Of Dreams and Dreamers by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

I'm talking about the turning point in the Yosef story we spoke about Yosef last time the turning point is at least well a few turning points but one major turning point is when he interprets parro's dreams the the automatic change that takes place in his in his life from being in the dungeon just magic just think about it for a minute you're you're in the dungeon You're second in command in the dungeon you're okay when all of a sudden they come and they grab you out and they dress you royally and they make you look good and suddenly you're standing before parro how to even uh make that make that transition must have been very very difficult but the question we're going to raise is the one that's on the first page of your handouts why is yfe believed why what is it well here we go here's the story yose offers an interpretation to parro and parro accepts it why to complicate matters further is a statement by kazal the rabbis who they take a look at and we're going to be looking carefully at text today it says in the first section it was mourning and his Spirit was troubled talking about par all the wise men and parro told them his dream but none could interpret them for parro so what's what's Superfluous in that in that statement none for par right in other words obviously they're trying to interpret parro's dreams obviously it's for parro why is it that the Torah tells us that so if you take a look at rashi rashi quotes which says they actually offered a series of interpretations there were many interpretations that were offered but none of them were offered for parro meaning what he did not accept anyone else's interpretation so here we have a a strengthening of the question it's not that he doesn't have options he has options but why does he believe yoseph is it possible that he has his own interpretation okay we're going to talk we're going to look at some of the answers and that's going to be one of them as well all right so all right so that's that's the question before us by the way again for the people sitting in back I'm sorry that I'm not standing but I'm still a little shaky all right so the classical approaches on the first page very a whole range of possibilities are offered by the rabbis in order to explain this phenomenon SE toes says dreamt the dream and its interpretation according to this approach perhaps subconsciously and when he heard yoseph offer that interpretation wow something clicked that made sense that's correct and and and he and he accepted the interpretation if you take a look at some of the English statements there take a look at another possibility he was testing his courters in other words he knew the interpretation he just wanted to see if anybody was wise enough to to to offer what he felt was the interpretation another possibility is that yoseph if you look carefully what yoseph does is he not only presents him with a problem or with the situation but he takes a step further which is an amazing step for him to take under the circumstances and what does he do he offers a solution to parro he'll tell them there'll be years of famine there'll be years of good ETA plenty then a famine but what you should do parro is X Y and Z Now imagine for a moment you're yfe your parro just wanted the interpretation he didn't ask you for your advice but parro was so pleased to get that advice according to this possibility that he said okay everybody else was giving me issues this guy's giving me answers and that's and that's helpful and that's why I'm going to accept his interpretation there is one last possibility at the bottom of the page which is offered by kazal and that is the interpretations that were offered to parro by the cours by his by his men were all negative they spoke about seven Seven Realms that would conquer you or you would conquer and then you'd be conquered they were all negative interpretations parro didn't listen to them didn't want to accept them he he said I don't want that to be the interpretation and finally when yose comes to him with Solutions again he accepts y all right so these are all among the classical classical Suggestions by kazal as to why Paro believes yose over everyone else but we're going to take a look at text if we take a look at text and I think that most of you who've studied with me before know that I am a very much a believer in POS that that it's important for us to see the interpretation of the words that are actually written and medish set aside at this point there is a puzzling pattern that emerges in the text when surrounding the story of parro his dreams the corders and and ysf take a look on page number two and you see there are two two sentences there which are after par awakens from the dream entirely butos reading only the underlining sections V now that's again those words are Superfluous of course it's a dream what the Torah is telling us is that from haro's position the two dreams were one he insists and you'll see how how unfolds here he insists on understanding the two dreams as a singular dream he doesn't want two dreams he wants only one take a look at the next sentence again underline section V talking about his advisers Leo now look at that there something fascinating there isn't it he told them his dream and they insist on interpreting it as two dreams right there so so something's something's unfolding here right then parro as he talks to yoseph he says second second paragraph down below I Dreamed a Dream right and nobody can interpret it par is consistent if if anything is consistent it's one dream in my dream I am standing on the river bank if you also take a look at sentences earlier Etc he's telling what happened he said I saw this vision of of these um of these of these cows and the weak ones swallowed up the the good ones the Hefty ones and then I awoke and then I saw in my dream it's not that I went fell asleep again and I dream a second time it's I woke and I dreamt in