[Avodah] RSRH's Explanation of Yosef's First Dream

[Yitzchok Levine]

I found the explanation of Yosef's first dream 
given by RSRH on Bereshis 37: 7-8 most interesting. YL

According to the foregoing, Yosef told his brothers: “In my dream
we were not so divided. We were united in our work; we worked together,
piling up the small sheaves into large heaps in the middle of the
field. I, too, was prepared to add my own small sheaf to the large common
heap, but my sheaf could not be moved. It stood up and remained
upright; it refused to be carried to the common heap in the center.
What is more, your sheaves formed a circle around my sheaf and bowed
down before my sheaf!”

This is a perfect portrayal of an isolated individual who towers in
stature above his brothers, who are gathered around him in a gesture
of obeisance. This happened against his will; he had been prepared to
make his own small contribution to the whole, and thereby be integrated
with all the others.

It is also interesting to note that the objects in Yosef ’s dream were
sheaves of wheat. Agriculture was not the brothers’ occupation; they
were shepherds. Their destiny to become an agricultural nation was still
in the distant future. If farming was so much in Yosef ’s thoughts that
he even dreamed about it, this could have been so only because his
father, Yisrael, had taught him about the national destiny that was in
store for his family.

Precisely for this reason the brothers felt justified in their response:
“Do you want to become king over us some day? Or do you perhaps
want to be ruler over us even now? Such notions should not occur to
you even in a dream!” And so they hated him all the more, not only
because of the nature of his dream, but also for his impudence — as
they saw it — in telling them of it. 
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