I

n one of the greatest transformations in 
all literature, Joseph moves in a single 
bound from prisoner to Prime Minister. 
What was it about Joseph — a complete 
outsider to Egyptian culture, a “Hebrew,
” a 
man who had been languishing in jail on a 
false charge of attempted rape 
— that marked him out as a 
leader of the greatest empire 
of the ancient world?
Joseph had three gifts that 
many have in isolation but 
few in combination. The first 
is that he dreamed dreams. 
Initially we do not know 
whether his two adolescent 
dreams — of his brothers’ sheaves bowing 
down to his, and of the sun, moon and 11 
stars bowing down to him — are a genuine 
presentiment of future greatness or merely 
the overactive imagination of a spoiled child 
with delusions of grandeur.
Only in this week’s parshah of Mikketz 
do we discover a vital piece of information 
that has been withheld from us until now. 
Joseph says to Pharaoh, who has also had 
two dreams: “The reason the dream was 
given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the 
matter has been firmly decided by God, and 
God will do it soon” (Gen. 41:32). 
Only in retrospect do we realize that 
Joseph’s double dream was a sign that this, 
too, was no mere imagining. Joseph really 
was destined to be a leader to whom his 
family would bow down.
Second, like Sigmund Freud many 
centuries years later, Joseph had a gift for 
interpreting the dreams of others. He did 
so for the butler and baker in prison and, in 
this week’s parshah, for Pharaoh. His inter-
pretations were neither magical nor mirac-

ulous. In the case of the butler and baker, 
he remembered that in three days’ time it 
would be Pharaoh’s birthday (Gen. 40:20). It 
was the custom of rulers to make a feast on 
their birthday and decide the fate of certain 
individuals. (In Britain, the Queen’s birth-
day honors continue this tradition.) It was 
reasonable, therefore, to assume the butler’s 
and baker’s dreams related to this event and 
their unconscious hopes and fears. 
In the case of Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph 
may have known ancient Egyptian tradi-
tions about seven-year famines. Nahum 
Sarna quotes an Egyptian text from the 
reign of King Djoser (ca. 28th century 
BCE): “I was in distress on the Great 
Throne, and those who are in the palace 
were in heart’s affliction from a very great 
evil since the Nile had not come in my time 
for a space of seven years. Grain was scant, 
fruits were dried up, and everything which 
they eat was short.
” 
Joseph’s most impressive achievement, 
though, was his third gift, the ability to 
implement dreams, solving the problem 
of which they were an early warning. No 
sooner had he told of a seven-year famine 
then he continued, without pause, to pro-
vide a solution:
“Now let Pharaoh look for a discerning 
and wise man and put him in charge of the 
land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint com-
missioners over the land to take a fifth of 
the harvest of Egypt during the seven years 
of abundance. They should collect all the 
food of these good years that are coming 
and store up the grain under the authority 
of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 
This food should be held in reserve for the 
country, to be used during the seven years 
of famine that will come upon Egypt, so 

that the country may not be ruined by the 
famine.
” (Gen. 41:33-36)
We have seen Joseph the brilliant admin-
istrator before, both in Potiphar’s house and 
in the prison. It was this gift, demonstrated 
at precisely the right time, that led to his 
appointment as viceroy of Egypt.

LESSONS FROM JOSEPH
From Joseph, therefore, we learn three prin-
ciples. The first is: dream dreams. Never be 
afraid to let your imagination soar. When 
people come to me for advice about lead-
ership, I tell them to give themselves the 
time and space and imagination to dream. 
In dreams we discover our passion, and 
following our passion is the best way to live 
a rewarding life. 
Dreaming is often thought to be imprac-
tical. Not so; it is one of the most practical 
things we can do. There are people who 
spend months planning a holiday but 
do not give even a day to planning their 
life. They let themselves be carried by the 
winds of chance and circumstance. That is 
a mistake. The Sages said, “Wherever [in 
the Torah] we find the word vayehi, ‘
And 
it came to pass,
’ it is always the prelude to 
tragedy.
” A vayehi life is one in which we 
passively let things happen. A yehi (“Let 
there be”) life is one in which we make 
things happen, and it is our dreams that 
give us direction.
Theodor Herzl, to whom more than any 
other person we owe the existence of the 
State of Israel, used to say, “If you will it, it is 
no dream.
” I once heard a wonderful story 
from Eli Wiesel. There was a time when 
Sigmund Freud and Theodor Herzl lived in 
the same district of Vienna. “Fortunately,
” 
he said, “they never met. Can you imagine 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
Three 
Approaches 
 to Dreams 

44 | DECEMBER 2 • 2021 

