Shabbos Parashas Vayeishev - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Vayeishev - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

And he said, "Look, I dreamed another dream: Behold, the sun, the moon, and

eleven stars were bowing to me." [Bereishis 37:9]

Over the next few chapters, Yosef is involved in six strange dreams. This week we read

the first four, two involving Yaakov and the family. But do they make sense? What is a

dream?

The timing of these dreams is significant. Binyamin was just born, and Rachel just died. If

the sun and moon refer to Yosef's parents, how could Rachel bow down to her son? The Gemora

in Berachos [55b] explains that this is the source for the understanding that all dreams contain

some portion of craziness or inaccuracy. Yaakov himself pointed out this issue, but in the end,

Yaakov [37:11] "kept the matter in mind", which according to Radak means that Yaakov was

worried about what the dream may be predicting. Rashi sees Yaakov's hesitation as an

understanding that the moon in the dream applied to Bilhah, who raise Yosef after Rachel's

death, thus the dream might actually be feasible after all. Ramban disputes this, and believes

that both Zilpah and Bilhah had passed on by this time. Further, Ramban notes that all eleven

brothers bowed down to Yosef prior to Yaakov's arrival in Egypt, thus there were inaccuracies

in many areas of the dreams.

Rav Kook separates dreams from prophecy. He says that what a prophet prophecizes must

come true. But, dreams show what may happen, or what should happen, as well as what will

happen. Sometimes it is within our power to take a dream as a wake-up call, correct our ways,

and the consequences in the dream will not come about. Sometimes a person will not listen

to the dream, and miss a chance to make happen whatever it contained.

Malbim notes that the word describing Yosef's action in relating his dreams to his father and

brothers changes between his two dreams. In the first, it is va'yageid [37:5], and in the second

[37:9] it is va'yisapeir. The first, to tell, means to supply information of importance to the listener.

Yosef was letting his brothers know that their sheaves were supposed to bow to his. The

second, to relate, means to tell over a story of interest, but not necessarily relevant to the

listener. This approach gets us around the 'inaccuracy' regarding the earlier death of Rachel.

Talelei Oros asks how Rashi and the Sages of the Gemora could make the jump from there

being some inaccuracies in this dream to deriving that all dreams have inaccuracies. Yosef

could have left some details out when he retold his dreams, and avoided the problem

entirely. But Yosef knew that in fact dreams do have inaccuracies, and he knew that his

father was also aware of this. Had he left these things out, Yaakov would have been able to

tell that the dream relations were incomplete, and the entire story would have come out quite

differently.

Rav Kook adds that "this is due to the very nature of dreams. All dreams originate from our

imaginative and emotional faculties. As a result they are subject to exaggeration and nonsensical

elements. Even prophetic dreams may contain details that do not correspond to reality. This is

because the truth contained in a prophetic dream relates to the general reality of what should

happen."

Dreams serve a purpose, but interpreting them is no simple task.