פירוש על בראשית 41:7

הבריאות sains in old French; English HEALTHY.

AND PHARAOH AWOKE, AND, BEHOLD, IT WAS A DREAM. The meaning thereof is that “there was a complete dream before him.” Thus the language of Rashi.
In my opinion³⁵Ramban finds a difficulty in Rashi’s interpretation. If the sense of the verse is that Pharaoh felt that an entire dream had been presented to him, why was he not troubled until the following morning? Ramban therefore presents his own interpretation. (Aboab.) the verse alludes to the fact that Pharaoh lay awake, thinking about his dream, wondering whether he will see yet a third manifestation, and when he arose in the morning and had not dreamed again, his spirit was disturbed. This is the meaning of the verse, And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled.³⁶Verse 8 here. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, however, it says, And his spirit was troubled, and his sleep broke from him,³⁷Daniel 2:1. for even the night brought no rest to his mind. The verse mentions, And Pharaoh awoke, in order to indicate a matter stated in the Book of Sleep,³⁸Apparently this book by some unknown medieval author dealt with the art of interpreting dreams. But see Tractate Berachoth 56 a, in connection with a man called Bar Hadya, whose profession was interpreting dreams, where the Talmud relates: “As he went away, his book fell down,” thus indicating that books dealing with this topic were prevalent even in Talmudic times. i.e., that a dream which is followed in the same sleep by another dream with different content is not fulfilled. Therefore the verse says that when he awoke it was a dream fit for fulfillment. Yet he thought about it till morning, that perhaps he will have his dream a third time in the manner in which it had been repeated. But Pharaoh himself realized that the two dreams had the same content. This is why the verse states, And behold, it was a dream. So, likewise, did Pharaoh state it: I have dreamed ‘a dream,’ and none can interpret it,³⁹Verse 15 here. and he did not refer to the plural form, “dreams.” This is also the sense of the verse, And I saw in my dream.⁴⁰Verse 22 here. Scripture however states, But none could interpret ‘them’ to Pharaoh,⁴¹Verse 8 here. meaning that none could interpret even one of them.

והנה חלום, he himself felt that it was all one dream, and that what had been shown him during the second dream was a continuation of the first dream. When he referred to בחלומי, “in my dream,” (sing.) in verse 22 he himself made this point.

וייקץ פרעה והנה חלום, Pharaoh awoke and it had been a dream. It is possible that when Pharaoh dreamed the section about the ears of corn he had not noticed during the dream that he was only dreaming. He may have thought that he was awake due to the extreme clarity with which he saw that scene. After he got up from his sleep, however, he realised in retrospect that he had been dreaming. This is why the Torah had to add: "Pharaoh awoke."

ויקץ פרעה, he awoke briefly between the first dream and the second dream. Had the dreams been one continuous experience without Pharaoh waking up in between, he himself would have understood immediately that the scenario he saw in the second dream was closely related to the scenario he had seen in the first dream. Seeing that there were two separate dreams, this indicated to Joseph that the events foreshadowed would come to pass without delay.

ותבלענה, “they devoured, etc.;” use of the word ותאכלנה has been avoided by the Torah here. The reason is that this word is inappropriate for kernels which were the subject in our verse, as opposed to verse 4 where the consuming of cows is described as their being “eaten,” ותאכלנה. The word ותבלענה is parallel to כבלע את הקודש in Numbers In practice, the windblown kernels grew and enclosed the good ones until the latter were as if they had never existed. Some commentators understand the word ותבלענה as literally meaning that the windblown kernels devoured their healthy counterparts. If so, the expression בליעה instead of אכילה, needs further elaboration. On the words וייקץ פרעה והנה חלום at the end of our verse, Rashi comments that the Torah merely indicates that this was the end of the dream Nachmanides writes that the Torah informs us that Pharaoh was preoccupied with his dream even after having awakened, i.e. realizing that what he had seen was not reality. He was wondering whether he would have a third dream that might enable him to make sense of the first two images. When he finally arose in the morning without having had an additional dream, he became very agitated. This is why the Torah continues with: “it was in the morning, and he proceeded to call in the necromancers of Egypt and all its wise men.” This is quite different from what we are told in Daniel 2,1 about Nevuchdnezzar’s dream. That King’s anxiety is described as ותתפעם רוחו, a more intense kind of agitation and trepidation than that which bothered Pharaoh. Nevuchadnezzar called in the potential interpreters still in the middle of the night, not waiting until a normal hour in the morning.

