Pharaoh has dreams with disturbing images: Seven healthy cows standing by the Nile River are swallowed up by seven thin and mangy cows - without any change in appearance to the sickly cows; seven healthy ears of grain are swallowed up by seven thin ears of grain, scorched by the east wind - without any change in appearance to the emaciated ears of grain. It was such a realistic vision that Pharaoh awoke in a night terror – and behold [הִנֵה, hee’nei], it was a dream.

I focus in on this little Hebrew word, hee’nei [behold] because if you look carefully at the Torah’s narrative of Pharaoh’s dreams, the word hee’nei appears five times [Genesis 41:1,2,3,5,6 – take a closer look at the narrative to satisfy your own curiosity]. And, also at the conclusion of the dream narrative, the Torah places the word hee’nei directly next to the word chalom [dream] as if to emphasize that the two words are somehow related [Genesis 41:8]. Or, maybe not.

But now look at Pharaoh’s retelling of his dreams to Yosef [Genesis 41:15-24], and, once again, the word hee’nei (or a close derivation thereof, הִנְנִי, hee’n’nee) appears scattered throughout the narrative, five times to be exact [Genesis 41:17,18,19,22,23]! What’s going on here? Perhaps just a coincidence – but why is this word he’nei so closely associated with the dream sequences presented in the Torah?

However, there is yet another association of the word hee’nei with dreams which precedes this week’s parshah and actually sets the tone for the association of hee’nei with dreams. In last week’s parshah, Vayeishev, Yosef also has a double set of dreams which seem to foretell his mastery over his brothers and father (i.e. where Yosef envisions eleven binding sheaves in one case; eleven stars, the sun and the moon in another all bowing down to him). When telling over his dreams to his brothers [Genesis 37:6-11] the word הִנֵה, hee’nei appears scattered throughout – a total of five times [Genesis 37:7 (thrice), 9 (twice)].

Regarding this repeated association:  Once is interesting, twice seems more than coincidental, and three times indicates a chazakah (a strengthened recurring happenstance, now almost a ‘rule’) which cannot be ignored and seems to cry out “dar’shei’nee – interpret me!” (with apologies to Rashi for borrowing the phrase…).

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Even on a p’shat (straightforward, simplest elucidation) level, the word hee’nei seems to belong together with the idea of dreams. Why is this? Because dreams often represent an enhanced version of reality, showing us the solution to problems with which our minds have been preoccupied, or even allowing prophetic glimpses into the future, as the narratives in our Torah portions clearly indicate. No, not always do dreams make ‘sense’ – and very often they may be complete non-sense – but often enough the visions and messages presented appear very ‘real’ and may even be a riddled message from a higher authority.

It is in these cases that the word hee’nei is especially appropriate. If one is bidden to ‘take-note’ of an important (albeit hidden) message, then the word “behold” is appropriate when either trying to understand the meaning of a dream or succeeding in unraveling its content:  “Behold” there is something significant in these dreams; listen to them with me so that we can make sense out of what has been seen/heard. Or, “behold” there is great significance to what I have dreamt; what was only just previously concealed, suddenly has become clear (an “ah-hah” moment): the problem is solved, the message has been decoded. Both of these scenarios have been presented in our Torah portions with the word “behold” intertwined within the dream presentation or the dream solution.

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The Hebrew word הִנֵה begins with a heh and ends with a heh with a nun dividing them.

The Talmud tells us that G-d used the letters yud and heh to create the Universe [Menachos 29b]. This is based upon a verse is Isaiah [26:4] where the prophet declares, “Ki b’Kah Hashem tzur olamim – For with [His Name] Yud-Heh, Hashem is the Creator of worlds” i.e. with the letter yud, He created the World to Come, while with the letter heh He created this world.

