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Parashas VaYeshev - 5778 -
Ribbono shel Olam! Our national
hope has seemingly moved a step
closer to fulfillment with the
announcement by the White House
that henceforward, the United
States recognizes Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital, with the
embassy to be moved some time in
the future. Now our current
president seems to be an
unlikely candidate for serving
as HaShem’s agent in this
matter, but it’s happened
before. Achashverosh and Herod
are examples of this unusual
combination of task and
messenger.
At the beginning of Parashas
Vayeshev, Yoseph reveals himself
as a dreamer, as was his father.
He relates two dreams to his
brothers, the first agricultural
in nature; the second, more
cosmic and astronomical, both of
which, since they were
shepherds, “got their goat.” The
first involved Yoseph and his
brothers bundling sheaves in a
field, and the brothers’ bundles
stood up and bowed to him. The
second involved the sun and the
moon and eleven stars bowing to
him. Now Scripture refers to
these phenomena as dreams,
rather than prophecy. What is
the difference between the two?
I believe that dreams involve
basically individuals, whereas
prophecies involve nations.
The Prophet Yeshayahu pronounced
his tragic vision of the fate of
Yerushalayim in the Haftarah of
“Chazon Yeshayahu:” “Your
country is desolate, your cities
are burned with fire, your land
– before you strangers consume
it; it is desolate as if
overturned by strangers. The
daughter of Zion shall be left
like a deserted watchman’s booth
in a vineyard, like a shed in a
gourd garden, like a city under
siege.” (Yeshayahu 1:7-8) Yet
the prophet does leave the door
open for Teshuvah; for the
exercise of free will: “Wash
yourselves, purify yourselves,
remove the evil of your doings
from before My eyes; desist from
doing evil. Learn to do good,
seek justice, strengthen the
victim; do justice for the
orphan; take up the cause of the
widow.” (Yeshayahu 1:16-17)
Much of the remainder of this
Dvar Torah was taken from the
encyclopedic compendium of
Jewish Tradition by HaRav Shmuel
Avraham Adler.
According to the Zohar, the
Angel Gavriel administers dreams
to individuals all over the
world, to Jew and Gentile,
relating to their personal goals
and desires. But prophecy is
limited to the Holy Land of
Israel and to the interests of
the Holy Nation of Israel.
What does Yoseph mean by “Do not
interpretations of dreams belong
to G-d? But nevertheless, relate
your dreams to me.” (Bereshis
40:8) The answer of the Zohar is
that - that is the appropriate
way to interpret dreams, to
communicate the idea that the
interpretation is dependent on
HaShem, for that is where the
fulfillment of everything is.
(Zohar, 254)
Rabbi Chanan said, “Even if the
‘Master of Dreams’ said to the
dreamer, ‘Tomorrow you will
die,’ he should not give up the
possibility of mercy, and pray
for compassion.” (Berachos 10b)
Rav Chanina said, “If one sees a
well in his dream, it is a sign
of peace as it says, ‘And the
servants of Yitzchok dug a
well…’ (Bereshis26:25) Rabbi
Chanan said, “There are three
signs of peace: a river, a bird
and a pot. Rabbi Chanina (who
must have been a vegetarian)
said, “The pot cannot have any
meat in it.”
It is impossible for a dream not
to have some items in it which
are meaningless, as we see from
Yoseph’s
dream, where he said that his
mother would bow to him, and at
that time, he had no mother.
There can be many symbols in
dreams. Most are good; a small
number are bad. Most people,
animals, fruit, colors
(strangely, except ‘techeiles,’
which is, except for in the
context of ‘tzitzis.’
destructive).
Don’t be despondent if you have
no money to travel. You can
travel in a dream, for indeed,
someone may be dreaming here (in
Israel) and find himself in his
dream in Spain.
There are four wise men: If one
sees Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri in
a dream, he should hope for the
attribute of fear of sin; If one
sees Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah,
he should hope for greatness and
riches; If one sees Rabbi
Yishmael, he should hope for
wisdom; If one sees Rabbi Akiva,
he should worry about
punishment. (Avos D’Rabbi Nathan
40:10) (The last is very
strange, for Rabbbi Akiva was
one of the greatest of the wise
men of the Jewish People;
perhaps, his greatness was
outweighed by his mistaken
political/religious beliefs
(that Bar Kosiva was the
Moshiach) and/or the terrible
manner in which he was killed by
the Romans.)
Back to Trump! Obviously, Mr.
Trump has a number of faults.
But perhaps his positive actions
show that he has the potential
to do Teshuvah, and become a
good and valuable friend of
Israel, the object of the
prophecies of our great prophets
and of the individual dreams of
hundreds of millions of Jews
throughout history.
L’Illuy Nishmas beni, Aharon
Baruch Mordechai ben Pinchas
Menachem
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