Comentario sobre Génesis 37:7

מאלמים אלמים — Understand it as the Targum renders it: were binding bundles i.e. sheaves. Similar is (Psalms 126:6) “bearing (אלומותיו) its sheaves”. Similarly in Mishnaic Hebrew we have (Bava Metzia 22b) “and he takes (האלומות) the sheaves and makes public proclamation”.

MY SHEAF AROSE, AND ALSO PLACED ITSELF UPRIGHT, AND, BEHOLD, YOUR SHEAVES SURROUNDED. The purport of the dream concerning the sheaves is that Joseph was shown that through the sheaves and the produce they will prostrate themselves to him. The matter of “surrounding” — [your sheaves surrounded] — is to indicate that they will surround him as they do a king arrayed for battle, around whom his subjects encamp.

והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים, "Here we were tying sheaves, etc." Why is the word והנה repeated three times in this verse? You should appreciate that if a dream is to be perceived as a prophetic vision, it is essential that it be as clear and distinct as bright daylight. The person dreaming it should have the feeling that he actually experiences what he sees in the dream as if it were reality. When these conditions are met, he may consider the dream as a prophetic revelation. Dreams that young people dream are often blurred or contain unlikely and exaggerated occurrences. When Joseph told his dream to the brothers he repeated the word והנה three times to demonstrate that each part of the dream had been crystal clear, and that at the time he had thought that the events shown him in the dream were actually happening. This is why he thought that the dream foretold the future in some way.

וגם נצבה, this conveyed to him the impression that his authority would extend over a considerable length of time. In fact, it proved to be so as he ruled for 80 years. There is no record of any ruler mentioned in the Bible as having ruled equally long or longer than Joseph.

ותשתחוין לאלומתי, “they prostrated themselves before my sheaf.” Joseph did not say that these other sheaves prostrated themselves before him, but before his sheaf. (as opposed to his second dream). In that dream he could not have phrased it differently, saying that sun and moon bowed to “my” star, as how would he know that a particular star was his. The interpretation of this first dream is that seeing Joseph provided the grain to the brothers and all other travelers to Egypt during those years, it was as if they prostrated themselves before him. The fact that in his dream the sheaves arranged themselves around his sheaf, conveyed to the brothers that Joseph saw himself as the central figure in all this.

והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים וגו, “and here we were binding sheaves, etc.” They realised in their wisdom that the meaning of the dream was that the sheaves bowing to Joseph’s sheaf meant that he viewed himself as enjoying Royal authority. over them. This feeling of theirs was reinforced by his use of the words נצבה, an expression which is associated with Royalty such as in Kings I 22,48 נצב המלך, ”he acted as king.” It was because they were aware of this interpretation of his dream that they said to Joseph sarcastically: “are you planning to rule over us as a king?” What the brothers were not aware of was the fact that Joseph’s eventual appointment as king would be triggered by the subject of corn harvests (i.e. his prediction of abundance of such harvests and subsequent failure of such harvests).
Seeing that they hated Joseph already it is quite understandable that they interpreted his nocturnal dreams as boding no good for them instead of seeing the positive element that might be presaged by such dreams. Actually, even their interpretation of Joseph’s dreams was inspired by G’d who caused them to verbalise such thoughts. This is reminiscent of something we read in connection with Gideon (Judges 7,10) to whom G’d had said that in preparation for his battle against the Midianites and in order to reassure him, he should go down amongst the camp of the Midianites and listen to what they had to say. Gideon did so and overheard a Midianite soldier tell his companion that he had dreamt that there was a commotion; a loaf of barley bread was whirling through the Midianite camp. It came to a tent, struck it, and the tent collapsed and turned upside down and collapsed. To this his companion responded: “this can only mean the sword of the Israelite Gideon son of Yoash. G’d is delivering Midian and the entire camp into his hands.” When Gideon heard the dream told and interpreted, he bowed low. (to G’d in gratitude) This was another instance when G’d inspired someone to interpret and verbalise a dream which subsequently came true. This may be the source of the Talmud saying in Berachot 58 that “all dreams are influenced by the interpretation which is being “given by the mouth,” [i.e. which has been verbalised. Ed.] Here too G’d placed the words in the mouths of the brothers so that eventually Joseph’s dreams would become true.

