Dreams

Once Genesis hits its second half, everyone starts dreaming. Jacob has two dreams. Joseph has two dreams. Pharaoh’s butler and baker are dreaming. And Pharaoh himself is dreaming. “I have a dream” is how you can sum up the second half of Genesis. Everyone is dreaming—about something.

Joseph is in prison. He was placed there on false charges of rape. He was innocent. It was his accuser who was guilty of seduction and attempted coercion. But Joseph was blamed and cast into an Egyptian underground prison.

In prison, he services the king’s butler and baker who have also been imprisoned. One morning they share with him their dreams.

So the chief cupbearer related his dream to Joseph, and he said to him, "In my dream, behold, a vine is before me. And on the vine are three tendrils, and it seemed to be blossoming, and its buds came out; [then] its clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I placed the cup on Pharaoh's palm.

Joseph decodes:

And Joseph said to him, "This is its meaning: the three tendrils are three days. In another three days, Pharaoh will number you [with the other officers], and he will restore you to your position, and you will place Pharaoh's cup into his hand, according to [your] previous custom, when you were his cupbearer.

The baker is happy with what he hears and presents his dream.

"Me too! In my dream, behold, there were three wicker baskets on my head. And in the top most basket were all kinds of Pharaoh's food, a baker’s work; and the birds were eating them from the basket atop my head.

Joseph interprets this dream as follows:

"This is its meaning: the three baskets represent three days… In another three days, Pharaoh will remove your head from you and hang you on gallows, and the birds will eat your flesh off you."

Why the Difference?

There is an obvious difficulty in this story. Considering all the similarities in their respective dreams [the threes (clusters of grapes and the three baskets of baked goods), their specialties (wine and pastries), and their very self-presence, why did Joseph interpret these dreams in radically different and opposite ways?

When the butler dreams of seeing grapes and him squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh’s goblet and placing it on the king’s hand, Joseph sees this in the most literal sense: You will once again prepare wine for the king and deliver it to him. Why then when the baker dreams of holding baskets on his head with Pharaoh’s pastries does Joseph not see it in the same way: the baker is back on his job, preparing bread for Pharaoh and carrying them to the king, while the birds are enjoying a snack on the way?

What is more, while the dream of the butler is explained literally, the dream of the baker must resort to symbolism. The birds’ easting the breads in the basket does not mean that they will eat the bread, it means they will eat his flesh after he is hung by Pharaoh? But why? Why not just say that the birds will eat from the actual bread the baker will have prepared for Pharaoh?  

The Painting

The famous Dubner Maggid, Rabbi Jacob Kranz (1741-1804), the 18th century Ukrainian great storyteller and preacher, explains it via a story:

A talented artist could paint a picture with such realism that it seemed at times impossible to distinguish it from actual life. Once he drew a scene that portrayed a man standing in an open field with a food-basket on top of his head. The painting was so authentic, and seemed so real, that actual birds were swooping down to try to eat the bread in the painting.  He presented it to the king –who so proud of his new acquisition, offered a handsome reward for one who could find any fault in the painting.

Many challengers came but alas, no one was successful in finding but a single flaw in the incredible painting. It was just perfect.

Until an old man approached the painting. Observing the phenomena of the birds trying to eat the bread pictured atop the head of the man portrayed in the painting, he realized that he had discovered a serious problem with its realism. Indeed, the king gave him the money.

The old man said this: if the birds are trying to eat the bread atop the man’s head then there is something wrong with the man – for if the birds would perceive the man as true to life, they would be too afraid to approach! Birds would never approach a living person with a basket on his head. Thus the painting is portraying a contradiction which is unreal. Either the person in the painting is alive and the birds stay away, or the man is dead and then the birds enjoy the feast on his head.

This was Joseph’s tipoff. In the butler’s dream, the butler himself served Pharaoh. In the baker’s dream, he was passive, while the birds swooped down. This must have meant that he was not among the living.

Passive or Active?

This was further demonstrated to Joseph by observing one striking difference between the dreams. In the butler’s dream he was active. He was actively squeezing grapes and serving wine to Pharaoh. He was doing something. In the baker’s dream, the baker remains completely passive throughout the entire dream. Things happen to him; not through him. He has three baskets of bread on his head. He does not place them there; they are just found on him. The birds are eating the pastries. He is not doing anything; he is just observing what the birds are doing to him.

This is the difference between life and the opposite of life. Thus, each of their dreams represented their fate. One of them pictured himself as a helpless victim of external circumstances. The birds swoop down and take at will while he remains a non-entity in his own life- circumstance. He is simply observing things happening to him. The other sees himself as a player and a doer. Joseph knew that one dream represents life; the other—death.

Do!

This distinction exists within each of our lives. Joseph’s message speaks to each of us.

They say there are three types of people: those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; and those you have to tell that something happened.

We are all imprisoned in one way or another—we all must face forces that hold us back and hold us down. Each of us has our “shackles,” internal emotions or external circumstances, that limit us.

The question is not whether we are in a prison. We are all in some form of prison. The bigger question is are we doing something about it, or are we waiting for things to happen to us. The sign of life is action. Do something. Make a move. Create some change. Reach out. Don’t just go to sleep. Action is the path to freedom. Inaction becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“One act is superior to one hundred sighs,” a great Rebbe once remarked.

It is true in our personal and in our collective lives. We often hear about the crisis of Jewish continuity, or of various maladies that plague our communities. Never mind the great terrors that now seem to be engulfing our world. We read reports, statics, and dire predictions. And we sigh.

What Joseph is telling us is that the most important question is not where we are, but what we are doing about it. You are worried for the continuity of our people, so DO. Do something. Anything. But do. There is a Jewish child you know? Sponsor his or her Jewish education! There is a depressed teenager you know? Call him up and invite him for a meal and a hug.

Enough with the sighs; time for the deeds.

And when you do, G-d will do the rest.