The Miketz Portion (5761)

With God's help, on the eve of the holy Sabbath of the Miketz portion, 5761

Dreams and Their Meaning

In our portion the Torah describes Pharaoh's two dreams, and also the interpretations that

Joseph proposes for them. Joseph is the 'dreamer,' as his brothers call him in the previous

portion. There he himself dreams two dreams, although their interpretation requires no external

interpreter, and it appears clear to all who hear them, who rebuke him for his dreams of greatness.

Even so, in our portion these four dreams are indeed fulfilled.

Rabbinic literature displays an ambivalent attitude toward dreams. On the one hand: 'A dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy' (Berakhot 57b),

and on the other hand: 'dreams speak vanity' (Zechariah 10:2). There is a true dimension in dreams, if only they are interpreted correctly.

But this mode in which truth appears is wrapped in a great deal of fantasy, and this must be separated from

the essential point. Jacob our patriarch also behaves ambivalently when he hears Joseph's dreams: he rebukes him,

yet in his heart he keeps the matter.

In our day, in the era after Freud, the attitude toward dreams has once again become significant.

Psychology sees the dream as a channel through which the unconscious brings to the surface matters

that the waking person tries to repress. Dream interpretation is a very popular profession in our day, except

that it is no longer the concern of sorcerers or magicians. Today it is a 'scientific' profession, which regards

the dream as an internal, and not an external, message.

The prophet too was, in a certain sense, a dreamer of dreams, except that there the dreams reflected a divine message.

Modern scholars would say here too that these were ordinary dreams, that is, creations of the

dreamer's imagination, except that perhaps these dreams bore a universal message, and therein lies their value (see our comments

on the Vayishlach portion, and that suffices for the discerning…).

The historical process of attitudes toward dreams reflects a more general process that humanity undergoes:

At first, in the mythic stage of human culture, dreams are perceived as reflecting an external message.

Later, in the 'rational' age of human culture, they are perceived as meaningless illusions.

And in our time, in the post-rational age, they once again take their place, except that this time their importance is

in a subjective, private sense. They come from within the dreamer himself, apparently illusions, but since

they are important to the dreamer himself, we do not belittle them on that account. Attitudes toward

other psychological phenomena, such as 'spirit possession,' or mental illness, have likewise undergone a historical

parallel process.

This is a basic three-stage process, which every individual person undergoes, and human culture

in general as well:

The dogmatic stage (and in general culture: the mythic stage—the period of idol worship,

mythologies): childhood, in which a person takes for granted everything he is told.

The rational stage (philosophy and science, from the time of Greece onward): adolescence, in which a person begins

to rebel, not to accept without an explanation, to seek logic in everything. An adolescent tends not

to accept things without an explanation.

The post-rational stage (from the middle of the previous century): adulthood, in which a person understands that not everything

has an explanation, and that even subjective things have value, that is, even without knowing an explanation.

Maturation, which is the transition from the second stage to the third, whether on the plane of the individual

person or on the plane of the history of human culture in general, usually occurs when the hope of finding

an explanation for everything is disappointed. Usually those rationalists (adolescents) who are in the second stage

discover that most (and, in my opinion, all) of our beliefs are based on intuitions and not on clear

proofs.

It is important to note that one can leave the 'rational' stage of adolescence (stage 2) in two

alternative ways, and after despairing of clear-cut explanations and proofs formulate stage 3,

the subjective stage, in two forms:

3a. Pessimistic despair of truth: that is, to conclude that everything is relative and that there is no truth. Such an approach continues

to assume, as in childhood, that every truth must have a proof, except that it now understands that it is impossible

to find such proofs.

3b. An optimistic view of truth: alternatively, one may understand that the previous assumption itself is mistaken.

That is, not every truth requires a proof, and intuition carries important, perhaps decisive,

weight in understanding the world.

The post-rational stage, as we discern it in contemporary culture, usually chooses the

first option. Even things lacking value and lacking proof (dreams) can be ascribed value, since real value

exists in nothing. Subjectivity (or existentialism) has become the

supreme value, and in fact the only one.

As stated, there is an alternative to this. One can understand that even if things do not have definitive proof, they still

have value. Not because there is no notion of truth at all, but on the contrary: simple truth simply does not

need proofs.

One can conceive of dreams, and perhaps also cases of spirit possession, as coming from an external source and not from the

individual's subjective psyche, even if we have no proof of the existence of that external source, and even

if we have no proof of the connection between it and the dreamer (or the possessed person). This is a view

that 'a dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy' (Berakhot 57b), literally.

The 'rational,' that is, psychological, explanations for the source of dreams, as with cases of spirit possession,

are not necessarily a substitute for the 'old-fashioned' explanations. The possessing spirit may be a demon that enters a person, just as

a dream may be a message that comes to him from outside. Modern psychology, which finds for these phenomena

'subjective' explanations, and uses a different conceptual system, is not necessarily more

rational.

And perhaps, even if in an 'unconscious' way (in both senses of the term!!), this is merely a different

language for expressing the same thing…

Have a peaceful Sabbath

It may be consigned to the repository for sacred writings in any synagogue or Torah academy. Comments and responses will be welcomed.

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