And he said to them, “Listen now to this dream, which I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves encircled [it] and prostrated themselves to my sheaf.” So, his brothers said to him, “Will you reign over us, or will you govern us?” And they continued further to hate him on account of his dreams and on account of his words. (Breishis 37:6-8)

If we learn anything from the life of Yosef HaTzadik it is, “Do not abandon your dreams. What you know to be true in the depth of your heart, do not be deterred. No matter what the people around you are saying. They may not know what you know and they may not always understand what you understand. It has been said that those who dance are considered insane by those who don’t hear the music.

We learn from Yosef not to abandon your dreams no matter how intense the opposition. Yosef has little or no support for his prophetic dreams. He faced fierce resistance, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. He was publicly rebuked by his father and he was tried as a False Prophet and condemned by his brothers.

We learn from Yosef not to abandon our dreams regardless of the difficulty of circumstances in which we find ourselves. Yosef was cast away from his family to a culture hostile to his way of life and sent to prison on false charges. His dreams should have died a thousand deaths by then but they clearly did not. One young person struggling with drugs said, “When I entered “rehab”, I thought I was being buried and later I realized that I was being planted.”

Yosef’s dreams, as we know, flowered and became absolutely true down to the finest details. Based on circumstances beyond anyone’s wildest expectations or control his family would indeed be dependent upon him for food and he would save the entire world from hunger.

It was not a vain dream but rather a prophetic vision. If we learn anything from the life of Yosef HaTzadik, it is, “Do not abandon your dreams, because sometimes dreams come true.

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman ztl. of Ponevitch was somehow spared and he miraculously made his way to Eretz Yisrael in the middle of the Holocaust. Later he learned of the tragic fate that had befallen his wife, eleven children and his entire town including his Yeshiva at the hands of the Nazis. Old and not quite broken he settled in Bnei Brak and still during the war years he was frequently seen surveying by day and even at night with a candle, on what was then a barren sand dune at the highest point of the “city”. He was asked by people who observed his behavior, “What are you doing?” He would say, “Here I am building the world’s largest Yeshiva. Over here will be the study hall. Here will be the dorm and here the dining room…”

The responses were less than encouraging. He was told, “Are you crazy? Rommel is on the border of Israel and he is about to do here what’s been done in Europe. Torah is a thing of the past. We have no bread to eat and you talk of building a Yeshiva! You must be crazy!” He is reported to have answered, “You’re right I am crazy! Now if I went running through the streets of Tel Aviv breaking windows, you would excuse me- ‘the unfortunate man he went mad from Tzuras-suffering!’ The truth is I am mad! However, my mishigas -my insanity is not to break windows but to put windows in!”

Visit Bnei Brak today! It’s a bustling Torah Metropolis. Climb to the highest point and there is a Yeshiva. Enter and you will see a sea of white shirts rocking back and forth and you’ll be overwhelmed by the din, the roar of thousands of young men learning Torah, just as the Rebbe envisioned.

If we learn anything from the life of Yosef, it is do not abandon your dreams because sometimes dreams come true.