TorahParsha

What do Dreams Mean?

(For Parshat VaYeishev)

 

i

Joseph is his father’s favorite son

and his father gives him a special coat.

Joseph lives a charmed life.

*

At night Joseph dreams  

and his dreams imply that his brothers will bow to him.

But Joseph is taken into slavery

and from slavery to prison.

 

ii

In prison Joseph meets a cupbearer and a baker.

The cupbearer dreams

and Joseph says: your dream means that you will be a cupbearer again.

The baker dreams

and Joseph says: your dream means that you will be hanged.

*

And Joseph says: dream-interpretations are from God.

*
These predictions come true.

 

Pharaoh hears of Joseph’s dream-interpretation

and makes Joseph ruler over Egypt

and Joseph’s brothers do bow to him.

 

iii

In security Joseph thinks that dreams are promises,

But the promise never takes hold. 

 

Then Joseph sees  

that dreams are the signs of changing fortune:

—for good (a return to cupbearing), or for suffering (a hanging);

only God will say which.

 

Then dreams speak Truth through Joseph

and his dreams come true.

 

Because he has learned the heart of dreams, the core of Truth:

that life is changeable,

that God is the only Master of this tenuousness.

 

 

Inspired largely by Rabbi Alex Israel’s reading of Joseph, and other sources.

 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

For a printer-friendly version of this piece,  click here (word document).

 Please pray for the premature infants Kalev Ezra and Baer Yakov ben Emunah. Please continue to pray for  Achinoam Rina bat Avital Hodaya, Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther

 

 

Tamar, Judah, Joseph, Symbol

i
Joseph dreams prophetic dreams. His father dresses him in a special many-colored coat. His brothers hate him for his coat, these dreams.

Joseph's brothers attack him. They call him the dreamer. They  strip him of his coat. They cast him in a pit, from which he is sold into slavery.

*
Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law, reveals her identity (she had been disguised) by means of the cord, the staff, and the ring that Judah had given her when she was disguised.

*
Joseph becomes ruler of Egypt. He hides his identity from his brothers when he meets them again. He pretends not to speak the same language as they do: the translator is between them when they speak.

*
Finally it is Judah who approaches Joseph and causes Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers; and the brothers are reconciled.

ii
A symbol is meant to be a communication: it is meant to bind people together. A cord, staff, and ring, for instance, tells Judah that Tamar is Tamar.

Symbol can also overshadow its own meaning, making communication impossible, tearing people apart. It is language, for instance, that lets Joseph pretend he does not know his brothers.

And it is Judah, who has learned from Tamar, who approaches Joseph, who encounters Joseph face-to-face, who takes the veil of symbol away.

iii
This story holds in it the same lesson as Isaiah's chastisement to all religious hypocrites:

Bring Me no more vain offerings, says God; incense of abomination they are to Me: but cease to do evil, learn to do good: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Based partially on the writings of Avivah Zornberg, and on a teaching of the Ishbitzer relayed to me by Raquel Sanchez.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Beginning of Wisdom is the Fear of the Lord

i
Joseph, who interprets dreams, proclaims God as the source of his understanding of dreams.

Joseph says: Do not interpretations belong to God?

*
The Pharaoh of Joseph's day says to him: Since God has made all of this known to you, there is none so...wise as you.


ii
Later, a new Pharaoh arises. That Pharaoh did not know Joseph . That Pharaoh also says: I know not the Lord.

That Pharaoh enslaves the Children of Israel, announcing: Come, let us deal wisely.


iii
Joseph's wisdom comes from knowing God.

The Pharaoh who enslaves the Children of Israel is also wise. His wisdom comes from refusing to know God.

One wisdom is good. The other is evil.


iv
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, King Solomon said--setting a clear pathway for us; setting a clear way to choose between Pharaoh and Joseph.

Based largely on Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen's lectures on the Book of Mishlei. To hear Rabbi Rosen's lectures, go to www.kimitzion.org

~~~~~

 

In God’s History Lies Forgiveness

i
Joseph’s brothers cast him down into a pit. From there he is stolen and sold into slavery in Egypt. In Egypt he is sentenced for a crime he does not commit. He lives in prison.

Later, in a twist of fate, Joseph becomes ruler over all of Egypt.

*
As ruler over Egypt, Joseph sustains his brothers, and his father, and all the people of that land through seven lean years of brutal famine.

ii
Later, Joseph forgives his brothers; though they have caused him suffering.

Joseph says to them: You …thought evil against me; but God meant it for good: to bring it to pass… this day that many people should be saved alive.

iii
Joseph looks at the world and does not see the world.

Joseph looks at the world and sees God’s will, revealing itself through the world.

Joseph looks at his brothers but does not see his brothers. He sees emissaries of God’s will.

You …thought evil against me, Joseph says to his brothers: but God meant it for good.

*
And so Joseph’s own suffering cannot cripple him.

And so though Joseph has suffered, he can forgive.

~~~~~

Dreams, Clothes

i
When Joseph is young, in his father's house, and he dreams and tells his brothers and father of these dreams, Joseph's father gives him a special coat.

Later, Joseph is sent to interpret Pharaoh's dream. Joseph changed his garments to prepare for the dream-meeting. And after Joseph delivers his interpretation, Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.

Dreams and clothes come together.

ii
Dreams and clothes both come from the world of symbol.

Dreams are meanings waiting to be deciphered. Clothes are patches of cloth that signify (think of fashion).

Clothing is a symbol in the external world. Dreams are a symbol in the internal world.

*
If clothes and dreams are linked, then they are two parts of a whole.

iii
Now think of tzitzit.

You must put tzitzit—specially-tied strings—on your clothes. They are a reminder to follow God, and to not follow after your heart and after your eyes, after which you stray.

Your inner world and your outer world are joined. Your eyes and your heart come together.

Just as your clothes and your dreams come together.

*
If the outer world and the inner world are joined, the tzitzit say, then the external life must guide the inner life: the heart and the eyes guided by the stringing of cloth.

You must shape the realm of cloth to guide the space where dreams live.