Ari Goldwag - Mikeitz - Dreams and Chanukah

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Gold Wegg recorded with a gems never-ending assistance and remapping shamash Israel 2017 this week's parsha is parshas me Cates and I'd like to share with you some thoughts we always have partials make it's the story of Yosef always coincides with the holiday of Hanukkah so I'd like to make a bit of a connection try to understand what is the message of the story of Yosef what's the depth that's going on here and how does that relate to the idea of Hanukkah or the depth of the message of Hanukkah also I'm very excited about the fact that I just got a Hanukkah present of this beautiful set of meddra shhhhhh excuse me sorry about that brand-new my parents got it for me with many more fortune lots of commentaries so hopefully it will add to our depth of understanding as well okay I'd like to share with you a mesh I want to focus in on the fact that we have in this story something really interesting it's it's just it pulls us into the story the fact that there are all these dreams you know say if Himself has the dreams at the beginning of the story and he has those two dreams with with his brothers bowing down to him the sheaves and the stars some of them one of the stars and then we have the dreams at the end of last week's parsha the Tsar mushki and sorrowful the the one who was in charge of the bread of Paro Pharaoh and when I was in charge of the wine the cup bearer of Pharaoh so they had their dreams and then in this week's partially we have Pyro's dreams and each of their dreams contains symbolism and needs explanation and Yosef his has this amazing gift that he's able to understand the symbolism of dreams and he's able to understand the message which is coming down from a higher sphere to the particular individual who has the dream and it's interesting because to all of us I believe you know I've myself as I mentioned in my say from my book so I've had dreams that actually were clearly significant I had dream once about my to villain melting and and that happily happened I had a dream once and then a few months later I had the dream again and then that up getting my tefillin checked and indeed the letters inside of my tool and had melted so this is something that goes on I experienced it myself perhaps many of you have as well that we can get messages from a higher realm in our dreams sometimes it has to do with who we're supposed to be or sometimes it's our subconscious mind giving us a vote of confidence whatever it is we have dreams and the dreams sometimes are significant sometimes they're not but certainly in the story of Yosef we see that they are significant now I'd like to share with you as a metrics that speaks about the concept of dreams and the idea that depending on the way a dream is interpreted that will actually affect how the dream manifests so this is a significant idea and and I'd like to understand I'd like to understand the idea I can understand how it applies to us perhaps or what's the idea in the context how it can connect the hanukkah let's see - apparently I if darlin so the so power at the beginning of our of our parsha has these two dreams and he's very disturbed by the dreams the fat cows and the skinny cows and the skinny cows swallow up the fat cows and the same thing with the wheat and there are seven of them etc he doesn't know what the symbolism is we all know because we've heard the story so many times but power didn't know and he was very very disturbed by the dream and the Tsar ham asked him who had been in jail with Joseph and Joseph had interpreted history in two years previous so he remembered he remembered Yosef and the interpretations that were correct that Yosef gave and he wanted to you know bring this opportunity to Paro to Pharaoh to be able to have someone interpret in his dreams interesting that the measure says that the Tsar mojgan wasn't like so altruistic here he was concerned that if Paro if something would happend to power he was so disturbed maybe he would die or something what happened to him and he would end up being replaced by a different pharaoh who may or may not hold him in esteem he may lose his job so he wasn't really concerned with Faro so much or are you for sure not with the Oh safe with Joseph but he was concerned about himself that's just an interesting side point but in telling over the jury and in telling over the fact that he had had these dreams and that you know Steve had an interpreter the dream so the Serra mush game gave the opportunity for Pharaoh to bring power out to bring I'm sorry to bring yo safe out of the jail and in so doing you know safe at the opportunity to explain the dream he did indeed explain it properly and he was appointed to be the second-in-command only to Pharaoh as the new leader of the the really the world at the time because Egypt was the greatest power at the time similar to what America is today so now Vanessa Birla Victor Olano so he told yo safe he told power about yo save sorry that he had translated and explained the dreams that he Sarah Mushka Matt had along with the sorrow of him now the message brings us a story brings us a true story came hava Dada in Tisa there was a story with a particular woman the autistic a rebellious are who came to rebel early as ur 'martha commies become me cheresa the veissy tavira she said I saw in my dream that a certain certain object in my house was broken Oh Marla I the old nesebar the carvaka yay so rebel eyes you explain the stream that it means that you're going to give birth to a child and he's going to live meaning what was the broken vessel in our dream it was referring to the fact that maybe her water was going to break or the fact that she was going to have a child would come into the world so he interpreted it positively us as to have a look cane so she went and indeed that's exactly what happened she had a baby and the baby was normal and fine Isis monochrome LaMichael na she came another time to ask a really Ezzor the meaning of her dream okay tell me de y'all soon time on varaha Lahab agave on so she found that the students were there but but the robber abuser was not there I was lying while new robbed plain so she said to them where is your teacher where is