Delivered at erev Shabbat services on 26 November 2021 at Temple Beth Israel (Eugene, OR)
This parsha begins and ends with stories of Joseph and dreams. In the beginning, Joseph is having dreams of his family bowing down to him. First it is a dream of he and his brothers as sheaves in a field, with his brothers’ sheaves lying down towards his. Then he dreams, presumably about his entire family bowing down to him. Genesis chapter 37 verses 9-10 state:
Throughout the rest of the parsha we read the story that is familiar to many of us, of Joseph’s brothers hating him, stripping him of his colorful coat and casting him into a pit. Midianite traders find Joseph in the pit and sell him into slavery. Joseph ends up in the home of Potipher, whose wife attempts to seduce him. When Joseph refuses, Potipher’s wife has him thrown in jail.
Our parsha closes with Joseph in jail, and another encounter with dreams, this time they aren’t his own. In jail Joseph meets two of Pharaoh's courtiers, who have each had a dream that they are unable to interpret. Joseph offers to interpret the dreams, which foretell the success of one of the men, and the death of the other.
So what do we make of all of this? I don’t want to focus on the content of these dreams, as many commentators do, but on the idea of dreams themselves. Torah teaches us that dreams are powerful. They often point us towards what we long for, or are manifestations of our hopes and prayers.
The Mishna in Berakhot 55a:15 says that, “a dream not interpreted is like a letter not read.” And Rabbi Haviva Ner-David elaborates, “A letter from whom? From God, of course, sent through the filter of your own unconscious. In other words, a Divine message told in the unique language of your unique soul.” Our unique soul, our authentic selves, our lived truths. Dreams are deeply personal and highly powerful. As such, we do well when we hold them close and exercise care with who we share them with.
Joseph is different from his brothers. He dreams these grand dreams and our text says that he was loved best of all of his fathers sons. He’s also described in chapter 37 verse 2 as a na’ar, a youth or a lad, even though he is 17 and would have been considered an adult by this time. The Mishna in Genesis Rabbah tells us that Joseph took to penciling his eyes and curling his hair, actions that were more common of women. Gregg Drinkwater characterizes Joseph as “[queer in the sense of being] an outsider dwelling on the inside, a figure apart from his family, and someone who doesn’t quite fit in.”
As we see with Joseph, sharing these pieces of ourselves, these aspects of our own unique souls, with others can at times be dangerous, or get us into trouble. Joseph’s brothers come to hate him for his dreams, so much so that they conspire to kill him. Even his father who loves him above the rest reacts to his dreaming with beratement. This might seem extreme, over a dream? But perhaps it’s the way he dreams. What if what he longs for, his hopes and prayers, challenge their conceptions of reality in a way that makes them react with extreme violence? I believe this happens more often than we might think.
One aspect of my unique soul, or of my lived truth is that I’m transgender. I am thankful at this point in my life not to feel fear sharing that part of me with the world. And I can remember a time not so long ago when that wasn’t the case, and for many others out there the risk is real.
Last Saturday was Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we remembered those trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming individuals whose lives were lost in the past year to anti-transgender violence. The list of individuals is long, numbering in the hundreds worldwide. In the United States, 46 transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people were killed in the past year. 46 unique souls living their truths.
Karen Erlichman says that when following our inner compass “We risk loss, ostracism and betrayal, but we also follow that inner compass with a deep faith. We may dress in ways or speak truth that others find quite threatening. We also cultivate a powerful set of tools for navigating through multiple coexisting realities. Joseph’s gifts as a dreamer and a visionary engendered fear and fascination, and challenged the conventional assumptions of the time for Jews and Egyptians alike.”
I don’t want us to think that we must hide our true selves from the world, that in order to survive we must silence our dreams, because that isn’t the case. When we look ahead to next weeks parsha, we see Joseph experiencing the joy and successes that come from sharing dreams within community that values what he had to offer.
What I want to share is that despite those who will belittle or try to hurt these parts of us, there are so many more people who are ready and willing to celebrate them. As a community we would do well to pay attention to how we receive these sacred parts of others when they are shared, and as individuals to know and seek those spaces where we can be fully embraced for who we are.
Shabbat shalom!