Yosef's Dreams

This Dvar Torah Is Dedicated 

By Mendy and Ita Klein
In honor of Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz, for the continued inspiration you provide for us all 

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In this week's parsha, Vayeshev, Yosef has two dreams, and he shares them with his brothers. In the first dream, "We were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, when my sheaf stood up and remained upright, then your sheaves formed a circle around my sheaf and prostrated themselves before it." In the second dream, "The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were prostrating themselves before me."

The dreams seem to be conveying the same message. Why does the Torah tell us both dreams if they are the same? The major difference between them, is that the second dream has the addition of the sun and the moon, representing Yaakov and Bilha. Meaning, not only would the 11 brothers bow to Yosef, but Yaakov and Bilha as well. This point didn't need a second dream, it could have been all included in one dream.

In parshas Mikeitz, Pharoah has two dreams, in the first cows came out of the river, and in the second, there were ears of grain growing from a stalk. They seem the same as well. However, when Yosef interprets the dreams, he explains why the dream is repeated, because "G-d is hurrying to carry it out." But by Yosef's dreams there is no such explanation.

We must conclude that there is something new in the second dream. What are the lessons found in these dreams?

Yosef's dreams are a lesson to us, on how to serve Hashem.

The first lessons are found in the differences between Yosef's and Pharaoh's dreams.

Pharoah first dreams about cows and then about grain. In Torah all physical existence is divided into 4 categories. The lowest is domem, inanimate objects, like rocks and sand. Above that is tzomeach, the vegetative domain, things that grow, like trees, grass, vegetables and grain. Above that is chai, living things, like animals. And the highest of the four is medaber, those who have conversation, people.

Both of Pharaoh's dreams happen on earth. The first was about cows, animals, and second went down a notch, about grain, vegetation. It is the way of the impure to go down to lower and lower levels.

Yosef's first dream was on earth, his second was up in the celestial sphere. Reminiscent of Yaakov's dream, where "the ladder was on the ground and its top reached the heavens." Because a Jew must always seek to go higher and beyond the level that he was on.

The two dreams convey the same idea, but one is on earth symbolizing the physical, and the other in the celestial sphere symbolizing the spiritual. Meaning, that we should make the physical and spiritual the same. How do we do this? By filling our physical lives with so much spiritual, that our physical becomes like spiritual.

In Pharaoh's dreams, he is not doing anything. In Yosef's first dream, he and his brothers were working in the field. Because holiness can only be attained through work and effort. There is no free lunch, no bread of shame. Only after the work, do they reach the higher levels in his second dream.

Now that we understand the general aspects of the dreams, let's take a look at some of the details.

In Yosef's first dream the are on earth, in the field, symbolizing chaos and fragmentation, as it says, "Eisav was a man of the field," Eisav was the epitome of chaos and this world is a place of chaos and fragmentation. Every stalk in the field is separate, coming out of its own personal spot of earth.

Our job is to make bundles out of the separate stalks, to make unity of the fragmentation. Meaning, the G-dly soul comes down into the body and animal soul. The nature of the body and the animal soul is to go their own way, following any base pleasure that suits them at the moment, in other words, chaos and fragmentation. Our job is to unite them to follow Hashem's will.

The next thing that happens, is that they bow to Yosef. Yosef is the Tzadik of the generation, like the head that controls the entire body. Our obligation is to bow to the Tzadik, meaning, to take direction from him and to follow his lead.

The problem is that after all this work. We still find ourselves in the field, in the physical. We need to attain a spiritual state. Not to go out of the physical, but to make our physical spiritual. That is the meaning of the second dream. The second dream is up in the celestial sphere, when we reach a high spiritual state.

One might think, "I have reached such a high spiritual state, do I still need to follow the Tzadik?" The answer is that "The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were prostrating themselves before me," before Yosef the Tzadik. Even the person who has attained the highest levels of spirituality, has to follow the direction of the Tzadik.

This work of uniting the fragments and a making our physical into spiritual is not as difficult as you might think. For starters, each of us are called "children of kings," and sometimes we are called "kings," meaning that just like a king and a prince are not required to do work, even the smallest amount of effort they do is considered tremendous. Even more, the Talmud tells us "if you will toil you will find." it doesn't say that "you will succeed," rather, that "you will find." When you say "you will find," it means that you get something unexpected, because when we put in the effort, Hashem gives us much more than the effort we put in. So our little effort goes a long way.

We can all do this with a little bit of effort, and if we do, we will be well along the way to bringing Moshiach. May he come soon.