Joseph’s Prophetic Dreams

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Joseph dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers saying, “Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the sun, moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated him: “What is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground?” So his brothers were jealous at him, but his father watched the matter.

(Gen. 37:9-11)

Earlier, Jacob dreamt of a ladder which reached the heavens, and Joseph's dream too was about the heavens. Knowing that the heavens represent God and Divine Providence—as God stood at the top of the ladder in heaven—this time, Jacob "watched the matter" (awaited its happening) of Joseph's second dream of the luminaries bowing to him as indicative of Divine Providence.

Typically, a person's psychological relationship to the heavens is one of subservience, like Adam's grandson Enosh who deified the spheres. But here, Joseph displayed dominance over the heavens which would indicate that it was not a psychological dream, and a second reason why Jacob would view the dream as prophetic. Therefore Jacob watched the matter for when it would come true (Rashi, Sforno, Or Hachaim).

Rabbi Israel Chait taught that one must “let the words speak.” Meaning, to grasp God’s intended message, an interpretation must perfectly fit the verses. Not only that, when explaining a Torah verse, Rabbi Chait would say, “What must you say?”—one must offer only those interpretations “demanded” by the Torah verses, not merely offer a “possible” explanation. Torah is 100% precise and demands the utmost scrutiny to shield one from guessing or projecting any notion and missing God’s intent. 

Organization of verses too is God’s order and contains deep lessons. With this in mind, why are the brothers' jealousy of the dream and also Jacob's watching of the matter put into one verse? Rabbi Chait said we have a mesora (tradition) that all matters contained in a single verse are related. The very point of the brothers viewing it as possible that the sun and moon—Joseph's parents—were worshipping Joseph, is against human psychology. Jacob knew that this could not be psychological because man is not worshiped by parents or the spheres, the opposite is true: man deifies the heavens. This precisely points to why Jacob knew this is prophetic, and another message of this verse. Jacob had higher knowledge than his sons who viewed as possible that great luminaries and parents worshipping Joseph. But Jacob's higher psychological knowledge clearly saw divine inspiration in this dream because psychologically a person will deify the heavens not view them as subservient to himself. The very structure of this verse contrasting the brothers' misunderstanding to Jacob's true understanding, indicates the principle through which Jacob saw divine intervention.