Miketz: Life is but a dream

This weeks parsha deals with realities generated by dreams. The first sense of  miketz is the end of a (bad) period of time, the two additional years of Joseph's imprisonment...after he had "interpreted" the dreams of the royal wine steward and baker.  These 2 years must have had a dream like aspect for Joseph, and like a dream, he awakened from it, the dream ended.  When Pharaoh awakens from his dream, the word is the same... Vayikatz.

Joseph interprets the Pharaoh's dreams and is thereby elevated to viceroy ( and CEO) of  Egypt.The Tzena Urenah  quotes the observations of the Bechai and the Todoth Yitzchak that in Miketz, the Pharaoh is not called the king of Egypt.  I speculate that the dream of the Pharaoh was to be the king, and Joseph showed him how!

Pharaoh has capital  He is buying grain, all the grain that the farmers can produce.  So the farmers produce as much grain as they can sell, ignoring the depletion of the land.  Meanwhile, there is so much grain that the price falls, forcing more production and more land depletion  and ultimately ... a famine.  The famine had been predicted ( and, in part generated) by the new purveyors of grain, the new sustainers of the people, the (new) king and his viceroy.  Turning the dream into reality.  I have a dream. 

The remainder of the parsha deals with Joseph turning his old dreams into realities. Why all the effort? Because in the end, the story is the material for countless dreams and dreamers.