To stand steadfastly straight. Rashi is explaining the difference between קמה and נצבה, which seem repetitive because they mean the same. Therefore he explains that קמה means momentarily arising from a lying position, and וגם נצבה means staying that way, remaining steadfastly straight. (R. Meir Stern)

Drei Momente sind in dem Traume mit dem dreimal wiederholten "והנה" hervorgehoben. — בתוך השדה ist nicht soviel als: auf dem Felde, das würde בשדה heißen. Ebenso sind אלמים und אלמות wohl nicht dasselbe. Pea VI, 10 wird zwischen אגודים und אגודות unterschieden, und ist dort אלומה nach einer Auffassung: כריכות קטנות ועושין מג׳ או ד׳ עומר א׳. Es scheint, dass das Feld erst völlig geschnitten, sodann erst kleine Bündel, אלומות, gebunden wurden, die sodann zu großen Haufen, אלומים, in die Mitte des leergeschnittenen Ackers zusammengetragen wurden. Er erzählt demnach: Im Traume waren wir gar nicht so geschieden, waren vereinigt bei der Arbeit und wollten größere Haufen in die Mitte des Feldes aus den kleineren zusammentragen. Auch ich war also bereit, meine kleine Garbe zu dem größeren Gesamthaufen hinzutragen; aber die Garbe wollte nicht, stellte sich und blieb stehen, wollte sich nicht zu dem Gesamthaufen in die Mitte tragen lassen. Und nun noch gar traten eure Garben um die meinige herum, und bückten sich vor meiner Garbe! Da lag einmal der vollständige Ausdruck einer isolierten, die andern überragenden, ja sie um sich unterwürfig konzentrierenden Stellung vor, und zwar wider seinen Willen: er war ganz bereit, seinen kleinen Beitrag zu dem Ganzen zu bringen und darin wie die andern aufgehen zu lassen.

והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים, “and here we were busy binding sheaves;” when Joseph rose to greatness, the Torah uses a similar expression when describing him as ויצבר יוסף בר, “Joseph bundled together (piled up) corn.” (Genesis 41,49.)

מאלמים אלימים, “binding sheaves;” this paralleled the manner in which Joseph later on rose to greatness, by piling up corn in anticipation of a famine from which his foresight and providence would save the Egyptian nation and surrounding countries. Compare 41,49: ויצבור יוסף בר, “Joseph heaped up and stored grain;”

קמה אלמתי means it raised itself erect.

In the dream G'd showed him the bundles. These bundles represented bundles of מצות which all of the brothers would perform jointly; his own bundle stood more upright than the others as an allusion to his experience with the wife of Potiphar whose advances he had to resist. The fact that his bundle remained standing upright indicated that he would become a ruler in Egypt. All the bundles of the brothers would be relatively downgraded before the merit of Joseph because in the final analysis he provided for all of them and kept them alive during the famine. Joseph hoped that by foretelling them about this their attitude towards him would change for the better.

Eigentümlich ist es ferner, dass ihm im Traume das Bild von Garbenbinden vorkommt; damit waren sie ja sonst in keiner Weise beschäftigt, sie waren ja Hirten. Ein ackerbautreibendes Volk zu werden, lag ja erst in der Bestimmung ihrer Zukunft. Lagen daher seinem Gemüte Vorstellungen des Ackerbaues so nahe, dass er sich im Traume damit beschäftigte, so konnte dies nur aus Belehrung und Mitteilung seines Vaters Israel über die zu erwartende nationale Bestimmung seines Hauses herrühren. Umsomehr durften die Brüder sich zu der Äußerung berechtigt glauben: Willst du wohl einmal König über uns werden, oder vielleicht gar schon jetzt über uns herrschen? So etwas sollte dir nicht einmal im Traume vorkommen können! Sie hassten ihn daher nur noch mehr, sowohl über den Inhalt seiner Träume als über seine Keckheit — wie sie es auffassten — ihnen solches mitzuteilen.

ותשתחוין לאלומתי, “and you were all prostrating yourselves before my sheaf;” this was a sign that the world would look expectantly to Joseph’s harvest, seeing that he was the sole distributor of grain in all of Egypt to all the people.

וגם נצבה means remaining erect in its place.