Genesis 37 begins the famous story of Joseph and his brothers. It opens with Joseph’s dreams, which led to his being sold into Egypt, and ends several chapters later when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, by then the viceroy of Egypt.
At the beginning of the parasha the Torah tells us about Joseph’s dreams. In the first, the brothers bind sheaves in a field. Suddenly Joseph’s sheaf rises, while the others turn toward it and bow down. Joseph tells his brothers his dream; they become angry and answer:
And his brethren said to him: ‘Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?’ And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. (Genesis 37:8)
...הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ אִם מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל בָּנוּ... (בראשית ל"ז ח)
The second dream repeats the same motif, but this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars appear, all bowing down to Joseph. This time he tells his father as well. Jacob rebukes him:
And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him: ‘What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down to thee to the earth?’ (Genesis 37:10)
...מָה הַחֲלוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר חָלָמְתָּ הֲבוֹא נָבוֹא אֲנִי וְאִמְּךָ וְאַחֶיךָ לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לְךָ אָרְצָה. (בראשית ל"ז י)
Does the Moon Represent Rachel?
The dreams’ interpretation seems obvious. Yet if we pause to examine the dream of the stars, its meaning proves less straightforward. Jacob’s response suggests that every member of the family is represented: the sun is Jacob, the moon is Joseph’s mother Rachel, and the eleven stars are his brothers. But can this be?
The opening of the parasha supplies the event’s time frame:
And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being still a lad even with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought evil report of them unto their father. (Genesis 37:1–2)
וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף בֶּן שְׁבַע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן... (בראשית ל"ז א-ב)
The story thus takes place while Jacob is living in Canaan and Joseph is already seventeen. By then Rachel is no longer alive: she died during their entry into Canaan (Genesis 35:19). The moon in Joseph’s dream therefore cannot represent Rachel. Rashi raises this question and answers on the basis of the midrash (Genesis Rabbah 84):
“Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come…” But your mother has already died! He did not know that the words referred to Bilhah, who had raised him as his mother. Our rabbis learned from here that no dream is without meaningless elements (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 55a). Jacob intended to remove the matter from his sons’ minds so that they would not envy him. He therefore said, “Shall we indeed come…” Just as this is impossible regarding your mother, so the rest is meaningless. (Rashi on Genesis 37:10; translated from the Hebrew)
According to Rashi, Rachel was indeed dead. Jacob nevertheless included her in his words to Joseph to show that the dream was absurd and impossible, and therefore meaningless: his dead mother could not come and bow before him. But Rashi’s explanation does not fit the plain sense of the verses. If this had been Jacob’s intention, he would have said it explicitly. Reading the verses suggests that Jacob rebukes Joseph for imagining that he, his mother, and all his brothers would bow to him. This implies that Rachel was alive. How can that be?
And Where Was Benjamin?
Even if we assume that Rachel was alive, the dream of the stars remains puzzling because it contains an internal contradiction. Rachel died on the way to Ephrath during Benjamin’s birth. His name preserves the memory of that traumatic event:
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing–for she died–that she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath–the same is Beth-lehem. And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; the same is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day. (Genesis 35:18–20)
וַיְהִי בְּצֵאת נַפְשָׁהּ כִּי מֵתָה וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ בֶּן אוֹנִי וְאָבִיו קָרָא לוֹ בִנְיָמִין. וַתָּמָת רָחֵל וַתִּקָּבֵר בְּדֶרֶךְ אֶפְרָתָה הִוא בֵּית לָחֶם. וַיַּצֵּב יַעֲקֹב מַצֵּבָה עַל קְבֻרָתָהּ הִוא מַצֶּבֶת קְבֻרַת רָחֵל עַד הַיּוֹם. (בראשית ל"ה יח-כ)
If the moon represents Rachel while she is alive, only ten stars – brothers – should appear, rather than eleven, since Benjamin has not yet been born. Yet eleven stars appear. This implies that Benjamin has already been born, in which case Rachel is dead and the moon cannot represent her.
As I have already hinted, the solution lies in when the dream was dreamed. When the Torah narrates events in the ongoing storyline, it normally uses the simple past: a Hebrew verb in the prefix conjugation preceded by the conversive vav, coming before the sentence’s subject. For example, Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham and sister of Nebaioth (Genesis 28:9: “וַיֵּלֶךְ עֵשָׂו אֶל יִשְׁמָעֵאל…”). The verb “went” comes first, then the person who goes, Esau. Another example is Jethro the priest of Midian and Moses’ father-in-law hearing what God had done (Exodus 18:1: “וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה…”). Again the verb precedes the subject. Occasionally, however, the Torah departs from its usual style and uses the past perfect: a Hebrew verb in the suffix conjugation following the subject. For example, Adam had known Eve his wife (Genesis 4:1: “וְהָאָדָם יָדַע אֶת חַוָּה אִשְׁתּוֹ”), or the LORD had visited Sarah as He had said (Genesis 21:1: “וַה’ פָּקַד אֶת שָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמָר”).
