At the beginning of the book of Shemot, the Torah tells us that Yosef and his brothers died. The Rabbis (Berachot 55a) interpret this to mean that Yosef died before all of his brothers. And given that he was among the youngest of the brothers, that would seem to mean he died before his time, which the Rabbis interpret to mean that he did something wrong. Obviously not meant to disparage Yosef, the Rabbis sought to carefully examine every action of our greats, the better to learn from them.
The Talmud accordingly suggests that Yosef’s problem was “acting with authority.” Of course, this need not be seen as a mistake. It could be that all that’s being said is that a personal toll was taken by the extra responsibility that goes with high office. However, in Pirkei de-Rebbi Eliezer, the reason given for his early death is that he did not show sufficient respect toward his father, which the Torah Temimah suggests is what the Talmud meant as well.
With this in mind, we can better appreciate Netziv’s explanation about Yosef’s elaborate efforts to get his father to bow to him so as to fulfill his dream. According to him, Yosef was repeatedly frustrated in these efforts:
Most outstanding was his plot to hold Binyamin hostage, believing that this time, Yaakov would accompany his children and bow down to the powerful man in charge of his youngest son’s fate. Of course, Yosef wasn’t planning on Yehudah’s powerful speech bringing him to his knees and forcing him to reveal himself as their long-lost brother. Hence, he had to come up with a new plan. Regarding this new attempt, Netziv bases himself on the Targum Yonatan. He suggests that after Yosef told his brothers to bring their father down with them, he subsequently tried to intimidate his father by disguising himself as Pharaoh. At this sight, this Targum tells us Yaakov actually did bow down. However, no go, says Netziv – if you think you are bowing to someone else, it is as if you are bowing to that person and not the one standing in front of you. In the meantime, he points out that Yosef had disgraced his father. The worst part is that there was not even a good reason for it, since this would not have counted as fulfilling the dream. In fact, Netziv continues, the dream was already fulfilled by Yaakov’s much more innocuous sending of presents, and that this is what was meant in the dream when Yosef saw the sun bowing down to him.
Netziv presumably follows Ramban’s controversial position that Yosef felt himself obligated to fulfill his dreams. As others point out, however, even if we give these dreams the status of prophecy, making prophecies happen is generally considered G-d’s job, not ours – except inasmuch as following His will to ensure our being worthy of them (which itself is a complicated topic, but something we see our ancestors concerned about nevertheless).
For those of us tempted to think we know precisely how G-d’s prophecies are going to unfold, there is a very important warning here. We are allowed to hypothesize about how prophetic history will unfurl. The problem is when we try to force G-d’s hand to follow what we expect of it. Not only do we thereby arrogate an authority we cannot possibly have, but we may end up putting aside what G-d actually expects of us in terms of halacha and derech eretz to mistakenly achieve it.
In our own days, this may be even more of a challenge. We excitedly see prophecies of the return to Zion being fulfilled before our very eyes. It is difficult, and perhaps not even desirable, not to be enchanted by them. And once enchanted by these unfolding prophecies, it is only natural to want to do something to bring more of these blessed developments about. When such efforts are moral and rational endeavors that we would undertake regardless of the prophecies we believe they are fulfilling, there is certainly nothing wrong with them. The problem starts when we set aside moral and rational criteria in our enthusiasm for bringing about what we believe G-d has in mind.
We want to be inspired dreamers. However, we must be extremely careful not to become controlled by them. Otherwise, our dreams turn into nightmares for ourselves and for everyone around us.