Miketz: Prevailing in Dreams and Reality

Yosef’s story is characterised by dreams – his own dreams, his ability to interpret the dreams of others, and his insight in implementing those dreams in reality. In Vayeshev, we hear of his dreams – dreams of his brothers’ eleven sheaves of wheat bowing down to his singular sheaf, of eleven stars, the sun and moon, possibly representing his brothers and parents, deferring to his star. Though their meanings seem clear, the brothers asking if Yosef means to ‘rule over [them]’ (Gen. 37:8), the dreams do not come to fruition in Vayeshev; instead, the parasha ends with Yosef in a cell, far from any role of power. Having interpreted the chief butler’s dream, leading to his restoration to his position, Yosef is left there forgotten. In the opening verse of Miketz, we learn that he remains there for two years.

As the parasha begins, we hear another set of dreams – Pharaoh’s. In his sleep he sees gaunt, emaciated cows eating healthy and plump ones yet remaining thin (Gen. 41:1-4), followed by thick and plentiful ears of corn being consumed by thin ears which have been ‘scorched by the east wind’, thin ears which also remain as they first appeared (Gen. 41:5-7). Though different ‘stories’, the crux of each dream is the same – seven healthy things will be consumed by seven emaciated things. Alone, these dreams appear opaque, yet Pharaoh is aware of their significance; growing agitated, he summons those in Egypt who might be able to find a reason, a meaning, an interpretation in them. None can answer the Pharaoh’s questions, nor quell his anxiety. It is then that Yosef is remembered by the butler for his interpretive qualities, and for the fact that his interpretations of previous dreams had come to pass. Brought in front of the Pharaoh, he interprets the dreams, stating חלום פרעה אחד, ‘the dreams of Pharaoh are one [and the same]’ (Gen 41:25), both dreams foreshadowing one event – the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine to come. Answering the unwritten question of why Pharaoh effectively has the same dream twice, Yosef states that the matter contained within them has been ‘determined by G-d’, Pharaoh’s dream becoming a vehicle through which the divine can intervene in warning, G-d acting through Yosef’s interpretive ability (Gen. 41:32).

This is not the first time that a dream is doubled in Yosef’s story. As we have seen, the first of his dreams – of sheaves of wheat and celestial skies – are the same dream in two narratives: of Yosef’s family bowing down and becoming subservient to him. In Lessons in Leadership, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks notes that it is ‘only in retrospect [that] we realize that [Yosef’s] double dream was a sign that this too was no mere imagining’, since Yosef’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream can easily be applied to his dreamy double feature.[1] The validity of this interpretation comes to fruition quickly following Pharaoh’s dreams – Yosef is suddenly freed from his incarceration ‘in one of the greatest transformations in all literature’.[2] He goes, in R’ Sacks’ words, ‘from zero to hero: from prisoner-without-hope to viceroy of the greatest empire of the ancient world’. [3] In interpreting Pharaoh’s double dream, the consequences of his own dreams’ interpretation suddenly occur, soon to be cemented as he faces his brothers when they come to Egypt to beg for the food Yosef has saved up in the years of plenty.

That each unconscious narrative is doubled is not the only similarity between Yosef and Pharaoh’s dreams. In both sets, we see the weak overcome the strong; the meagre, thin, weak cows and wheat are able, somehow, to consume their healthy, plump and strong counterparts. Equally, in Yosef’s dreams, the individual – the minority, which should logically be weaker than the majority – is bowed down to by the majority, despite the stark difference in numbers and even in age and wisdom, as in the case of his second dream. As viceroy of Egypt, Yosef has gained power and insight far beyond that of his brothers, reversing what was once their majority power over him when they threw him in the pit and sold him as a slave. These two dreams, then, become intrinsically linked. To the mind of Rabbi Dr Erin Leib Smokler of Yeshivat Maharat, they become about the ‘underdog win[ning]’, the weak taking on the strong in ‘unlikely triumph’.[4]

Miketz often falls on Shabbat Hanukkah, when we celebrate another story of unlikely defeat over an entity much stronger and larger than ourselves – the Maccabean defeat of the Greek Kingdom, which had Hellenized ancient Israel and its people. The Greeks and their army were a majority – strong and able to inflict their rule of law easily on the people they subjugated. Yet they were soundly defeated by a seemingly weak minority, the Maccabees. Just as in Yosef and Pharaoh’s dreams, the quantity of the strength did not matter; the underdog, the seemingly weaker party, won. In some ways, this can be seen even in the lighting of the menorah in the half-destroyed Beit HaMikdash; the Greeks, having smashed many vases of oil, leave but one, enough for only a day of light. Though the Maccabees were undoubtedly aware that for the Beit HaMikdash to truly be rededicated the menorah had to be permanently lit, they use this remaining small amount of oil to light it. Once more, something seemingly weak miraculously triumphs: despite the almost total destruction of oil stores by the Greeks, this small amount lasts not for one day but for eight, another unlikely success. This theme, embroidered in both Hanukkah and Miketz, is enshrined in the words of על הנסים, ‘on the miracles’, a prayer sung on Hanukkah, in the phrase מסרת גבורים ביד חלשים ורבים ביד מעטים, ‘You turned over the strong in the hand of the weak, and the many in the hand of the few’.

Singing these words every day as an addition to daily prayers, we are reminded of the power of dreams, particularly the dream of prevailing in moments of darkness which are seemingly impossible to overcome. As we light the hanukkiyah, the amount of light growing as more candles are added each night, we see a physical embodiment of a minority overcoming a majority. In Miketz, dreams and Yosef’s interpretations of them bring hope and light to Egypt and to Yosef’s future; without the strong being delivered into the hands of the ‘weak’, or the majority into the hands of the individual, Egypt would have suffered like the rest of the world in famine, and Yosef would never have been reunited with his family. Without the minority of the Maccabees overcoming the great Greek power, light would never have been restored in the Beit HaMikdash, and Judaism may have been extinguished forever under Hellenistic rule. Connected, they both show us that, even in pitch darkness, the smallest amount of light will prevail over great darkness in bringing hope. We just have to dream of it and make it so.

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[1] Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Lessons in Leadership (2015), pg.47-48

[2] R’ Sacks, Lessons in Leadership, pg.47

[3] Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, pg.47

[4] Rabbi Dr Erin Leib Smokler, ‘Dreaming in the Dark: Miketz and the Menorah’ for Yeshivat Maharat (2015), https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/422641?lang=bi