In both these examples Rashi explains that the change indicates that the event occurred before the events just narrated. In other words, this is the pluperfect. On the words about Adam knowing Eve (Genesis 4:1), Rashi writes:
Already before the preceding account, before he sinned and was expelled from the Garden of Eden; the pregnancy and birth likewise. Had it been written “And Adam knew,” it would imply that he had children after his expulsion. (Rashi on Genesis 4:1; translated from the Hebrew)
Thus, according to Rashi, Adam knew Eve his wife while still in Eden. This is inferred from the Torah’s writing “וְהָאָדָם יָדַע” rather than “וידע האדם.”
Rashi similarly explains the verse about God’s visiting Sarah as He had said:
He had already visited her before He healed Abimelech. (Rashi on Genesis 21:1; translated from the Hebrew)
According to Rashi, God’s visitation of Sarah belongs to the past, before the story of Abimelech’s healing that we have just read. In his commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, Rashi explains how he inferred this:
Since it does not say “And He visited Sarah” but instead says “had visited,” it implies that He visited her previously, before Abimelech. (Rashi on Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 92a; translated from the Hebrew)
Rashi thus learns this from the stylistic change. Instead of “ויפקוד ה’ את שרה,” the text says “וַה’ פָּקַד אֶת שָׂרָה,” in the past perfect. This indicates that the event occurred before the preceding story of Sarah in Abimelech’s house.
We find this same construction in our parasha. Its opening relates:
And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being still a lad even with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought evil report of them unto their father. (Genesis 37:1–2)
וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף בֶּן שְׁבַע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת בְּנֵי בִלְהָה וְאֶת בְּנֵי זִלְפָּה נְשֵׁי אָבִיו וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת דִּבָּתָם רָעָה אֶל אֲבִיהֶם. (בראשית ל"ז א-ב)
As explained above, these verses describe the period of Jacob’s residence in Canaan, eleven years after he fled Haran. Immediately afterward, however, the Torah shifts to the pluperfect in what is effectively a parenthesis:
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colours. (Genesis 37:3)
וְיִשְׂרָאֵל אָהַב אֶת יוֹסֵף מִכָּל בָּנָיו כִּי בֶן זְקֻנִים הוּא לוֹ וְעָשָׂה לוֹ כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים. (פס' ג)
Where does this parenthesis end? After nine verses, with the statement that Joseph’s brothers envied him while his father kept the matter in mind (verse 11: “וַיְקַנְאוּ בוֹ אֶחָיו וְאָבִיו שָׁמַר אֶת הַדָּבָר”). These words take a characteristic biblical concluding form, in which the subject precedes a verb in the suffix conjugation. Rather than the normal “ויקנאו בו אחיו וישמור אביו את הדבר,” the passage concludes “וַיְקַנְאוּ בוֹ אֶחָיו וְאָבִיו שָׁמַר אֶת הַדָּבָר.” See Aharon Mirsky, The Punctuation of Hebrew Style, pp. 11–50.
On this reading, Jacob’s preference for Joseph because he was the son of his old age, and the account of Joseph’s dreams, describe Joseph’s childhood rather than the period when he was already seventeen. This is plausible in light of the description “son of old age,” meaning the youngest son. That designation better suits the period when Joseph was a small child and Benjamin had not yet been born. Joseph and his brothers were then young children, and Rachel was alive. Little Joseph dreamed his dreams and innocently told them to his older brothers and his father.
Further support for the claim that the passage looks back many years is that Jacob would hardly have sent Joseph far from home to stay with his older sons shortly after the dreams that had so enraged them. The Torah’s description of Jacob keeping the matter in mind also suggests a long interval between the dreams and the point at which they began to come true. In this story, keeping a matter means holding an insight in one’s heart, anticipating and waiting a long time to see whether it contains truth.
The story of Joseph’s favored status and dreams is therefore a parenthesis: distant background without which the sale of Joseph, the principal subject of our parasha, cannot be understood.
Who Is the Eleventh Star?
Let us return to the earlier question. If the dreams took place in the distant past, when Joseph and his brothers were young and Rachel was alive, who were the eleven stars bowing to Joseph? He had only ten brothers while his mother was alive, before Benjamin’s birth.
The answer lies in comparing the dream of the sun, moon, and stars with the dream of the sheaves. Both use objects to represent family members. In the first, Joseph and his brothers are represented by sheaves in a field; in the second, by heavenly bodies: the sun, moon, and stars. In the first dream Joseph’s sheaf stands while the brothers’ sheaves bow to it. Joseph is represented in exactly the same way as his brothers, by a sheaf. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the second dream likewise represents Joseph by the same kind of object as his brothers: a star.
This explanation requires a precise reading of the verse. When Joseph tells his father and brothers about the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him (Genesis 37:9: “וְהִנֵּה הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וְהַיָּרֵחַ וְאַחַד עָשָׂר כּוֹכָבִים מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לִי”), he does not mean that all these heavenly bodies bow to him in person. He briefly describes a dream involving the sun, moon, and eleven stars. His listeners understand perfectly that the sun and moon symbolize his father and mother, while the eleven stars symbolize all the brothers, including Joseph. When he says “bowing down to me,” he means that the other heavenly bodies in the dream – the sun, moon, and ten stars – bow to the star representing him. This is exactly like the brothers’ sheaves bowing to Joseph’s sheaf rather than Joseph himself. The number of brothers when Joseph dreamed was therefore eleven: Joseph and his ten brothers. The entire dream episode occurred when they were young children, before Benjamin was born and while Joseph’s mother Rachel was alive.
