In this week’s Parsha, we learn further about Yosef’s capacity to interpret dreams – in this instance Pharoah’s dreams about the lean cows consuming the fat cows etc.

Dreams are, in Jewish teachings, significant aspects of self-reflection. When we sleep, the Neshama becomes partially dislocated from the body and rises to a higher plane where it perceives reality in a higher state of enlightenment. In a sense, dreams are a mirror image of the our higher self.

Of course dreams are imperfect reflections of that higher plane once filtered through our physical conscious self of wakefulness. But sometimes an accurate glimpse of higher reality sneaks through for our illumination. Hence the Talmud informs us that dreams are 1/60th prophecy.

But there are Tzaddikim, like Yosef, whose perceptions of higher reality are present even in a wakened state. Hence his ability to interpret dreams.

That is why we say a specific nighttime prayer before sleeping, to prepare us adequately for the higher tutorial we are about to receive when we fall asleep and dream. And such preparation allows you in a sense to become a Producer and Director of your dreams.

Sweet dreams.