MIKETS_GENESIS XLI – XLIV,17

Yosef’s skills and charms had served him well in Egypt, but at the same time, they created enormous difficulties for him. Potiphar had acquired him from the merchants who brought it to the country and Potiphar entrusted him with the management of his home. Everything was going well until Potiphar’s wife felt insulted because Yosef did not respond to her love advances. Yosef ends up imprisoned, but again, thanks to his talents and charming personality, obtains a position of privilege. Along with him, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and pastry chef are imprisoned. Both dream and Yosef offer to interpret their dreams, according to the instructions he receives from God. Yosef’s explanations are correct, because as he predicted, the pastry chef is executed, and the cupbearer is returned to his duties in the royal palace.

Our reading also begins with dreams. This time it is Pharaoh who dreams that Sheva parot, “seven cows,”Yefot mar’eh uveri’ot basar, “beautiful insight and of healthy flesh,” emerge from the river. But then seven additional cows come out from the river, and the latter are Ra’ot mar’eh vedakot basar, “they have a bad appearance and are scarce of meat.” The skinny cows eat the fat cows, remain thin, and Pharaoh wakes up. Pharaoh sleeps again and dreams now that Sheva shibolim, “seven reed ears” healthy and nice-looking come out of the same reed. And suddenly seven additional spikes sprout “thin and shaken by an eastern wind.” The thin spikes swallow the good ones, and Pharaoh wakes up from his sleep. 

At dawn, Pharaoh calls his astrologers and counselors, but no one can explain the meaning of his dreams. Enter the scene the cupbearer, who says to Pharaoh: Et chata’ai ani mazkir hayom, “I mention my mistakes today.” Being in prison purging my faults, the cupbearer continues, I met a young Hebrew man who correctly interpreted the dreams of the pastry chef and mine. The cupbearer suggests that Yosef be consulted on Pharaoh’s dreams.

Pharaoh’s needs bring about a radical change in Yosef’s fate, he is released from the catacombs of prison and presented to the Court. Pharaoh repeats the content of his dreams, adding details that Yosef will try to interpret, pointing first out that it is God who will respond with peace for his majesty. The seven fat cows and the seven skinny cows herald seven years of abundance followed by seven years of scarcity, Yosef says. The repetition of sleep implies that it is urgent to take measures to avoid the negative economic consequences of the period of scarcity. For, according to Pharaoh’s dream, it was noticeable that the body of the skinny cows remained equally malnourished even after they had eaten the fat cows. This indicates that the seven years of poverty would be so intense that the previous abundance would be forgotten. 

Pharaoh concludes that Yosef is the most competent person in his environment. He appoints him great administrator of the kingdom, and Yosef proceeds to store enough food during the time of abundance which will allow them to survive during the seven years of famine that will surely follow.

It is clear now that dreams occupy an important place in the biblical narrative, beginning with Yaacov and culminating with Pharaoh. For the Bible, dreaming is not an inconsequential phenomenon. Dreams are carriers of important messages and therefore it is necessary to study them and strive to understand them. The deceased Israeli Mizrachi activist, Baruch Duvdevani, used to point to the following interesting interpretation. The image of the dream also appears, for example, in Psalm CXXVI, “… beshuv HaShem et shivat Tsiyon“… “when God brought back those who returned to Tsiyon; “hayinu kecholmim“we were like those who dream”.

At first glance, according to Duvdevani, the expression of the Psalm does not seem to be the most appropriate. Perhaps it would be right for us to be regarded as dreamers before our return to Zion. However, once in the ancestral land, we should be qualified as overcomers, as those who achieved their purpose. The word dreamer does not seem to be the most appropriate for the desired description. For now, let us leave this point unfinished, to return to our biblical account.

It is remarkable that, in the early chapters of the Torah, our ancestors, Yaacov and Yosef dream, and then the Egyptians: the pastry chef, the cupbearer, and the Pharaoh dream. The ability to dream is possessed both by our people and the Egyptians. This fact has to do, perhaps, with the very nature of dreams. Dreams are authentic manifestations of our will and deep desires, messages from the unconscious that for some reason we do not dare, do not allow ourselves, or are unable to verbalize in a conscious state. By sleeping, we overcome inhibitions and our imagination is left in total freedom to express the deepest and most genuine longings and ambitions. 

On many occasions, we do not understand the message of dreams, because the language of dreams is symbolic. We turn to experts to translate the images of dreams into terms that are understandable to us, just as Yosef does for the Pharaoh. And if dreams are the manifestation of what we really want, without any restraint, we could conclude that one dreams only when one is in a safe place, it is propitious to do so, and this happens in one’s own house and on one’s own land. Therefore, the Hebrews dream in Canaan. But in Egypt, only Egyptians dream. Moreover, in Egypt, the Hebrews must be attentive to the desires and whims of their hosts. In Egypt, the Hebrews must know how to “interpret” the currents and direction of the leadership of the society that surrounds them. In some else’s land one “stops dreaming” and must be realistic and sensitive to the meaning and scope of the dreams of others.

Perhaps this is also the meaning of the image used by the psalmist in the chapter cited. We will be like dreamers when we return to Tsiyon because only in Tsiyon can the Jew express himself freely and, therefore, dream. Only in Tsiyon can the Jew afford to loosen the reins of his inhibitions and allow his legitimate longings and desires to flourish. Only in Tsiyon can the Jew develop and concretize his cultural and spiritual talents and thus make a more significant contribution to the progress of humanity.

We are witnessing the extraordinary revival of the Hebrew language and varied and fruitful literature in this language. Cultural activity in Israel, which can be measured by the massive attendance at concerts and theaters, by the number of readers of newspapers, magazines, and books – shows that it is one of the most vibrant and intense in the world.

Simultaneously, intellectual creativity in the field of Judaic studies is unparalleled in history. The number of Yeshivot and universities engaged in the investigation of sacred texts and a better and broader understanding of our past has multiplied. This, and much more, happens because Beshuv HaShem et shivat Tsiyon, hayinu kecholmim, because by returning to ancestral land, we can again dream and give free expression to our creative concerns in Torah, in the arts and in culture, and in the acquisition of knowledge.