah notes:

And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, so they hated him, and they could not speak with him peacefully.

וַיִּרְא֣וּ אֶחָ֗יו כִּֽי־אֹת֞וֹ אָהַ֤ב אֲבִיהֶם֙ מִכָּל־אֶחָ֔יו וַיִּשְׂנְא֖וּ אֹת֑וֹ וְלֹ֥א יָֽכְל֖וּ דַּבְּר֥וֹ לְשָׁלֹֽם:

Rashi comments that to their credit, the brothers were not two-faced; they didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t pretend to like Joseph.  I’m not so sure that it is indeed preferable to show one’s contempt but, in any event, this open hostility does add nuance to our question.  Why did Yoseph poke them with dreams that implied that he – the youngest (except for Benyamin) – would lord over them.  Could he have possibly envisioned a different reaction from the one he got:

So his brothers said to him, “Will you reign over us, or will you govern us?” And they continued further to hate him on account of his dreams and on account of his words.

וַיֹּ֤אמְרוּ לוֹ֙ אֶחָ֔יו הֲמָלֹ֤ךְ תִּמְלֹךְ֙ עָלֵ֔ינוּ אִם־מָשׁ֥וֹל תִּמְשֹׁ֖ל בָּ֑נוּ וַיּוֹסִ֤פוּ עוֹד֙ שְׂנֹ֣א אֹת֔וֹ עַל־חֲלֹֽמֹתָ֖יו

Moreover, having antagonized them with his smug dreams, why in the world did Yoseph not learn from his mistake?  Instead, he compounded the mistake soon afterwards:

And he again dreamed another dream, and he related it to his brothers, and he said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream, and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were prostrating themselves to me	וַיַּֽחֲלֹ֥ם עוֹד֙ חֲל֣וֹם אַחֵ֔ר וַיְסַפֵּ֥ר אֹת֖וֹ לְאֶחָ֑יו וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הִנֵּ֨ה חָלַ֤מְתִּי חֲלוֹם֙ ע֔וֹד וְהִנֵּ֧ה הַשֶּׁ֣מֶשׁ וְהַיָּרֵ֗חַ וְאַחַ֤ד עָשָׂר֙ כּֽוֹכָבִ֔ים מִשְׁתַּֽחֲוִ֖ים לִֽי:
And he told [it] to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will we come I, your mother, and your brothers to prostrate ourselves to you to the ground?”	וַיְסַפֵּ֣ר אֶל־אָבִיו֘ וְאֶל־אֶחָיו֒ וַיִּגְעַר־בּ֣וֹ אָבִ֔יו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ מָ֛ה הַֽחֲל֥וֹם הַזֶּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר חָלָ֑מְתָּ הֲב֣וֹא נָב֗וֹא אֲנִי֙ וְאִמְּךָ֣ וְאַחֶ֔יךָ לְהִשְׁתַּֽחֲו֥‍ֹת לְךָ֖ אָֽרְצָה

An answer is offered by the Sforno.  A few verses earlier the Torah describes Yoseph as the seventeen-year-old shepheard, but in addition to giving us his chronological age, Yoseph is also described as a נַ֗עַר, a lad.  This leads the Sforno to teach us that Yoseph was a bit of a tattle-tale and braggart:

He ‘erred’ due to his being still an adolescent, not as mature as he should have been or as his intellect made him appear to be.

ומפני נערותו חטא להביא דבת אחיו כי לא נסה ולא התבונן לאחרית דבר אף על פי שהיה אז משכיל מאד ושהיה אחר כך מורה לזקני הדור

Sforno notes that Yoseph demonstrated immaturity by relating his dreams to his brothers.  Sforno applies the concept known as Occam’s Razor – the simplest solution tends to be the right one.  He may have been smart, but Yospeh was a smart aleck.

The Or HaChayim takes a 180 degree turn and posits that Yoseph’s intention was not the product of youthful indiscretion but rather great maturity in that he wanted לקרב הלבבות יחד, to draw his brothers’ hearts nearer to him.

How did he intend to accomplish this?  The Or HaChayim notes a famous gemarah (Berachot 55b) that teaches that

All dreams follow the mouth (their interpretation)

כל החלומות הולכים אחר הפה

Dreams, according to the Talmud, become prophetically ‘true’ only when they are articulated, interpreted, understood and embraced.  To drive this point home, the Talmud there teaches us that there are twenty-four possible outcomes of a dream, each one as viable and ‘correct’ as the next.  There is a “Heisenberg uncertainty” quality to a dream.

In other words, dreams are not prose or even poetry.  They are neither indiscriminate firings of neurons nor the mind’s attempt to make sense of yesterday.  Rather, dreams are the paints and brushes placed into the hands of an artists.  The interpreter traces, sketches and engraves his portrait using the raw materials supplied by the dreamer.  His finished canvas is as different as the self-portraits of Rembrandt and Picasso.

Yoseph was a gifted artist with many talents, the greatest of which was the ability to glimpse the possible.  He desperately wanted to paint a beautiful, loving, mosaic for his brothers.  In fact, knowing that they were predisposed to seeing only ugliness in him, Yoseph literally begs them to listen to him:

So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם שִׁמְעוּ נָא הַחֲלוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר חָלָמְתִּי

We are not told how Yoseph would have interpreted his own dreams to assuage his brothers’ contempt for him because they cut him off and quickly offered their own interpretation.  This had the effect of cementing the dream’s outcome and thus turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy:

So his brothers said to him, “Will you reign over us, or will you govern us?” And they continued further to hate him on account of his dreams and on account of his words.

וַיֹּ֤אמְרוּ לוֹ֙ אֶחָ֔יו הֲמָלֹ֤ךְ תִּמְלֹךְ֙ עָלֵ֔ינוּ אִם־מָשׁ֥וֹל תִּמְשֹׁ֖ל בָּ֑נוּ וַיּוֹסִ֤פוּ עוֹד֙ שְׂנֹ֣א אֹת֔וֹ עַל־חֲלֹֽמֹתָ֖יו וְעַל־דְּבָרָֽיו:

Yoseph tried yet again with another dream, hoping to offer an interpretation that would be pleasing and healing.  Unfortunately, the brothers were not any more receptive this time around, and the die was cast.

Some years later, while sitting in a dark prison cell, Yospeh is once again afforded the opportunity to interpret dreams.  Yoseph again begs that he be allowed to interpret the dream and thus set the future events in motion (Breishit 40:8):

Joseph said to them [Pharaoh’s imprisoned baker and cup-bearer], “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell [them] to me now.”

וַיֹּֽאמְר֣וּ אֵלָ֔יו חֲל֣וֹם חָלַ֔מְנוּ וּפֹתֵ֖ר אֵ֣ין אֹת֑וֹ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֜ם יוֹסֵ֗ף הֲל֤וֹא לֵֽאלֹהִים֙ פִּתְרֹנִ֔ים סַפְּרוּ־נָ֖א לִֽי:

But time has clearly taken its toll on him and Yoseph has matured enough to admit out loud that any talent he may have is a gift from God.  With this combination of self-assurance and humility, the fellow prisoners – and later Pharaoh – are willing to hear him out.

Shabbat Shalom!

[1] See, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/why-you-shouldnt-tell-people-about-your-dreams/