rebellious her mala a Merlin mad boyo they said tell us what you need maybe we can help van anomeric I'm in luck we can answer you our low-income is becoming sure you should have a seat Veera she said I solved the vessel in my house was broken mala is a cover by Allah so they said this dream means that the thing that's going to break is your husband that you're gonna end up burying your husband Cavin in a fog is McGovern showing me a Lola so when she left she started to cry she walked out and she was crying out sure what color really is everybody is there apparently he had returned by this point and he heard her yelling around ahoy my Martin holiday so he said to them what did you say to this woman all right now years since Isis the Michelle you saw or la no ma Martin law so he said well she came to ask you a question so he said to him what did you tell them what did you tell her I relay cadena Kadeem they say this is what we told her we told her that the meaning of the dream is that her husband's going to die our Lahaina valeton Guevara so really as I said to them you caused the loss of a human being of a human life that can exceed BOHICA she posted on a cane Hoyer and he quoted them the verse in our parsha this very verse that that Hamas came said to Paro that exactly the way that he explained the dreams is exactly what occurred so what do we see we see from here that based on the way a dream is interpreted so then the interpretation of the dream is what takes effect so the dream could actually be interpreted in different ways as we see what vilasa first explained the dream the same dream to mean that she's going to have a child and then they explained his students explain the dream that they're going to that she's going to lose her husband and indeed the explanation effects what occurs in the dream and there's a Gomorrah in breakfast that speaks extensively about interpretation of dreams and how the interpretation effects the outcome of what how the dream manifests and it talks about a particular story with somebody who there are two people that used to come to him to Sage's would come to this particular person who could interpret dreams one of them would pay him one of them wouldn't pay him what who paid him here we give positive interpretations one who gave we would wouldn't pain give him they gave negative interpretations and however he interpreted the dreams is indeed what happened but we see that the interpretation affects the dream was very interesting it's very remarkable ok relate annamaria : Revere Kannan said something slightly different which is interesting as well Kohala haha I pissed on Koosman a yayan when it comes to the dreams being interpreted so it always goes after the interpretation except for a dream that a person has when he when he drinks wine when a person drinks wine and he has a dream so then the interpretation of the dream does not affect the dream does not affect the manifestation of that dream ich mache I save a type light for those who drink and the dreams that they have will be will be positive dreams will be interpreted positively vation wishes choice' obviously Murali there are those who drink when they drink so the result of their drinking when it comes to the dreams that they have it's gonna be negative Thomas Holcomb scheisse Vitale when I want a Torah scholar drinks so the result is that he has positive dreams and positive interpretations arts shy severe alloy so when a person who is an ignoramus when he drinks so the genes that he's going to have are gonna be negative and they're gonna have negative outcomes ok so that's just an interesting thing and then we have the final point which I which I also find to be interesting of our BFO I think really anything that's through dreams is pretty interesting oh my elbow different columnist named Allan Bellamy reiden he says that when it comes to the dreams so the subject of the dreams the the subject matter of the dreams does not have any effect it's not it doesn't the the way it's it's not so clear exactly what he's saying here but earlier we see in regards he said this exact statement in regards to the dream of Yaakov and Jacob had a dream of a ladder with with angels going up and down the ladder and the ladder symbolizes the ladder is not literal and in so rabii of always saying that when it comes to the understanding of what the dream means the symbolism within the dream is just that its symbolism it's not literal the ladder that Yaakov saw symbolised represented something the cows that Pharaoh saw represented something the sheaves that Yosef saw in his dream they represented something the actual literal thing that you see there is not to be taken literally but rather it symbolizes something so when it comes to understanding what a dream means we need to know that it it's symbolic I'm just remembering how in my dream when I saw my tefillin melting so in actuality was the letters inside the ink of my of the letters inside of my tefillin on this on the parchment inside of my to fill on had melted but the in my dream the bottom the outside melted that it's filling themselves month it was symbolic of the fact that there was something that had happened to my the letters and my scrolls and the inside of my phone which is just pretty cool so guess what we have always is saying so now the thing that I want to discuss the idea I want to talk about or try to understand it's like what's that what's the idea here of the dreams what's the idea of the dreams of yo safe and and the dreams of this are much game and pyro of Pharaoh and I just want to understand like the depth of what's going on here and also related to Chanukah like I said one of the things that I was thinking about which i think is pretty clear as we read these stories you know the Saruman is sorrow from in last week's partial Eden those dreams didn't really affect them right so those dreams the Tsar Amash given three days was about to be released no matter what and he was going to be put back in his place the sorrow from the Baker he was about to be released and be killed the fact that he had though that they both had those dreams wasn't really for them those dreams were really they happened because it was necessary for Yosef in order to be released two years later sorry