my dream so that's that is very specifically what the Torah seems to be telling us is that there's some some reason here that there's a struggle between parro and everyone else is it one dream or two yoseph picks up on this and yosf is if anything very very uh Savvy and he's hearing parro parro parro's saying something to him take a look at the first thing Yosef says as he opens up his interpretation to parro what's the first thing that y says first thing that Joseph says is it's one Dream It's one dream don't worry parro he's catching he's caught onto this this this struggle and he knows that parro is insistent upon understanding it so he's going to buy come into His favor by doing this by agreeing with him over everyone else automatically parro is now going to look at him as a little bit a little bit better than everyone else not only does he do that but later in his interpretation he says sorry first right in other words what he's saying all of these things he's saying are I woke in my dream I woke in my dream it's one dream but when y when ysph interprets it and as I told you the first thing he says as it appears on your page is Ys then returns at the end of his presentation to and he says why did you Dre dream this dream in two different ways because God is ready to make this happen it's going to happen quickly it's going to come right now and that's why the double interpret the double presentation of your one dream now okay so we understand that parro has this tendency to want one dream but what's fascinating is it seems that other Egyptians want that as well for themselves who else does who else does yosea interpret dreams for the Butler and the baker right the Butler and the baker in in the jail how do they present their dreams to him take a look page number three etc etc they dreamt the Torah is now describing not what they said but but but how they perceived their vision and it the language is extremely strange right take a look again it says they dreamed one dream the two of them so in other words now the Butler and the baker are coming along and saying we want this we want this to be one United Vision the two of us dream something we want it to be One Vision and if you take a look at the next sentence they say to to yose at the bottom of the second paragraph on page three you've heard that before who parro right so so now not only parro wants to see one dream and and the question I raise is is this throughout Egypt or is it just parro and his and his his henchman but for some reason this idea of dreaming one dream and not two really takes root and appears over and over again not just with pyro but with the Butler and the baker to contrast that take a look at yoseph way back in the beginning of his career Yosef also dreamed dreams didn't how many dreams did he did he two right let's see what let's see how he perceived those dreams let's see what they what what they has to say where is it hold on a second down at the bottom y Dre to Dream by and unfortunately he told it to his brothers and they they hated him even more this is yose before he becomes as wise as he is by the time as it gets zaro so then in a couple of sentences later he dreamt another dream and as he presents it to the to to his brothers he says what I have dreamt a dream again it's separate dream it's not the same dream so what's going on what is it what is it that the Torah is trying to portray for us why is it that this phenomenon exists that parro and his underlings all want to have one dream and not two and it and he is so insistent on it that keeps coming back to it over and over again and yoseph Brilliant yoseph understands it and immediately presents one to par so the Torah doesn't tell us what what the possibilities are and I haven't seen anying who who tell us but it occurred to me a number of years ago what's the difference between two dreams in one dream complexity things are complex you're dreaming two dreams you've got to figure out how do they interface with each other what is each one saying you dream one dream right and things are are clear parrow doesn't want complexity he doesn't want to live in a world where somehow he has to figure out how to overcome problems yoseph comes down says to him it's one dream then says to him and this is what you should do and this is how you should take it and Harrow is thrilled haru's thrilled not obviously he's unhappy that there's going to be what there's going to be famine and obviously he's H unhappy that there's going to be any kind of suffering within within Egypt but nonetheless he is pleased because he receives that interpretation of one dream and parro in this way if you take a look at the points at the bottom I say parro is the Paradigm of the despa parro is the Paradigm of the king the evil King who cares more for his own Survival than he does for for others who's only concerned with what takes place in the in the palace basically and and his safety and look everyone else will will will will work it out so they can get some food but but I'm I'm I'm fine now because I know where I stand I know what I'm doing I know how to do it the if par is the Paradigm or the original despot just out of Cur just out of curiosity I wonder we last time we took the yose story and we compared it to another story two weeks ago and that was the story of purin and we said that Joseph is the turning point in early Jewish history from the period of God's speaking to the period of God's silence and we said that's exactly how the commentaries view the porm story porm story is the first major event that takes place in the non-prophetic ER so there are act a bunch of similes a bunch of connections between porm and ysf the the most telling statement though occurs when kazal say and we we brought this up last time when kazal say that God held the mountain at SI over their heads and threatened to destroy the nation and you wonder why why do the rabbis turn what seems to be an event where the where the Jews are accepting etc etc why do