Why Did the Brothers Fear Joseph's Dreams? A Deep Look at the Family Story

Joseph dreams a surprising dream, seemingly, but when looking at the reactions of his family members, two surprising things are discovered. And thus it is described in the Torah: 'And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream again; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed to me: And he told his father and his brothers, and his father scolded him, and said unto him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down to you to the ground?'.

Joseph dreams of becoming a lord and master over his family. His father scolds him, and seemingly we are meant to understand that Jacob, and even more so the brothers, saw this as nonsense. But the Torah does not tell us that: 'And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.'

Not only his father, despite scolding him and dismissing the matter, kept it in mind, thinking that perhaps there was indeed truth in it, but the brothers also envied him. Envy arises for something the other has and I do not. If the dream is null and void, and even Jacob, who loved Joseph, dismisses it, what is there to envy?

Moreover, the Torah places the brothers’ reaction before Jacob’s reaction, so we would not think that the brothers noticed that Jacob 'kept the matter,' and therefore envied. On the contrary, the brothers, even before Jacob, secretly thought there was something to this dream, and therefore envied. They understood that yes, Joseph would achieve something, and despite wanting to nullify it, there is truth here.

People do not fight for something that has no truth. If Joseph was nothing in the eyes of the tribes, they would not have fought him, or bothered to sell him. They fought him because there was a point of truth that penetrated profoundly. Indeed, there was conflict, and there were things Joseph did that the brothers truly saw as wrong. And still, the fight against Joseph shows that the brothers knew there was something unnatural about his vision.

Even when they come to kill him, they say 'Here comes that dreamer.' This is a mocking sentence, but it also holds fear: fear of Joseph's dreams. There is truth in them, they are destined to come true! Therefore 'Come, and let us kill him.' There were people with assets, people with sword and spear. Joseph was a dreamer, he owned the spiritual asset of dreams, of a vision of rulership.

The tribes wanted to kill Joseph, for thereby cutting off the dream, but Judah answered them with a remarkable thing: 'Come, and let us sell him... and let not our hands be upon him.' We too believe in the destiny and fate by which Hashem runs the world, we must not fear his dreams. On the contrary, if it is Hashem's will, he will return him also from the hands of the Ishmaelites. Not our hands determine. Let us see Joseph deal with Egypt. If the royal destiny is meant for him, let him face the weight of this world, in the form of mighty Egypt.

The tribes did not want to support Joseph, nor allow him to take over them, because in their opinion he was going in the wrong way, but precisely because they envied the dream, that it might be true, they gave the dream 'a fair chance,' not as a beloved child of his father, but as a lone man in a pagan and cruel empire. Go, chase your dream. If after all this it is truly yours, we have no choice but to bow to you, which indeed happened.

The descendant of Judah, King Solomon, faced a similar trial: Jeroboam, descendant of Joseph, received a prophecy from Ahijah the Shilonite, a prophecy that gives him kingship. Solomon had the opportunity to recognize this prophecy and give it some space, so that what Rehoboam was due to receive from this vision would reach him, 'and our hands will not be upon him.' But Solomon sought to kill him, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt, like his forefather Joseph. Rehoboam continued this policy of not listening to the vision of the tribe of Ephraim. Jeroboam, on his part, no longer listened to Ahijah the Shilonite, but decided to fight for everything, and so the kingdom of Israel was divided.