mushroom needed to remember the fact that he had interpreted the dreams properly that's just an important point yeah Paris dreams Pharaoh's dreams also were they really necessary and important for pyro himself so yes and no yes because he needed to know that his country was going to have a famine you needed to prepare for it but it was more significant and important that that the dreams occur for Yosef so Yosef could get into the position of power which was necessary in order for his original dreams to be fulfilled because there are two parts of the dream one is that Yosef is meant to be the leader the ruler over the world really he's meant to be the ruler the leader over Egypt which is the center of the world at that time the the greatest power in the world at a time so the Jewish people and they are being led by Yosef Yosef is the is meant to be the leader of the Jewish people that's clearly the theme that's going on throughout these parties so we are meant to come into Egypt and to have a certain effect on Egypt the Jewish people are meant to be there and have an effect the result speaks about the fact that ultimately we wanted the Egyptians to convert we had many many converts from the Egyptians by the time you see some time the exodus occurred but it begins with Yosef and it begins with the fact that Yosef at sadiq is great righteous individual he is the one who provides for the physical needs of the country of Egypt and ultimately the entire world at that time and so that's the beginning that's the first part of the fulfillment of Yosef dreams but the second part really is the depth of the fact that he is not just a leader over the world he is a leader over the Jewish people and that is what he's trying to bring into play when it comes to the brothers coming in Jana so he doesn't remember the things that they did walk to him why because that's not really significant time he had a very clear perception that everything that had gone on with him until that point was in order for him to reach the position which he was supposed to reach which was to lead the world and ultimately to lead the Jewish people and he knew and this is something we spoke about in previous weeks but he knew that he needed them to choose him to bow down to him they're bowing down there the female aspect Joseph is the male aspect he's the Sadiq he's the male aspect he's though you say it aspect the tribes themselves are the malkos aspect they're the ones who surround him right that's the female aspect the the female and composite says the you know we found my collar goes around the Hudson seven times they're surrounding in his dream so the the tribes surrounded him and bowed out and that's the aspect of him being the leader the male aspect and them being a reflection of his leadership then then they are bowing down to him so but he needs them all to be that aspect which is why he makes sure that Benjamin comes down because he needs all 12 of them or really all 11 of them to bow down and he is the center they need to admit to his leadership to his greatness to his power to the fact that he is the one who's meant to guide them to help them but physically give them food which which happens immediately on their arrival but also in a spiritual sense give them direction so one of the things that Yosef is trying to do is that he's trying to make sure his job you know it seems like very strange like what is he doing why is he running them around and giving him such a difficult time but he he knows that he's their leader he's the one who is in charge of their spiritual perfection but you know creating tikkun him they had done something wrong in the past and they knew that they needed to rectify that but beyond that you're safe Joseph was the leader of the Jewish people and he needed to as in the pacify of I obey as the bus am royal of iam he was bringing a negative report to their father why was he doing that at the beginning of the story because he was the leader he was in charge of them he needed to help them they hadn't acknowledged it yet only later were they able to acknowledge it and and that was his job he understood that he realized that he knew that his original approach to them was correct it was just too early and so that this bring me to the point which I really want to bring which is an amazing thing that has all say that when a person has a dream so they should wait up to 22 years for that dream to be fulfilled and that brings me to an amazing point that we find that it where'd of Hazael get it from where do our sages get it from from Yosef and Sadiq because from the time that he was 17 when he originally had the first set of dreams until the time that the brothers came and bowed down to him was 22 years he was 39 years old at that point right because it had been 13 years he was 30 when he stood in front of Paro seven years of the good years had passed two years of the famine had passed so he was 39 years old at that point it had been 22 years since he had left his brothers they didn't recognize him because he didn't have a beard at the time that he left and they did he recognized them they didn't recognize him as the major speaks about so but it was 22 years I mean that's a long time think about it that's it that's an incredibly long time but all that time he knew that he had had these dreams and the dreams were going to be fulfilled but he had the patience to see that the dreams were going to be fulfilled and indeed he acted in a way to cause the dreams to be fulfilled which is why he was having them bring Benjamin bring Benjamin back down as Rashi tells us but the idea that I want to bring out is the patience the patience of Yosef he had tremendous beat Ockham he always had a positive attitude when it came to everything that was going on in his life he did take the opportunities he did recognize he saw immediately when those dreams occurred to Sara Mishima sorrowful they didn't need those dreams he saw that immediately it was obviously for him he didn't know how that was gonna manifest he tried to bring about the next stage he did put in effort he did do that it was too much you had to wait another two years but Lamesa there was a patience on his part there was a patience a deep patience DP Tahoe and a trust that the dreams