Dreaming and Rising to the Top

Parshat Miketz

by Rabbi Avi Billet

“Strange as it seems there’s been a run of crazy dreams” sings the narrator in the musical about Joseph. And it seems that what is most needed is a dream interpreter. What a strange time to live in when people who are not prophets receive messages from the Master of the World that are, in their own way, prophetic.

 Rav Amnon Bazak wrote his analysis of the dreams of these parshas pointing out the stages of the dreams in what looks like a developing pattern.


 Yosef’s dreams: two dreams, one person, over two (not necessarily consecutive) evenings, no real “interpretation,” only a cynical response from his family.

 Imprisoned officers’ dreams: two dreams, two people, one evening, they can’t discern the interpretation but are sure there is one if only they can find someone to interpret.

 Pharaoh’s dreams: two dreams, one person, one evening, knows there’s an interpretation and actively seeks an interpreter.

 In every dream except Yosef’s first dream there is a specific number that is pointed out in the retelling. 11 stars, 3 vines, 3 baskets, 7 cows and 7 cows, 7 stalks and 7 stalks.

 In retrospect, the biggest challenge in each dream is figuring out what the numbers mean. Of course, our 20-20 hindsight makes all of us great dream interpreters, but the real question is, how did Yosef know what the numbers meant? The simple answer is that Yosef, being who he was in Potiphar’s prison, had access to information. He knew that there was to be a celebration of Pharaoh in three days because that was the word going around in the political prison in which he operated.

 Hearing two dreams that are relatively similar, that both have the number three in them, helped him put ‘three and three’ together to figure something was going to be shaking up in three days. The Chief Wine Pourer’s dream was that he was to give Pharaoh wine again. That’s easy enough to translate to real life. The Chief Baker’s dream was a little more troubling, but as he did not dream of serving the king again, it would seem the only other option was death. Perhaps at every birthday party Pharaoh gave pardons and executed some prisoners. Putting it all together gives us an easy inside view of Yosef’s perspective.

 Why would Yosef be so in tune to what was going on in the king’s court? Perhaps because Yosef knew something else. You see, no one had ever interpreted Yosef’s dreams for him. One indicated that his brothers might bow to him with respect to grain – but it had no numbers in it. The other had the sun, moon and 11 stars bowing to him. If we follow the logic of the other dreams, 11 should refer to a passage of time. In Yosef’s count, it has been eleven years since he had his dreams. Maybe after 11 years, he needed to interpret two dreams (one for someone whose destiny will reignite like the sun (or who will serve PhaRaoh – messenger of the sun), and for someone one whose destiny will wane and disappear like the moon). Or perhaps now he begins to understand that nothing can bow until 11 years have passed. Things are moving down below to allow for Yosef to get out of prison and be in a position to meet the “Sun” – PhaRAoh (Ra is the Egyptian sun-god). He has been waiting for this birthday celebration of Pharaoh, as he thinks his number will be called. His waiting another two years before being taken out of prison may have him rethink that perhaps the sun and moon also referred to years.

 And that is what changes his tune when he meets Pharaoh. Because now that 13 years have passed since his dreams, he knows that numbers in dreams can also mean years. Armed with this information, it’s only a quick glance at the dream that will provide its interpretation – 7 abundant years, followed by 7 years of starvation and famine that will eclipse the good years making them as if they never happened. And unlike the two dreams he had – which were similar but different, and unlike the two dreams of the officers which were similar but different, Yosef sees that Pharaoh’s two dreams are exactly the same, and therefore subject to one interpretation.

 Rabbi David Fohrman presents the case that the 7 plus 7 parallels the experience of Yaakov in the house of Lavan, working 7 full years to marry Rachel, and then working 7 empty years (because he already had done his part) to marry Rachel, since Lavan had sprung Leah onto him. Of course, if this is true, Yosef could have gathered the numbers of cows and grains to refer to years from his awareness of his family history.

 In any case, Yosef makes his mark, impresses the king, and is appointed to the position that will ultimately make his original dreams come true, in whatever manner they were supposed to be actualized.

 Yosef is a model of patience: he used his talents to become the favorite son, then fell into slavery. He used his talents to rise to the top as a servant, then fell in a conspiracy that doomed him to seeming life imprisonment. He used his talents to rise to the top in prison, even turning himself into a very important (albeit lapsed) memory in the mind of the Sar HaMashkim which eventually granted him an audience with the king. And, at first opportunity to converse with the king, he made such an impression that he literally moved from rags to riches, from powerless to most powerful in a matter of minutes.

 Yosef shows his preparedness to embrace a challenge head on, and to shift and adjust his life in a manner fitting with the needs of his times. While hopefully we don’t need to interpret dreams to catapult us forward, we should nonetheless be blessed to adapt and adjust to our circumstances so we can see success and enjoy wherever the stages of life bring us.