Kommentar zu Bereschit 41:4

ותאכלנה AND THEY ATE — indicating that all the joy occasioned by the years of plenty would be forgotten in the days of famine.

AND THE COWS ATE UP. In my opinion²⁶Ramban’s interpretation differs from Rashi, who writes that the eating up of the fat by the lean indicates that all joy occasioned by the years of plenty would be forgotten in the days of the famine. His own opinion is presented in the text. this is a sign that the years of famine shall consume the years of plenty. It is from this that Joseph inferred that he should tell Pharaoh, And let them store up all the food of those good years,²⁷Verse 35 here. And the food shall serve as a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine,²⁸Verse 36 here. as he saw that the healthy cows and ears of corn were absorbed by the lean ones.²⁹The fact that the fat ones were absorbed by the lean ones was a sign to Joseph that the food from the seven years of plenty should be kept as a reserve for the years of famine. This was no mere counsel which Joseph proposed, for was he appointed to be a counselor of the king?³⁰See II Chronicles 25:16. It was only in connection with the interpretation of the dream that he said thus: And the plenty shall be forgotten,³¹Verse 30 here. And the plenty shall not be known.³²Verse 31 here. These words of Joseph constitute the interpretation of: It could not be known that they had eaten them up, their appearance being bad as previously,³³Verse 21 here. for Joseph saw that by their consumption of the fat cows, the lean ones did not become fine and plump. They served them for subsistence only, for had they not eaten them they would have died in their lean state. This is unlike Rashi, who says that the plenty shall be forgotten³¹Verse 30 here. is the interpretation of the eating itself.³⁴But according to Ramban, Joseph’s words, And the plenty shall be forgotten, are the interpretation of the aspect of the dream expressed by: It could not be known that they had eaten them up.

ויקץ פרעה, ויישן (מיד) ויחלום, normally when a person has dreamt a dream and has woken up going to sleep again thereafter, any dream during the second sleep will focus on another subject. As a result, he is not even aware yet that that he had completed his first sleep and had become wholly awake. Pharaoh, on the other hand, was immediately fully awake, even before going back to sleep and having another dream. Only after his second awakening did he realise that the whole vivid pictures he had seen while asleep were not reality but were a dream. (verse 7)