Parshas Mikeitz
1. At the beginning of Parshas Mikeitz the Torah tells at length about Pharaoh's two dreams: the dream of the cows and the dream of the ears of grain. It also tells of the interpretation (explanation) that Yosef gave the dreams: that they were a hint to the years of plenty and to the years of famine.
Why does the Torah tell, and at such length, all the details of Pharaoh's dreams? What matters, after all, is to know that Yosef told Pharaoh in advance about the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, through which Yosef became viceroy to the king in Egypt. But what difference does it make whether this came through dreams or in some other way? And even if the Torah does want to tell us that Pharaoh's dreams were what caused Yosef to become viceroy to the king in Egypt, this could have been told briefly: that no one apart from Yosef could interpret Pharaoh's dreams, and that their interpretation was seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Why do we need to know all the details of what a non-Jew saw in a dream?
The answer to this: the sequence of the matters as the Torah tells them shows that Pharaoh being informed about the years of plenty and the years of famine through dreams came as a result. It happened because that is how it had been earlier with Yosef: he was informed from Above about his own affairs through dreams, as told in the previous sidrah. Why was it this way with Pharaoh too? Because Yosef HaTzaddik was a general, all-inclusive soul, and he drew down into the world all the matters of Yaakov Avinu1. Since Yosef is "צדיק יסוד עולם" ("the tzaddik is the foundation of the world"), all the flow of blessing into the world has to pass through him. So just as with him the order then was that matters were revealed from Above through dreams, that same order was set up in the whole world, to the point that when news had to reach even Pharaoh king of Egypt, "מושל בכיפה" ("ruler under the dome" — the ruler of the whole world)2, this too came through a dream.
This is a main lesson for our avodah. When a Jew meets trials in the world from harmful pleasures and desires, he must know that they stem from him, from the Jew. It is not as those who think that one must follow the world; nor as those who say that in order to be able to keep Torah and mitzvos one has to adapt oneself to the world. On the contrary, the very existence of the world depends on a Jew. Because a certain pleasure takes hold in him, or he feels a certain desire, those same things exist in the world as well. But as they come in the world ("עולם", "world", from the word העלם, "concealment"), their source is not felt in them; they come to the Jew as if on their own, and they pull him to follow them. But since in truth they come from the Jew, then when he changes his own bad pleasures and desires into good ones, they will also be changed in the world.
Even more: even in a case where one cannot say that the trials stem from the Jew, because he is free of these pleasures and desires even in a subtle form, they come, in any case, because of him. For the whole of creation exists for the sake of Jews, "בשביל ישראל שנקראו ראשית" ("for the sake of Israel, who are called 'first'")3, so that he should withstand the trial. And when he calls up in himself the strength not to be swayed, it will then be revealed that the whole trial is only something imaginary, because the whole arrangement in the world depends on how the Jew arranges his own affairs.
2. Although Pharaoh's dreams were bound up with Yosef's dreams, they are opposites in their essence: Yosef's dreams are in holiness, and Pharaoh's dreams in the opposite side (לעומת זה). Therefore we find several differences between them, in the order and in the details of the dreams4.
a) Yosef's dreams begin right away with work: "מאלמים אלומים" ("binding sheaves"). In Pharaoh's dreams, by contrast, there is no mention of work at all. The reason is this. The holy flows of blessing are drawn from the Almighty to Jews (and the Almighty is perfect in the fullest sense, and He Himself is His own purpose; likewise a soul, which is "חלק אלקה ממעל ממש" ("truly a part of G‑d Above")5, has its purpose in itself and not in anything else, and therefore the same is true of the flows of blessing). So they are in the fullest perfection and goodness, and for that reason they must come specifically through work, so that there should be no "נהמא דכיסופא" ("bread of shame"), for then it would not be the ultimate good. It is different with the opposite side, with kelipah: in itself it has no purpose at all, and its whole existence is secondary, for the sake of something else. So its flows of blessing do not need the completeness of work either; they are given "for free", because in any case they have no real existence.
b) Yosef's dreams follow the order of "מעלין בקודש" ("one ascends in holiness"). They begin with "ears of grain", single stalks that are separate from one another, and from them "sheaves" are bound together: out of separate things comes something of unity (in the first dream). Then it reaches heavenly matters (sun, moon and stars, in the second dream). In the plain, physical sense too, "sheaves" are more valuable than "ears of grain", and precious stones and pearls, whose brightness comes from the stars6, point to much greater wealth than the "sheaves". Pharaoh's dreams, however, follow the order of "פוחת והולך" ("steadily decreasing"). The first dream is about "cows", the animal kingdom, and the second dream is about "ears of grain", which are a lower kingdom, the plant kingdom. This is even more striking when we consider that, by the order of nature, the order should have been first ears of grain and then cows. For whether the cows the first dream speaks of are "healthy of flesh" or "thin of flesh" depends on their food, on the grain. So the second dream should have come first. But because the order in the opposite side is "steadily decreasing", Pharaoh's dreams came in reverse order.