Why does the letter heh represent this world? The Talmud explains: The letter ה looks like a lobby with three walls, but with one side completely open. A person is free to either obey or disobey G-d’s will, but if he chooses to leave the security of the Torah’s spiritual boundaries, then he may lose his foothold and slip through the open space at the bottom of the heh into the abyss. However, there is a small opening (on the left leg of the heh) near the top, symbolizing that there is always a passage through which someone who does teshuvah may return to Hashem and to the source of all spirituality [from The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet, Artscroll].

Thus, the two heh’s in the word hee’nei both represent the world we live in – but they are two different visions of the way in which we see it. The first heh is before a life-altering experience; the second heh is after a life-altering experience: “Behold” the world you live in and take note of it, because all is not what it may seem to be at first glance. The dreams in our Torah portions are most definitely life-altering in the way the world is viewed; all those exposed to them will forever see their world in a different light.

The letter nun is a game-changer.

Two inverted nun’s are used in the Torah to separate two verses from the Torah narrative found in parshas Beha’aloschah [Numbers 10:35-36; these are the ‘famous’ verses Va’yehi bin’soa ha’aron… and U’v’nucho yomar… which we say when taking out and replacing the Torah scroll to and from the aron kodesh]. Since these two verses are ‘set-off’ from the rest of the Torah, The Talmud speaks of them as a separate ‘book’ – indicating that it has a message of its own [Shabbos 115b-116a]. Rashi zt”l tells us that this passage was placed here so that the Torah would not record three Jewish sins in succession.

Why inverted nun’s? Because nun stands for n’filah – i.e. the downfall of an individual or a group because of their inability to see the world properly, leading to sin and the abyss (sound familiar? See commentary to heh, above). Here, the nun’s are reversed, symbolizing teshuvah and a reversal of fortune.

So, too, there is the nun which stands between the two visions of our world symbolized by the two heh’s in the word הִנֵה. With faith that G-d is in charge of the world, that He will lead us onto the right course and help us see the future – we can behold the world that was heretofore hidden from us. The letter nun also stands for being ne’e’man i.e. people of faith. We must have faith that the visions in our dreams represent G-d’s will that He wants only what is best for us. In both Yosef’s and Pharaoh’s dreams, this was not at all evident – how would the events portended in these frightening visions become something good and desirable in the world? Didn’t they just lead to enmity and eventual enslavement?

Of course, this is where our faith comes into play. It is most often impossible for a human being to see the ‘whole picture’ – we only see half or parts of the picture. The numerical value of the letter heh is 5; 5 is only half a unit. In Judaism, a whole unit is represented by the number 10 (as in the Ten Utterances with which G-d created the world; or in the Ten Commandments). G-d is the only true Singularity (He is ‘One’, which is the mispar katan of 10 i.e 1 + 0).

The word הִנֵה teaches us an important lesson: We must not be frightened by incomprehensible dreams, but rather have faith (nun) that when we will be granted a complete vision of our world both before and after comprehension, then we will have the semblance of a complete unit [5 +5 = 10] and a truer understanding of what our world is really about. Even the letter nun hints at this, because nun is spelled with two nun’s: We can rise above our innate nature to slip and fall and reach deep down into our souls for an inherited faith that everything that G-d does is for the best. Nun + nun = 50 + 50 = 100 (mispar katan = 1).

In the short run, the dreams of Yosef and the dreams of Pharaoh (interpreted by Yosef) seemed to spell disaster. Without the proper vision (hence, the five-fold repetition of hee’nei in each dream sequence) and faith in the Creator, Yosef might not have forgiven his brothers for selling him into slavery; and perhaps we might not have seen past the bitter enslavement of hundreds of years of Egyptian exile – foretold in a vision to Avraham Avinu and facilitated by Yosef’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams. But we know that all was for a greater purpose which only G-d could foresee in His infinite wisdom.

On Chanukah, we recount the trials and suffering of our people at the hands of many enemies – but praise G-d for watching over us and always, always delivering us from the hands of the oppressor. We eagerly await the day when we will behold G-d’s salvation and see our destiny fulfilled.