they turn it to something where they're forced and we suggested an answer which is not our own it's suggested by some within the commentaries and that is that they had no choice let's let's understand we just saw the 10 plagues riging down down on Egypt we just saw The Parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian might we are standing at a mountain where there's thunder and lightning and all sorts of things are happening and a voice and and a and a chauffeur sound and all this stuff is happening what what's the issue are you going to take the Torah what are they going to say no no so obviously I'll say they took the Torah at a out of there was coercion but it was coercion of circumstance in other words God doesn't say I'm forcing you to take this but the circumstances are such that you have no choice that's and the rabbis continue in that medish and they say what but once but they came a time in our history where we accepted what we took out of force where we accepted of our own free will and what was that point in history por him because that's the time when God Falls silent and and we accept now if puim is as we said in some ways the parallel in the National era to the story of yose Akash is very much parro Akash is if parro is the Paradigm the first one to set the stage for this kind of indiv idual a is this individual in Spades I only have to point to one one particular place there's more when when Esther unveils hon as the as the individual who is threatening her and her entire world so what what do do does anybody remember go out he runs away first thing that he does is he runs out into the garden why because doesn't want to be there this is this this is complex this is this is problematic he comes back in and what does he see he sees right hamon prostrating himself before Esther and begging her for his life he turns to hamon and says you're trying to conquer theas you you not enough that you're threatening out there what are you doing you're trying to seduce my wife now let's understand parro knows full well that hon is not trying to seduce Esther what I'm thank you thank you thank you right aash knows full well right that H is not so what is he doing he's rewriting the event he's turning it from a complex event that what that uh threatens a whole Community it's one one issue that's all and how do I need to deal with that issue kale Comm that's it and and then the Milla goes on to say that Esther has to beg him and beg him and plead with him to to reverse the decree against the Jews and the King says what can't do it once a king issues a decree I'm not I'm not going to make it that I made a mistake so what I what will I do Esther Esther's I got to do something because Esther is going to make my life miserable if I don't do something and what's fascinating part of the miracle of Purim is what is that parro doesn't kill EST all right that parro is so taken by by her that that he's that aash fos doesn't kill eser I'm I'm I'm little little addled Okay so and and then what does he finally do and this is where the the true evil of this King emerges he says okay I'll tell you what you can do you can defend yourselves I now will issue an edict allowing the Jews to defend themselves what am I doing basically I am I'm taking taking my my world my community and I'm injecting war Civil War into the blood will will flow through the streets of shushan as long as what as long as it doesn't touch me as long as it doesn't touch me and when you see that that you'll understand therefore that what I'm saying is that a is parro and spades yoseph on the other hand is the Paradigm of the Jew he accepts complexity he accepts that things aren clear and some of the commentaries point out that one dream he dreams is of Earth and one dream of heaven and he's living in a world where those two Realms are why why why did they say that because the first Dream has to deal with wheat the second dream has to deal with the sun and the moon and the stars Etc like that so he says though those are separate messages they may intertwine they may they may affect each other but it's one it's it's two dreams two separate dreams and two separate messages all right so so basically what we've what we've yes sorry I just want to take a drink say it again has that join by the L and Earth uhhuh Le that's right correct well said that's very nice that's very nice so in other words Yakov dreams of Heaven and Earth connect as connected and yoseph still at this point in his life still sees them as separate that's well said but we're going to take a look at one last phenomena and that is whenever the Torah tells you something it's told you before repeats an issue repeats a statement repeats an event you've got to compare the two because the Torah doesn't waste words and there's something the Torah is telling you in that second interpretation or that second event that that affects affects the events that follow take a look at what parro does now parro and again when I say with the to repeats itself the Torah told you what parro saw and then when parro speak speaks to yoseph the Torah tells you what parro says he saw it could have been it could have been he could have simply said parro told the dreams over to yoseph why does it tell you what what he's saying so if you take a look there are at least two two points in parro's dreams where he adds to what was said or adds adds to what he saw take a look take looking at page four page number four ET Etc so he so the tor that's that's the that's the way the Torah tells it to us in the first unveiling of parro's dream he said very straightforward take a look at what parro adds he's now talking this is the second paragraph here is now parro talking to Yosef telling over the dream so the first thing he does he says I saw seven horrible cows l I it's impossible sick cows don't live in Egypt right I never saw a sick cow and some this is this that's frightening and and he wakens the Torah seems to be saying this woke him up but then he says