Also within each of Pharaoh's dreams there was a steady decrease. First he saw "שבע פרות יפות מראה ובריאות בשר" ("seven cows, beautiful in appearance and healthy of flesh"), and afterwards "רעות מראה ודקות בשר" ("bad in appearance and thin of flesh"); ears of grain "בריאות וטובות" ("healthy and good"), and then "דקות ושדופות קדים" ("thin and scorched by the east wind"). And more than that: in kelipah the good and beautiful keeps shrinking, so much that the beautiful and good cows and ears of grain are completely swallowed ("ותבלענה", "and they swallowed") by the bad and thin cows and ears.
The interpretation and the fulfillment of the dreams followed the same order: first came the years of plenty and then the years of famine, "steadily decreasing", to the point that "לא יודע השבע בארץ מפני הרעב ההוא" ("the plenty will not be known in the land because of that famine"): the earlier plenty could not be noticed because of the later hunger. (The fact that after the years of famine there were again years of plenty was not mentioned in Pharaoh's dreams; it no longer belonged to Pharaoh. The blessing of the later years of plenty came through the blessing of Yaakov.)
3. And this is the difference between holiness and the opposite side. Holiness exists forever and is not subject to any changes. The changes in holiness can only be in a manner of increase and ascent, "מעלין בקודש" ("one ascends in holiness"), "ילכו מחיל אל חיל" ("they go from strength to strength"), and since they are always only for the better, they are in truth not changes. (Even more: even the descents that a Jew does sometimes actually have, and also the descents found in Knesses Yisrael (the Sefirah of Malchus), "sometimes rising and sometimes descending"7, are not truly changes. For the will of a Jew, even here below8, is always the same will; and further, he is always "באמנה אתו" ("faithful to Him")9: to keep Torah and mitzvos and to rise in holiness. All the more so in the Sefirah of Malchus, where the intention in the descents is always for the sake of the ultimate ascent that will come later, "מנוחה לחיי העולמים" ("rest for life everlasting"). And since "במקום שרצונו של אדם שם הוא נמצא" ("where a person's will is, there he is"), all the descents are inwardly no changes at all. On the contrary, they are "rest", the opposite of change, like the will and intention that stand within them.)
But in kelipah there is an order of changes, and in the manner of "steadily decreasing". The reason, as said, is that kelipah is not a real existence in its own right; its whole existence is only to test the person and to call up in him deeper powers of holiness. And the more the person strengthens himself and rises in his avodah, the less he needs the trial, and so the existence of kelipah also grows weaker and weaker, "steadily decreasing", as our Sages say10: "כשזה קם זה נופל" ("when this one rises, that one falls").
This is also the general difference between the bulls of the festival (Sukkos), which correspond "כנגד שבעים אומות" ("to the seventy nations")11 and are therefore "מתמעטין והולכין" ("steadily decreasing")12, becoming fewer and fewer, and the Chanukah lights, which are holiness, where the order is "מוסיף והולך" ("steadily increasing"), "one ascends in holiness".
4. The lesson from this in avodah: when the thought comes to a person that he will be able to have certain flows of blessing without work, thinking that for certain reasons he will receive them even if he does not toil, he should know that this thought comes from the animal soul, from the opposite side, where work is not required. He must also know that the blessing he expects to receive in this way is, like every existence of the opposite side, "steadily decreasing", until nothing is left of it13. And on the other hand: when he toils in avodah, he can be sure that "יגעת ומצאת" ("you toiled and you found"). He will be given a "find" from Above, even more than his avodah deserves, and the further he goes, the more it grows: "one ascends in holiness".
(From the sichos of Shabbos Parshas Vayeshev 5720)
Notes
1) See Biurei HaZohar, beginning of Parshas Vayechi (30a ff.); Ohr HaTorah, the discourse beginning "Ben Poras Yosef" (386a), and elsewhere. See also below, Parshas Vayechi.
2) See Targum Sheni on Megillas Esther, at its beginning.
3) Osiyos d'Rabbi Akiva, letter Beis; Seder Rabbah d'Bereishis 4; Vayikra Rabbah 36:4; Tanchuma (Buber edition) 3; Rashi and Ramban on Bereishis 1:1.
4) On all this, see also above, Parshas Vayeshev, and HaMaayan there.
5) Tanya, beginning of ch. 2.
6) Likkutei Torah, Parshas Re'eh, the discourse beginning "VeSamti Kadkod".
7) Hosafos to Torah Ohr (118a).
8) This is not so in kelipah, of which it is said: "they intended it for the sake of Heaven" [OCR unclear] (Likkutei Torah, Chukas 62a).
9) Rambam, Laws of Divorce, end of ch. 2.
10) Rashi on Bereishis 25:23; Tanya ch. 13.
11) Sukkah 55b; cited in Rashi on Bamidbar 29:18.
12) Sukkah 47a, and Rashi there.
13) See Kuntres U'Maayan, end of Maamar 7.
Key Lesson
The world's trials depend on the Jew: when he changes himself, the world changes too, and the trial turns out to be imaginary. What comes without effort belongs to the opposite side and keeps shrinking until nothing is left, while what a Jew earns through real toil in avodah keeps growing, "one ascends in holiness".