The Soul’s Metaphor
According to the Ba’al Shem Tov all of our material ambitions should never be construed as being no more than just a desire for more material wealth. When we crave physical “things” it is actually the soul using figurative language. It says one thing, but it really means something entirely different.
Rubbing it in
This week’s parsha describes the animosity between Joseph and his brothers. While it started with Jacob showing favoritism to Joseph, it was exacerbated by Joseph himself when he related two of his dreams to them. Both dreams intimated that Joseph was their master and that ultimately they would all bow down to him. After he had told them the first dream that involved the sheaves of grain of his brothers bowing down to his sheave, they responded by showing their animosity to him.
Joseph, however, did not relent. As commentators point out, Joseph, incredulously, continued to relate to them his second dream:
“And he dreamt another dream [about the sun, moon and stars bowing to him] and he told it to his brothers.”
Why, these commentators ask, did he continue to antagonize them by relating his other dream? Shouldn’t he have realized the error of his ways after the first dream?
The Anatomy of Dreams
The answer provided by commentators—with some modification—lies in the nature of dreams. There are actually two forms of dreams. According to the Talmud (Berachos 55b) we dream at night what we think about during the day. Chassidic literature describes this phenomenon as an opportunity for the soul to purge itself from all the negative thoughts that it harbored during the day. A second form of dream is known as the prophetic dream, one that conveys a message from G-d.
In relating the first dream—that dealt with sheaves of grain, material wealth and power—Joseph’s brothers were convinced that Joseph was overly ambitious and was constantly thinking about how he could acquire great wealth so that he would dominate them. This obviously engendered feelings of hostility towards Joseph.
In truth, Joseph’s dreams were not a product of his fancy. They were Divine messages of prophecy that he dared not suppress. So when Joseph realized that they were taking his dreams the wrong way, Joseph thus told them of his second dream that involved the celestial bodies as a way of suggesting that the dream was a heavenly one because it conveyed a heavenly message.
The Holy-Mundane Dream
This analysis, however, begs the question: If Joseph’s dreams were truly so heavenly, why was his first dream so mundane? Why was it about sheaves or stalks of grain?
One of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teachings can shed some light on this matter. The Ba’al Shem Tov explained that even the physical appetite we have for food is truly the body’s response to the soul’s desire to extract the spiritual energy (in Kabbalistic terminology: “the sparks”) contained in the food. The same can be said of all our material ambitions. In essence they are spiritual aspirations that express themselves in a material form.
This situation can be compared to a person who employs a figure of speech that can be misunderstood by someone not familiar with the expression. For example: If one were to say, “don’t beat around the bush,” the true meaning of that expression has nothing to do with bushes and beatings. Rather it relates to the idea of getting straight to the point. It would demonstrate ignorance of what is an expression for someone to take this expression literally Similarly, all of our material ambitions should never be construed as being no more than just a desire for more material wealth. When we crave physical “things” it is actually the soul using figurative language. It says one thing, but it really means something entirely different.
And this was the conflict between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph’s material dreams were just metaphors for his spiritual aspirations. His brothers took his dreams at face value. To them Joseph was just interested in material domination.
Two Reasons for Wanting Moshiach
Maimonides, in his monumental code of law, discusses two reasons why, throughout history, Jews yearned for the coming of Moshiach. The sages and prophets were interested in the freedom it would yield that will enable them to devote themselves to Torah study and the pursuit of spiritual knowledge. For others, less sophisticated, however, the desire for Moshiach is rooted in the belief that at that time “all the delicacies will be as abundant as the dust of the earth.”
The question arises, why even bother to refer to such a backward reason to pray for the Messianic Age?
However, in light of the above analysis—that craving for delicacies is actually a metaphoric expression of the soul’s desire for heightened spirituality—even such a rationale is worthy of consideration, because deep down that is the soul’s metaphor for its desire for Redemption.
As we mature spiritually, we begin to strip away the metaphor to appreciate the soul’s true rationale for Moshiach and Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayeishev by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
