DREAMS

Our Parsha this week discusses the relationship between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph had two dreams, two visions. He dreamt of his אלומת, sheaves, which rose and stood up high while the sheaves of his brothers came and bowed down to him. Then he dreamt of the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down to him. These dreams angered his brothers greatly and aroused much envy.

The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitcik זצ׳ל, interprets these two visions in a truly insightful way. He says that the first dream speaks of material and economic power. The second dream revolved around the spiritual greatness - of achieving great spirituality which was evident by the heavenly grandeur that was seen in this vision.

The Rav seems to probe the qualities of man and wonders, "Can man achieve  and fulfill both dreams in life?" Can one truly be successful in the economic and material world and at the same time achieve a life of spirituality and ethics.

Yosef was sure that this could be done and as his life progressed we see that he did fulfill both these visions in a magnificent way, albeit under great hardship.  I sense, for this enormous accomplishment, Yosef is referred to as יוסף הצדיק.

The Rav also points out that the כתונת פסים , the multi colored coat that Jacob made for Joseph , alludes to this multifaceted life expierences of combining the materialistic and the spiritual in our lives and finding success in both fields of endeavor.

  מעשה אבות סימן לבנים , we need to use יוסף as our model in our life and especially in the lives of our children. We need to show them that we can live in our modern world and be a success in any endeavor that we choose and at the same time hold tenaciously and proudly to the ways of our Torah and to the ethics that our Judaic way promulgates to us. 

The dreams of Joseph must become our reality to assure our Torah oriented way of life will be our glorious future.

As we approach the holiday of Chanukah, this lesson is extremely important as we light the Chanukah candles and recite הנרות הללו קדש הם, these lights are holy for they represent the spirituality and religiosity that dispels the darkness of alienation and assimilation.  

Chanukah means dedication and with the influence of Yosef,  we will  infiltrate our lives with spirituality and worldly achievement.

Remembering well that Yosef was always a dreamer and as long as he dreamed of a glorious time for the Jewish People  then hopefully they will find their salvation.

Let us keep this dream alive. Through our passion we will nurture our dreams of peace and security.

May the glow of our Chanukah candles illuminate our lives with meaning and purpose and brotherly love and to be זוכה,once again, to light the Menorah in our Holy בית המקדש in ירושלים.

( This D'var  Torah is written לעלוי נשמת אליעזר צבי בן חנא יהודה ליב )