Yosef, the young, perceptive "dreamer," understood what was developing in nearby Edom and recognized the need for the twelve sons of Yaakov to avoid this mistake. Unfortunately, Yosef's brothers misunderstood Yosef's dreams as reflecting personal ambitions of power, rather than purely idealistic visions of Am Yisrael and genuine concern for their development into a strong, fortified people.
Towards the beginning of Parashat Vayeshev we read of Yosef's famous dreams that foreshadowed his eventual rule over his brothers. In the first dream, Yosef beheld himself and his brothers binding sheaves of grain in the fields, when suddenly all his brothers' sheaves bowed before his. Yosef's second dream featured the sun, the moon and eleven stars – presumably alluding to his brothers and parents – bowing before him. Earlier this week, we saw the view of Rav Yaakov Mecklenberg, in his work Ha-ketav Ve-ha-kabbala, claiming that Yosef's dreams in no way resulted from his personal ambitions of power and authority. Based on Abarbanel's interpretation of the second verse of the parasha, Rav Mecklenberg held that Yosef conducted himself humbly and submissively with his brothers, and had no plans or desires of asserting any sort of authority over them. Other commentators, however, maintain that Yosef's dreams indeed reflected his ambitions to one day rule over his brothers (see, for example, Ramban and Seforno to 37:10).
Rav Yitzchak Stollman, in his work Minchat Yitzchak (Detroit, 1936), suggested a novel, more precise explanation as to the kind of youthful ambitions that led Yosef to behold these dreams of leadership. The final section of the previous parasha, Parashat Vayishlach, listed the children of Esav and concluded with the names of the alufim, or chieftains, of the Edomite nation that Esav founded. Rav Stollman suggested that the Torah here seeks to explain the reason why the nation of Edom never rose to regional prominence. Esav's descendants divided into independent tribes, each led by its own aluf, and never came together under a single banner of leadership. The Edomite tribes were economically independent, each supporting itself without pooling resources with the others, and they developed into distinct and politically disjointed provinces. This prevented the people of Edom from developing into a powerful nation that would exert any kind of influence over its neighboring nations.
Yosef, the young, perceptive "dreamer," understood what was developing in nearby Edom and recognized the need for the twelve sons of Yaakov to avoid this mistake. In his first dream, he saw all twelve brothers harvesting grain together in the same field, symbolizing economic cooperation and joint ventures. Indeed, the Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 84) comments on this dream, "You gather fruits and I gather fruits; yours rot and mine stand." Yosef foresaw the need for cooperation such that when some tribes are struck by famine, they can be sustained by the others. (Of course, this is precisely what happened when Yosef supported his brothers during drought that ravaged Canaan.) Secondly, he beheld the dream of the sun, the moon and the stars, alluding to the importance of strong political leadership. Am Yisrael would not endure if the tribes separate into politically disjointed clans, as occurred in Edom; they must join together under a single central authority, and only in this way could they form a strong and influential nation.
Yosef's vision manifested itself later, as well, after his brothers and their families relocated in Egypt. Throughout Yosef's life, Benei Yisrael lived together in Goshen, as a single people separate and distinct from the native Egyptians. Soon after Yosef's death, however, as implied by the verses towards the beginning of Sefer Shemot (1:6-7), they began to disperse throughout the country (va-timalei ha-aretz otam). Yosef's death was followed by the death of his dreams of a unified people bound together under a strong leadership. It would take the cruel oppression by Pharaoh and his taskmasters to once again bring Am Yisrael together as a single nation with a shared destiny.
Unfortunately, Yosef's brothers misunderstood Yosef's dreams as reflecting personal ambitions of power, rather than purely idealistic visions of Am Yisrael and genuine concern for their development into a strong, fortified people. As a result, his dreams would have to be fulfilled through the agonizing process of Yosef's slavery and imprisonment, and the brothers' desperate attempts to purchase grain from the Egyptian viceroy. Ultimately, however, Yosef's dreams laid the groundwork for the forging of a distinct national identity on foreign soil, which allowed for the eventual emergence of a strong, unified nation bound by the same set of beliefs and spiritual ambitions.