The master of dreams – Mikketz
One after another of the great figures in Genesis have their dreams recorded in the Torah, including Joseph. But only Joseph is called ba’al hachalomot, “the master of dreams” (or “the master dreamer”).
As a boy his dreams are rather egotistical – “I’m going to be a great ruler when I grow up!”
In time they become more altruistic: “I’m going to do something for society”.
The crucial moment in his dream-history is when he interprets dreams for Pharaoh and he finds himself helping the king to manage his realm.
Since a person’s night-time dreams seem to reflect their day-time activities, we see the process of Joseph growing up in terms of how his dreams change.
In every age, a master dreamer has two kinds of dreams: positive ones in which the dreams are of a beautiful world in which there is love, peace, truth and justice… and negative ones in which everything goes wrong and the world becomes dark and frightening.
No-one can control their night-time dream-life, and the two types of dreams are evidence of how easy it would be for the world to be utopian and how hard it is to overcome the obstacles.
