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miketz ץ ֵּ ק ִמ
£Pharaoh’s Dreams £Pharaoh’s Dreams Pharaoh’s Dreams
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and Their Eternal Moral Relevance
and Their Eternal Moral Relevanceand Their Eternal Moral Relevance
Pharaoh’s two dreams are the last of the ten recorded in the book of
Bereishit. Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and in so doing becomes
the vizier of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh’s two
dreams are similar. In his first dream, he sees seven healthy cows
emerge from the Nile and graze until seven ugly, gaunt cows emerge
and consume them. In his second dream, seven healthy ears of grain
sprout on one stalk of wheat followed by seven unhealthy ones.
The thin ones, scorched by an eastern wind, consume the healthy
ones (Genesis 41:1-7). Pharaoh aroused his advisors, but none could
interpret the dreams. Since this is somewhat surprising, Rashi
explains that the advisors actually offered reasonable interpretations,
but Pharaoh rejected them.
The Sages explained that Pharaoh had actually dreamed the
interpretation as well, but he had forgotten it upon awaking. When
he hears Joseph’s interpretation, it rings true because the true
interpretation was buried in his subconscious. This point is crucial
because oftentimes the meaning of a dream is either quite obvious
to us or is easy to recognize when we are presented with the correct
interpretation.
Chassidut explains that every detail in the Torah is dedicated to
teaching us how to best serve God and how to bring out the best in
ourselves. The Slonimer Rebbe, in Netivot Shalom, explains that the
seven healthy cows and ears of grain represent our positive traits,
while the sickly ones represent our evil inclination. In addition to the
interpretation Joseph gave to Pharaoh, these dreams teach us that
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Vayishlach
Mashiach, whose name also equals 358 (without adding a one). But
what does this have to do with Jacob and Esau?
Jacob’s crossing back over the Yabbok represents, as we explained
above, his need to come to terms with himself before confronting
Esau. He was unsettled and agitated, unprepared for his meeting
with destiny. We noted that the wrestling match he had with the
“man” he met there, on the one hand, reflects his internal struggle
but, on the other hand, also reflects his wrestling with the dark and
difficult relationship he had with Esau.
This, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg, as Rashi hints to
an even more profound struggle going on. Rashi proposes that the
“man” Jacob wrestled with was Esau’s angel; according to tradition,
this angel is none other than Satan himself. Thus, this wrestling
match is merely a reflection of the real battle going on between Jacob,
representing the forces of good, and Esau and his angel, representing
the forces of evil.
Jacob’s very name alludes to this battle for he was born holding
onto Esau’s heel. The word “heel” was first mentioned in the Torah
after the snake had convinced Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil and Adam ate as well. God cursed the snake and
concluded by describing the eternal battle between humankind and
the evil inclination (the snake): “He will pound your head and you
will bite his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
The archetypal image of Satan biting at humanity’s heel comes to
life in Jacob holding onto Esau’s heel, determined to prevent Esau
from “biting his heel.” The wrestling match that Jacob waged on that
auspicious night was indeed a fight to the eschatological end: Satan
versus the Messianic spark in Jacob, that spark of potential which
had been waiting Jacob’s entire life to be awakened. Jacob’s crossing
the stream to retrieve his “small vessels” was in fact his engaging in
the struggle to awaken the Messianic spark in him to combat Satan.
This entire spiritual equation is alluded to by the numbers 358 and
359.
Parenthetically, in Judaism, Satan is not an evil force independent
of God, competing with Him for the throne of glory. The role that
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