A story goes that a woman tells her husband that she has this amazing dream. In the dream he receives amazing diamond earings, a stunning necklace, and a matching braclet. Her husband says, ” Oh, you wait until you Birthday.” His wife is elated. On her birthday he gives her a wrapped gift. Inside she finds a copy of Interpretation of Dreams by Freud.
In Miketz, this week’s Torah portion, we read about Pharoah’s dreams. No one being able to interpret them. It is only at this point that the butler remembers Yosef and pulls him out of prison. Pharaoh shares his dreams of seven fat cows that are swallowed up by seven lean cows, and of seven fat ears of grain swallowed by seven lean ears. Yosef interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of hunger, and advises Pharaoh to store grain during the plentiful years. In fact this comes to pass and Egypt and through them the world are saved from this famine.
It is a possible that Yosef have a real gift to interpret dreams. It is also possible that Yosef gave Pharoah a good plan for risk management that helped him short the market. Like the disgruntled wife in the story, Pharoah really just wanted “amazing diamond earings, a stunning necklace, and a matching braclet.” Maybe it is less about interpreting dreams and more about understanding people and their motivations.
Said to Myself 
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