וייקץ פרעה והנה חלום, “Pharaoh awoke, and here it had been a dream.” Actually, the Torah should have written והנה חלומות, “and here it had been dreams,” seeing that Pharaoh had awoken twice, each time after a different dream. The reason that the Torah wrote חלום, “dream” (sing.) was because Pharaoh himself felt that the two phenomena he had dreamt about were part of one and the same dream. However, he did not understand the message.

A whole dream was complete before him... I.e., the first time [he woke up] he decided to sleep more, perhaps he will dream more, as in fact happened. But the second awakening was at the end of his sleep, close to morning when he would not sleep more. Thus, the dream was complete and required interpreters. [Alternatively: Rashi knows it means this] because והנה [usually] indicates the timing, that it happened just now. But here we cannot say it means: “Behold, the dream was completed after he woke,” because the dream was completed even before he woke, when he saw the ears eating the other ones. [Alternatively,] it seems to me [that Rashi explains it so] because after the first dream Pharaoh may have thought it was completed, but it was not — for it says, “As for the dream being repeated twice to Pharaoh, it is because the thing stands ready...” (v. 32). (Nachalas Yaakov)

ותבלענה השבלים, “the ears swallowed;” the text is not to be understood literally; the meaning appears to be that each successively growing ear of corn completely covered the one that had grown before it, so that it could not be seen by the beholder, but it had not vanished as does the food one swallows. The expression בלע in the sense of “covering” occurs in Numbers 4,20, when the holy vessels being packed before the Israelites broke camp is discussed. According to the Talmud, tractate B’rachot, folio 55, where dreams are discussed at length, the Talmud states that G–d does not send a dream to a person in which he is shown something that does not make any sense, such as an elephant passing through the eye of a needle. This statement is to be understood as an aggadah. The plain meaning of our verse is that Pharaoh believed he had seen the ears of corns being swallowed by their hollowed out counterparts. This is why the Torah had to add that when he awoke he realised that he had not seen something real, but that it was a dream in which one does see such things. Pharaoh could understand that cows eat each other, but he was baffled by ears of corn consuming one another. Hence he was convinced that he had only dreamt, although the dream was very vivid.

ותבלענה השבלים, “the kernels swallowed;” some commentators understand this expression as describing the kernels growing so high that they completely covered the ones which had grown earlier so that they could no longer be seen. The word בלע certainly appears in this sense; of course the word ותבלענה in our verse is not to be understood literally, as G-d does not show people things in dreams which are impossible to occur in reality, such as elephants sliding through the eye of a needle.

והנה חלום AND, BEHOLD. IT WAS A DREAM — and behold a whole dream was completed before him (i.e. representation of what was evidently a completed whole had passed before him as a dream during his sleep) and demanded an interpreter.

והנה חלום, the dream was complete. He did not dream any more during that night.

והנה חלום, “and, behold, it had only been a dream.” From the use of the singular “a dream,” although Pharaoh had seen two distinctly separate visions in his dream, the Torah hints that he himself realized that it had all been part of a single dream, as Joseph was to confirm to him later. The words ואין פותר אותם לפרעה, mean that not even a single one of the necromancers and the wise men had suggested interpretation that appealed to Pharaoh.

והנה חלום, and Pharaoh realised that what he had seen was in a dream. Whenever a person is dreaming, he believes that the images shown him represent reality, and that is why he reacts to them with different degrees of joy or consternation. As soon as he wakes up, he realises that what had so emotionally disturbed him had only been a dream. Proof of this statement can be found in Isaiah 29,8: והיה כאשר יחלום הצמא והנה שותה והקיץ ונפשו שוקקה, “like one who is thirsty and dreams that he is drinking, but when he wakes up he finds himself faint and utterly parched.” Pharaoh was meant to react in a similar manner to the cows he saw consuming cows twice their size without gaining weight. However he waited until Joseph had completed his interpretation. Some commentators point out that as far as the cows in Paraoh’s dream are concerned, we do not even find that the Torah writes that upon awaking he realised that this had been only a dream. [as opposed to the dream with the stalks of kernels of grain.] The reason for this is that it does happen in real life occasionally that one cow eats another cow. Kernels of grain consuming other kernels of grain however, is something that is unheard of.” This is why the Torah added the words: “and here it had been a dream,” to describe Pharaoh’s reaction when awaking. Another interpretation of these two words is that Pharaoh now realised that the dream had ended.