Yosef, The Dreamer

Why are dreams so essential to the story of Yosef?  His whole life seems to revolve around dreams, from being the cause of his sale into slavery, to his ticket to freedom and greatness.  And the obvious question, why did the brothers want to kill Yosef, were these holy men willing to kill their brother because they were jealous?

The Sfas Emes writes in many maamarem that Yosef is connected to tosefes - additional.  Yosef is the embodiment of tosefes Shabbos, which is the ability to bring kedusha into the chol.  That’s why Yosef is called the offspring of Yaakov,  for he had the ability to bring out the kochos of Yaakov into the world.  Yaakov was complete kedusha, his face carved onto the merchava.  Yosef has the ability to bring this kedusha of Yaakov into the world.  With this idea, the Sfas Emes explains why the dream of Yosef is about gathering sheaves from a field. The bundles of wheat follow only after a lot of work was put into the field.  When one sees the bundle of wheat, he understands the point of all the work.  Shabbos is the point of all the work of the week, when one sees Shabbos he understands the what all the days of the work led to.  Yosef is the Shabbos of the week, he was able to bring out the kedusha that exists in the mundane.  He was able to bring out the point of all the work.  That’s why it’s specifically Yosef that’s able to go down to Egypt, for he wasn't affected by his surroundings, even in the most corrupt land he was able to bring the kedusha of Yaakov .

 As discussed here, Yaakov felt it was necessary to set up boundaries between Klal Yisroel and the other nations.  There was an effort made to stop outside influences from penetrating into Klal Yisroel.  The brothers saw Yosef's willingness to go out into the world, to step over the boundaries as putting the sanctity of Klal Yisroel in jeopardy.   See Hoshea 7:8 where it says "Efraim (Yosef) mingles with the nations."  This presents a great challenge, how will this mingling not lead to sin?   Specifically, Shimon and Levi, who were so concerned about the sanctity of Klal Yisroel that they were willing to wipe out an entire city for it, were very worried about the message of Yosef.  They believed that the existence of Klal Yisroel was at stake and therefore deemed Yosef worthy of being killed.  Yehuda was not far off from their view, but elected to spare Yosef's life.  

These two opinions are reflected by the method of temple worship of both Yosef and Yehuda.  Yosef is the mishkan man, the mishkan Shilo was built in his portion of Eretz Yisroel.  The mishkan is the temple of spreading kedusha, it’s portable, it can be moved to spread kedusha to other places.  It's kedusha is not limited by walls, as long as the mishkan could be seen, kodshim could be eaten.  Yehuda on the other hand, is the mikdash man.  He is the champion of contained kedusha, the mikdash is built in his portion of Eretz Yisroel.  The mikdash is a walled, permanent structure.  It is built to contain the kedusha within and as a result kodshim may only be eaten within its walls (Harav Kook.) 

I would suggest that that’s why Yosef’s life revolves around dreams.  A dream is where opposites are able to coexist.  (See Torah Or on this week’s parsha.)  Yosef had the ability to bridge what seemed opposites together.   The tumah of Egypt, seemingly the opposite end of the spectrum in comparison to his upbringing in the house of Yaakov, was not a contradiction.  Not only was Yosef not influenced by Egypt, he ruled over it.  He was able to bring Yaakov down to Egypt and infuse the land with kedusha.   

Rav Kook connects his idea to the story of Chanukah.  The Greeks told Klal Yisroel to write on a horn of an ox that they have no connection to Hashem.  The ox represents Yosef (beracha in V'zos Haberacha.)  The Greeks said follow in the ways of Yosef and intermingle with us, become like us.  Of course, they missed the boat.  Yosef teaches us not how to be like the gentiles, rather how to live amongst them but infuse them with kedusha.  It is a oneway street, we give to them but don't receive.