(3) Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colours.
(4) And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
(5) And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.
(6) And he said unto them: ‘Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
(7) for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and bowed down to my sheaf.’
(8) And his brethren said to him: ‘Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?’ And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
(9) And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said: ‘Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream: and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.’
(10) And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him: ‘What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down to thee to the earth?’
(11) And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind. .
(1) And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.
(2) And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
(3) And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
(4) And the captain of the guard charged Joseph to be with them, and he ministered unto them; and they continued a season in ward.
(5) And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.
(6) And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and, behold, they were sad. (7) And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in the ward of his master’s house, saying: ‘Wherefore look ye so sad to-day?’
(8) And they said unto him: ‘We have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it.’ And Joseph said unto them: ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? tell it me, I pray you.’
(9) And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him: ‘In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
(10) and in the vine were three branches; and as it was budding, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes,
(11) and Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.’
(12) And Joseph said unto him: ‘This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;
(13) within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head, and restore thee unto thine office; and thou shalt give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
(14) But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. (15) For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.’
(16) When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph: ‘I also saw in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head;
(17) and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked food for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.’
(18) And Joseph answered and said: ‘This is the interpretation thereof: the three baskets are three days;
(19) within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.’
(20) And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
(21) And he restored the chief butler back unto his butlership; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
(22) But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. (23) Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him.
חלום אף על פי שמקצתו מתקיים כולו אינו מתקיים מנא לן מיוסף דכתיב (בראשית לז, ט) והנה השמש והירח וגו'
A dream, though it be fulfilled in part, is never completely realized. From where is this learned? From Joseph; for it is written, "And behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me" (Gen. xxxvii. 9);
Rab Hisda also said : An uninterpreted dream is like an unread letter. Rab Hisda also said: Neither a good nor a bad dream is fulfilled in every detail. Rab Hisda also said: A bad dream is preferable to a good dream. Rab Hisda also said : When a dream is bad, the pain it causes is sufficient [to prevent its fulfilment], and when the dream is good, the joy it brings is sufficient.
(א) ויחלום, החלום הזה מבואר הפתרון, כי השמש והירח הם אביו ואמו, ואחד עשר כוכבים הם אחיו שהיו אחד עשר. והחלומות שנכתבים שבאו דרך משל וחידה כמו חלומות יוסף וחלום המשקה והאופה וחלום פרעה וחלום נבוכדנאצר וחלום גדעון בן יואש שהתאמתו לפי הפתרון היה בהם חלק גדול מהנבואה והיו מאת האל לצורך עבדיו:
(1) ויחלום, in this dream the meaning is crystal clear. Sun and moon refer to Joseph’s parents, whereas the stars refer to his brothers, seeing there were 11 stars in the dream and Joseph had eleven brothers. All the dreams the content of which the Torah described are to be understood as posing a riddle, a challenge to translate the symbols described in the respective dreams into the matching reality in the “real” world. This is true not only of Joseph’s dreams, but equally of the dreams of the cup-bearer and of the Chief of the bakers whom Joseph met in jail. Also Pharaoh’s dream as related in the Torah, and the dream of Nevuchadnezzar as described in the Book of Daniel follow the same pattern. All of them became reality in accordance with the manner in which they had been interpreted.