Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

64
Mikeitz
The True Colors of Yoseph’s Dreams
Rav Yehoshua Paltiel
Y oseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamt about them )םהל(…" (42:9)
The above sentence is translated according to Rashi’s explanation, that the word םהל
means about them. However, Unkelus actually translates it literally: "to them" or "for
them" – meaning on their behalf. Yoseph's dreams had been dreamt for the sake of the
brothers? That would certainly fly in the face of the how the brothers themselves felt
about the dreams and the dreamer, as well how most of us have understood Yoseph
and his dreams. The conventional wisdom is that he was young, spoiled, conceited and
insensitive, and he used his dreams to try to convince his brothers of his superiority.
While this approach is backed up by some statements from our Sages and is found
in some commentators (see Nechama Lebowitz on last week's parasha), one of my
rabbis, Rabbi Sinai Adler shlit”a, presents us with a fresh look at Yoseph Hatzadik
based on the Unkelus we brought above.
One can ask a fundamental question about the dreams and their seeming centrality
to the whole saga of Yoseph and his brothers (the Ramban, famously, greatly stresses
in the beginning of last week’s parasha the centrality of the dreams): who needs
them? If you removed the dreams Yoseph told his brother last week from the story,
nothing would change. The brothers had already hated him, and it was only a matter
of time before he would have said or done something to push them over the limit. At
that point, our story would unfold as it did: Yoseph would be thrown into a pit, sold