17 Dec VAYESHEV: A TALE OF TWO DREAMS TO LIVE IS TO DO

Dreams
Once Bereishit hits its
second half, everyone
starts dreaming.
Yaakov has two
dreams. Yosef has two
dreams. Paraoh’s
butler and baker are
dreaming. And Pharaoh himself is dreaming.
“I have a dream” is how you can sum up the
second half of Bereishit. Everyone is
dreaming—about something.
Yosef is in prison. In prison, he services the
king’s butler and baker who have also been
imprisoned. One morning they share with him
their dreams.
So the chief cupbearer related his dream to
Yosef, and he said to him, “In my dream,
behold, a vine is before me. And on the vine
are three tendrils, and it seemed to be
blossoming, and its buds came out; [then] its
clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh’s
cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and
squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I
placed the cup on Pharaoh’s palm.
Yosef decodes:
And Yosef said to him, “This is its meaning:
the three tendrils are three days. In another
three days, Pharaoh will number you [with the

other officers], and he will restore you to your
position, and you will place Pharaoh’s cup
into his hand, according to [your] previous
custom, when you were his cupbearer.
The baker is happy with what he hears and
presents his dream.
“Me too! In my dream, behold, there were
three wicker baskets on my head. And in the
top most basket were all kinds of Pharaoh’s
food, a baker’s work; and the birds were
eating them from the basket atop my head.
Yosef interprets this dream as follows:
“This is its meaning: the three baskets
represent three days… In another three days,
Pharaoh will remove your head from you and
hang you on gallows, and the birds will eat
your flesh off you.”
Why the Difference?
There is an obvious difficulty in this story.
Considering all the similarities in their
respective dreams [the threes (clusters of
grapes and the three baskets of baked goods),
their specialties (wine and pastries), and their
very self-presence, why did Yosef interpret
these dreams in radically different and
opposite ways?
When the butler dreams of seeing grapes and
him squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh’s

goblet and placing it on the king’s hand, Yosef
sees this in the most literal sense: You will
once again prepare wine for the king and
deliver it to him. Why then when the baker
dreams of holding baskets on his head with
Pharaoh’s pastries does Yosef not see it in the
same way: the baker is back on his job,
preparing bread for Pharaoh and carrying
them to the king, while the birds are enjoying
a snack on the way?
What is more, while the dream of the butler is
explained literally, the dream of the baker
must resort to symbolism. The birds’ eating
the breads in the basket does not mean that
they will eat the bread, it means they will eat
his flesh after he is hung by Pharaoh? But
why? Why not just say that the birds will eat
from the actual bread the baker will have
prepared for Pharaoh?
The Painting
The famous Dubner Maggid, Rabbi Jacob
Kranz (1741-1804), the 18th century
Ukrainian great storyteller and preacher,
explains it via a story:
A talented artist could paint a picture with
such realism that it seemed at times impossible
to distinguish it from actual life. Once he
drew a scene that portrayed a man standing in
an open field with a food-basket on top of his
head. The painting was so authentic, and
seemed so real, that actual birds were
swooping down to try to eat the bread in the
painting. He presented it to the king –who
so proud of his new acquisition, offered a
handsome reward for one who could find
any fault in the painting.
Many challengers came but alas, no one was
successful in finding but a single flaw in the
incredible painting. It was just perfect.
Until an old man approached the painting.
Observing the phenomena of the birds
trying to eat the bread pictured atop the head
of the man portrayed in the painting, he
realized that he had discovered a serious
problem with its realism. Indeed, the king
gave him the money.
The old man said this: if the birds are trying
to eat the bread atop the man’s head then
there is something wrong with the man – for
if the birds would perceive the man as true
to life, they would be too afraid to approach!
Birds would never approach a living person
with a basket on his head. Thus the painting
is portraying a contradiction which is unreal.
Either the person in the painting is alive and
the birds stay away, or the man is dead and
then the birds enjoy the feast on his head.
This was Yosef’s tipoff. In the butler’s
dream, the butler himself served Pharaoh. In
the baker’s dream, he was passive, while the
birds swooped down. This must have meant
that he was not among the living.
Passive or Active?
This was further demonstrated to Yosef by
observing one striking difference between
the dreams. In the butler’s dream he was

active. He was actively squeezing grapes and
serving wine to Pharaoh. He was doing
something. In the baker’s dream, the baker
remains completely passive throughout the
entire dream. Things happen to him; not
through him. He has three baskets of bread on
his head. He does not place them there; they
are just found on him. The birds are eating the
pastries. He is not doing anything; he is just
observing what the birds are doing to him.
This is the difference between life and the
opposite of life. Thus, each of their dreams
represented their fate. One of them pictured
himself as a helpless victim of external
circumstances. The birds swoop down and
take at will while he remains a non-entity in
his own life- circumstance. He is simply
observing things happening to him. The other
sees himself as a player and a doer. Yosef
knew that one dream represents life; the
other—death.
Do!
This distinction exists within each of our
lives. Yosef’s message speaks to each of us.
They say there are three types of people: those
who make things happen; those who watch
things happen; and those you have to tell that
something happened.
We are all imprisoned in one way or another—
we all must face forces that hold us back and
hold us down. Each of us has our “shackles,”
internal emotions or external circumstances,
that limit us.
The question is not whether we are in a prison.
We are all in some form of prison. The bigger
question is are we doing something about it,
or are we waiting for things to happen to us.
The sign of life is action. Do something. Make
a move. Create some change. Reach out.
Don’t just go to sleep. Action is the path to
freedom. Inaction becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
“One act is superior to one hundred sighs,” a
great Rebbe once remarked.
It is true in our personal and in our collective
lives. We often hear about the crisis of Jewish
continuity, or of various maladies that plague
our communities. We read reports, statics, and
dire predictions. And we sigh.
What Yosef is telling us is that the most
important question is not where we are, but
what we are doing about it. You are worried
for the continuity of our people, so DO. Do
something. Anything. But do. There is a
Jewish child you know? Sponsor his or her
Jewish education! There is a depressed
teenager you know? Call him up and invite
him for a meal and a hug.
Enough with the sighs; time for the deeds.
And when you do, G-d will do the rest.