would be fulfilled he would indeed become that great leader that he was meant to become and indeed that's what happens now I was thinking about it in terms of of Hannukah relating it to Hanukkah Hanukkah the holiday occurs in the winter occurs at a time when it's very dark and the story itself occurs in a very dark time in Jewish history when hellenism was taking hold there were very few people within the Jewish people who were dedicated to the Torah to the precepts of the Torah to keeping the traditions alive of the Jewish people many people had become affected deeply affected by the the Greek theology and and their their complete dedication to physicality as opposed to spirituality and that's really what the war had to do with but the darkness the darkness reminds me of the of the dreams the dreams of Yossi of are like these these points of light in a very for twenty-two years think about it or at least thirteen years from the time that he had the dreams until he became the leader in Egypt so it was an incredibly dark time for him but there were these points these small points of light and the points of light were the dreams themselves that had to shine through the darkness for him and provide for him that that ability to see to recognize think about the fact that Hashem is with him he has very you know think about it he was in jail for 12 years what did he have to hold on to what did you have to hold on to but he knew he could see a few different things the main thing I think was the dreams that he had originally and then when the Sarah open Sarah Martin came in those dreams again those were the points of light and Pharaoh's dream again was another point of life for Yosef he also had the positivity the the the recognition of the fact that whatever he was doing he had a slacker he had yet to dish my he had divine help that was clearly there as well but another thing that I want to bring out is the fact that he saw the dreams and you know these dreams could have happened in in numerous different ways perhaps you know originally if the brothers would have accepted him at the at the onset of the story but things would have been completely different they won't have had to go down to Egypt perhaps or they would come down instead of in Chains or in you know in a very negative way of them selling him etc it could have it could have been translated the the dreams could have been interpreted on the ground differently but this is how it turned out it turned out based on that you know that's just how they understood it that the brother is interpreted negatively you think you're going to rule over us and as they understood that the dreams meant that that he's supposed to rule over them but are they going to accept that rulership they're not gonna accept it so easily so they interpreted the dreams in a way that would cause it to take a long time but you know save had the patience for that interestingly there's different ways of even Pharaoh's dream itself the measure says that he could have interpreted it different ways it could have been instead of 7 and 7 it could have been 14 and 14 or could have even been 42 years of famine and two years only happened now but the other 40 years happened later it's very interesting it's worth seeing the measures but the idea I want to bring out is that the dreams go by the interpretation Hashem gives us something he gives us potential and manifests based on how we receive it Joseph has a dream the brothers receive it in a certain way so it manifests the way that they receive it or don't receive it in their case and it's the same thing with the dreams in the story with the woman who had that broken vessel in her dream and and it's the same in you know Hashem gives us the dream is like a point of light it's a potential how does it manifest for us how do we receive that light in the story of the maka beam in the story of Hanukkah so they had the light that they received was this ability to overcome their enemies they were so small amount of people they were they were few they were they were dedicated to you - guy - Judaism - the precepts of the Torah and we still had that today it's manifest today because of the way that they received those miracles they received that light they established that we should light these candles these little candles and recognize that there's a little bit of light in the darkness and the darkness of the winter and the darkness of our gullies of exile the darkest where it seems that all of the forces from outside the second of forces are coming and trying to destroy us but there's a little bit of light can we connect the dots can we connect a little bit of light and receive that light and interpret that light that it applies to us and how it applies to us and count me of the patients when the light only shines a little bit here and a little bit there a little bit of light here another another little bit the next day other a little bit the next day can we receive that light can we interpret that light and recognize that it speaks to us and and not just ignore the dream but actually be disturbed by the dream or or inspired by the dream inspired by the light and see that that light is talking to us so I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me a chef should help us to take the opportunity of the lights of Chanukah to receive that light to interpret that light see how it applies to us just yeah that's spirituality that's stored from so long ago talks to us and how we can break out of the Hellenism that's in our days shrim should help us to learn from this story of yo se if the patients that he had despite them the negative interpretations of the dream the patients that he had for the ultimate positive interpretation of the dream the true depth of the interpretation which he understood himself should help us to have that patience to learn from a neo safe to see the spirituality in our lives and to receive that light and xem should help us to be zakat to merit the rebuilding of the temple and we'll all rededicate the temple and see those amazing menorah lights burning in our base some English from here me me know have a great Shabbos thank you so much for listening this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.gfi.com/webmonitor [Music]