"Joseph's Dreams" by Shoshannah Brombacher; pastel and ink on paper , 24 X 18 inches, New York, 2008
"Joseph's Dreams" by Shoshannah Brombacher; pastel and ink on paper , 24 X 18 inches, New York, 2008

This drawing shows Joseph on his bed, dreaming the dreams he will tell his brothers (Genesis 35: 5-10).

He said to them: "We were binding sheaves in the field and my sheaf arose and stood upright and your sheaves stood round about and bowed down to my sheaf."

And again he spoke to them, saying: "I had a dream more, and look, the sun and the moon (representing his father, Jacob, and his adoptive mother, Bilhah) and the eleven stars (his brothers) bowed down to my star."

His brothers answered him and said "Shall you indeed reign over us?" and they hated him for his dreams and for his words, which were the cause for their future ugly behavior. His parents give him glances full of doubt.