Parshat Miketz

"... Pharoah dreamed and behold..." -Genesis 41:1

Dreams are truly fascinating, aren't they? The scientific study of dreams is known as oneirology, and it is, has been, and shall remain for the foreseeable future, an area of much contentious research. As much as we know about how the brain and dreams function, there remain many more questions than there are answers. I am not a neuroscientist so speculating on how the brain functions on a physical level is pointless for me. I want to focus on the theological implications of this phenomenon that we all know so very well. In order to conceptualize this, I first need to talk about a blockbuster.  

Only a few short months ago, a film by Christopher Nolan called Inception was released to nearly universal acclaim. 

Essentially, the film deals with the idea of implanting (or incepting) an idea into a person's mind. This is done in order to make the individual in whom the idea is being incepted believe that the idea is original (and not from a third party). The protagonists in the film attempt this endeavor in order to incept the idea in a certain wealthy businessman's mind to break up his inherited corporate empire. I believe the concept of inception is critical to understanding how two very important theological concepts operate in our own world. 

"... The dream of Pharaoh is one; what God is about to do He hath declared unto Pharaoh ..." Bereshit 41:28

To examine these concepts, I shall first explain the Rambam's position on the nature of prophecy and divine providence. In short, the Rambam held, with the exception of Moshe, that all prophetic revelation is given to the prophet through a dream. And it is on this note that our parsha begins: Pharaoh is given a dream by God.

Similarly, the Rambam's perspective on divine providence can be illustrated by the following parable: God exists outside of time as we know it, and therefore He knows the future (from our linear perspective) and all scenarios that could possibly occur as a result of our actions. Consider a hypothetical individual who has merited divine providence. He is planning on taking a voyage on the high seas, but God knows that all possible future scenarios for that particular seafaring vessel end in its destruction and sinking. In order to save our meritorious hero, God incepts within his mind the idea not to travel on that particular day, and when he chooses not to travel, he is thereby saved from death. 

To summarize the two concepts I am exploring, God both communicates prophetic revelation through dreams and protects the righteous by incepting thoughts they believe to be their own into their minds. According to the Rambam, God doesn't mess with the natural order of the world anymore than He absolutely must. 

You may be thinking, "If God incepts the thought into the mind of the righteous man to not travel on that particular day, doesn't that nullify the individual's free will to choose?" It's a great question but it is one that must be understood subtly. 

Our minds process events in such abstract ways that it is practically impossible to pinpoint exactly what external cues in conjunction with our subconscious, instinctual, and cognitive biases lead to our seemingly original thoughts. 

So I pose the two following rhetorical questions: did Robert Fischer Jr., the mark in the film, lose his free will after the idea was successfully incepted in his mind? To address this, I will attempt to answer an even more important question, namely, did Pharaoh lose his free will when God gave him the dream which in turn directly led to Yosef's redemption from prison? 

"... Then Pharaoh sent and called Yosef, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon ..." Bereshit 41:15

My answer is no, and I will also do my best to show why by holding that such an incepted thought (from either God or wacky dream travelers) impedes human free will, you are actually logically forced to conclude the opposite. Let me explain.

Every knowledgeable religious Jew believes that God has a plan for the universe, and that the world will eventually be ushered into what is known as the Messianic Era. In Hegelian terms, this concept is known as an historical inevitability. And in Judaism, it is an important concept. Rambam brings the belief in the Messianic Era down as a fundamental tenet of the Jewish faith. 

According to the Bais HaLevi, at first glance, we perceive Pharaoh's dream as the cause of Yosef's redemption from prison. However, when we remove ourselves from the simplistic linear shackles of the narrative and factor in the concept of divine providence as the true guiding force behind Jewish history, we can view Pharaoh's dream as actually the effect of Yosef's inevitable departure from prison. This was, as we all would agree, necessary in order to further the historical narrative of the Jewish people in the land of Egypt. 

"And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof; and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh." Bereshit 41:8

God did not nullify Pharaoh's free will by giving him the dream. Pharaoh himself sought out interpretations among the pagan magicians of Egypt, but none offered him an explanation to his liking. He is the one, at every single junction in the narrative, who made decision after decision by utilizing his own free will to choose. 

By holding that God nullified Pharaoh's free will, you are assuming that after God gave him the dream, that He then forced him to seek out an interpretation, rather than Pharaoh choosing to do that himself. It sets a dangerous precedent to state that incepted thoughts nullify a person's free will. You'd then be forced to state that any original thought that ever pops into our minds invariably nullifies our free will, because our thoughts are always the result of external cues and cognitive biases that we have no conscious part in constructing. Since we can all agree that we think original thoughts on a constant basis, all of humanity would, according to that reasoning, be perpetually enslaved to the whims of neural synapses! I feel that this position is simply untenable. We have the power to choose whether or not to follow our gut feelings and impulses. 

If you're feeling a bit lost at this point, I apologize. Let me recap what I've said so far.

a. God has a plan for the world, and this includes a plan for the Jewish nation. Yosef needed divine intervention in order to be redeemed from prison. This historical necessity was what caused God to intervene and give Pharaoh the dream. This is an example of non-linear causality. 

b. From our vantage point, God giving Pharaoh the dream is what led to Yosef being redeemed. This is why it is presented in such a way in the narrative. Human beings, for all practical purposes, perceive time as linear, but this is not a complete picture of reality. 

c. Pharaoh's dream did not nullify his free will. By holding that incepted thoughts from a third party nullify free will, I believe that you are forced to conclude the same about any thought that pops into ones mind. It is impossible to distinguish between a divine, and therefore perfectly incepted thought, and a seemingly original thought.

While my arguments in favor of maintaining free will in light of incepted thoughts may not be perfect, I am nevertheless confident of one thing, which is that God has a plan for the universe. What makes it so difficult for us to comprehend this is that His plan has been specifically crafted in such a way that goes counter to human intuition. When we factor in the concept of non-linear causality and apply it to God's hand in the universe, this apparent paradox becomes much easier to conceptualize.

All of Jewish history, all of human history, and indeed all of cosmic evolutionary history follows this seemingly paradoxical pattern. And it is through understanding this principle that I believe that a theology relevant to the modern man must be established. This is the foundation of a rational religious framework that can move us closer toward understanding both the physical, and the metaphysical, aspects of our universe.