“And Pharaoh was dreaming” – do not all people dream? Astonishing! It is, rather, that a king’s dream pertains to the entire world. “And Pharaoh was dreaming.”
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The wicked stand over their gods – “and Pharaoh was dreaming: and, behold, he stood at the Nile.”8The phrase “at [al] the Nile” can also be translated “over the Nile.” But the righteous, their God stands over them [to protect them]: “Behold, the Lord stood over him” (Genesis 28:13). “And, behold, there were coming up from the Nile seven cows, fair of appearance and fat-fleshed, and they grazed in the pasture [baaḥu].
And, behold, seven other cows were coming up after them from the Nile, unsightly of appearance and lean of flesh, and stood alongside the other cows on the bank of the Nile” (Genesis 41:2–3). “And, behold, [there were coming up] from the Nile” – it was a hint to him,9This was a hint as to the meaning of the dream. as plenty comes to Egypt only by means of the Nile, and similarly, famine comes to Egypt only by means of the Nile.
“And, behold, from the Nile” – when the years are good, the creatures become brethren [aḥim] with one another. “They grazed in the pasture [baaḥu]” – love [ahava] and fraternity [aḥva] come to the world. Likewise it says: “Your livestock will graze on that day on a broad plain [kar nirḥav]” (Isaiah 30:23) – a satiated [kiri] slave, a satiated [kiri] master. Likewise it says: “The mountains will bear peace [for the people]” (Psalms 72:3) – if the mountains have borne their produce, there is peace among the people.
“And, behold, seven stalks, thin and blighted by the east wind, were growing after them” (Genesis 41:6). “And, behold, seven stalks, thin…” – when the years are bad, people’s bodies break out in sores.10The term employed by the verse for growing is tzomeḥot, and in rabbinic Hebrew the related term tzemaḥim is another word for sores.