something else and and this is even more telling he says I'm looking at the last underlined section the last paragraph on page four the g p cows the sick cows swallowed the healthy cows and that's where the Torah that's where the dream stops but he adds something he says El the the the sick cows swallowed up the the fat cows and they didn't change they remained sick what why is that telling for parro and said that that again it's an addition to what an addition to what was was rent so the Torah seems to be saying that parro can accept one thing he can accept the possibility that gaunt cows will overcome fat cows it's not not logical but it can be done somehow in the world in my world of of armies etc etc it's possible that a weaker Army can somehow transform itself and and overcome even a stronger enemy but when that happens what's the result weaker become the weaker becomes strong right in other words what happens is now there's a new new order right and the weaker become strong I don't know if any of you and you know we'll talk a little bit about it at the end What's Happening Here in Israel but over these last few weeks there's been a turnabout right and there's a feeling that Israel is is on the Ascension and and Hamas and has both are are getting getting licked and that wasn't the feeling a few weeks ago and it's barem let's hope that that that this assumption that that they are that the the IDF is succeeding please God they should succeed quickly quickly all right and they should go but anyway so therefore he can not accept the possibility that the weak house would swallow follow the good CL right and remain the same and yoseph again understands all of these fears understands what what's motivating parro and will interpret it in a way that parro can accept what's going to happen is these lean years are going to swallow up the good years in other words it's not it's not talking about armies it's not talking about people it's not talking about cows it's talking about what will happen in in in Egypt Visa the the famine and the plenty and the Plenty will be forgotten because the famine will be so so so difficult right so severe but and here I'd like to throw something out was yoseph interpreting the dreams truly or was he giving what he thought parro would want to hear right we don't know we don't know obviously certain parts of it the way he presents it is clear that he knows how to present it to p we in right one dream but is there perhaps another subtext to parro's dream that's a harbinger of things to come there will be lean cows swallowing healthy cows over the span of history and those lean cows will never become until the end of the historic iCal Journey will never become plentiful what am I talking about history of a Nation that's about to be born in parro Egypt that will overcome parro Egypt with God's through God's intervention but remain who they are and if we look over the years our ability to survive coupled with our ability to maintain our values and maintain who we are and and and not change not become like parro that's that's really been the challenge the challenge is in the face of such evil in the face of such attack can we survive more than that can we remain who we are we could be better well we can be better maybe we could be even better all right but that but the point being they will not will not see parro was seeing these GA Cows as as something horrible right he doesn't realize that it's a harbinger of things to come God is saying to him seven lean cows will will swallow up the healthy cows and Yosef doesn't share this with him but I wonder if Yosef sees it as well so there's a lot happening here we've we've understood parro a little bit better we've understood what's motivating him a little bit better but there's a lot of subtext here that if we continue to continue to probe I believe we would find additional additional messages coming through and this last one is really possible okay I'm going to end uh with just one thought on the Y all right just uh something to do with with the time of the year has to do with the the of the chauffeur in summary very quickly the Torah only mentions one chauffeur sound and that's the trua the as part of associated with rosashana rabbis understand the trua to be a broken sound of the Schauer but they're uncertain whether it's a broken sound of someone crying or someone sighing so what do they do they establish sharim and trua as two separate two separate iterations of the trua of the torah's trua it's either someone crying which is d da or it's someone sighing or it's someone sighing leading to crying and that's where have but then after defining that Central sound the the what I would call the essential sound of rosashana what did the rabbis do they learn from the text that you can never blow the Broken Sound alone it has to be encompassed between two straight sounds two strong sounds and the messages that are are suggested through this interpretation are are are manifold there's fact that we have to remain optimistic the fact that we have to understand it's all going to end well but there's one other image perhaps that I'll I'll I'll share with you and that's the following maybe this set of three underscores the way we view history and the way we view our events to the world the only thing that's certain is the present the only thing that that they the past is a is a dim memory and uh the the future unknown to the Jew the opposite is true the past is as certain as the tea which sounded at Sinai the future is as certain as the which will sound inos hamashia what is uncertain the Here and Now what's uncertain is what role will we play What role will we take upon ourselves and it's the job of every Jew to try to turn his or her personal trua and into into a tea uniting past and future and that's the challenge before us we're on a journey and it's a this year has been a difficult Journey but it's a long journey and batem we will succeed and a better world will will come into being