The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, once described dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious.” For the writers of the Bible, the importance of dreams was no less significant, for dreams were believed to be one way in which God communicated with humanity.

Dreams play a determinative role in the story of Joseph, which begins with this week’s portion. Three sets of dreams arranged in a deliberate pattern move the narrative forward at key points.

The first dreams are Joseph’s. He first dreams that his brothers’ sheaves will bow before his own. A subsequent similar dream suggests that the 11 stars, sun, and moon will also bow before him.

It is not the dreams themselves that create the tension within the family or will eventually result in Joseph’s being sold into slavery in Egypt. It is, rather, Joseph’s insistence — out of arrogance or innocence, the text is unclear — on recounting the dreams to his family that creates the crisis.

These dreams are the overture to the drama. They portend the arrival, years later, of the brothers in Egypt when they indeed prostrate themselves before the vice-regent, who is in fact their brother Joseph.

The Joseph story is characterized by a theology of “fatedness,” by an assumption that what happens is what has to happen, as designed and determined by God in advance. Joseph himself will eventually tell his brothers that “it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Genesis 45:8)

After arriving as a slave in Egypt, Joseph ascends within the house of his master Potiphar, only to descend to prison after being falsely accused of attempted rape of the master’s wife.

While in prison, he is witness to the second set of dreams that punctuate the story. The chief butler dreams he is pressing grapes from three vines into wine before Pharaoh. The chief baker dreams that three baskets of bread upon his head are being devoured by birds.

The structure of the dreams is similar; in fact, the butler and baker say to Joseph, “We have dreamed a dream,” suggesting that each understands that their dreams are related.

But if, as in Joseph’s dreams, the structure is similar, the meanings are divergent. “Interpretation of dreams comes from God,” declares Joseph, and indeed it becomes so. Within three days the butler is restored to the palace but the baker is executed, just as Joseph interpreted.

The final set of dreams in the Joseph story belongs to Pharaoh, and they set the scene for Joseph’s elevation to power. Pharaoh dreams that seven lean cows devour seven fat ones, and that seven parched ears of corn swallow seven robust ones.

While the dreams seem rather obvious — even more so for their parallel symbolism — none of the Egyptian wizards and wise men can offer a plausible interpretation. Joseph is summoned from prison when the butler remembers his ability to explain dreams.

It is Joseph’s ability to understand the dreams as indicative of a forthcoming cycle of fecundity and famine that secures his fate as second-in-command to Pharaoh.

The pattern of dreams is a deliberate tool of the biblical writers. The Joseph story is one in which God is subtly present, suggested by events of timing and nuance rather than by dramatic interventions or direct communications. In fact, God never communicates directly with Joseph. The dreams are the vehicle through which the moment’s meaning is discerned.

If dreams were not necessarily understood by our ancestors as the entryway to the unconscious, they were nonetheless believed to be important. They could signal destiny as in the case of Joseph’s dreams, they could signal doom (witness the fate of the baker), or they could signal warning, which was the import of Pharaoh’s dreams.

There is a more difficult issue. The dreams of the Joseph story suggest that things are determined in advance: success, failure, famine. Indeed, when Joseph recounts his second dream, “his brothers were jealous of him, but his father observed the matter.” (37:11) Of course, Jacob had had his own experience with dreams, including the one in which angels ascend and descend a staircase linking heaven and earth.

Perhaps because of this, Jacob overcomes his initial anger — “Shall I and your mother and your brothers then bow down to you?” — and proceeds warily to “observe the matter.” He knows from experience that dreams count, even if the message is not always well-received.

Along with other ancient peoples, the Israelites understood the disturbing power of a dream as a communication from God. The ability to interpret, therefore, becomes decisive, for the one who can interpret becomes the conduit for communication with God.

If dreams suggest fate, the biblical writers also understood that they create options. The famine will come, says Joseph, but the Egyptians can prepare for it and thus not perish.

Whether as a means to self-discovery or as a way of understanding God, dreams remain a vital part of the life of the soul. With our ancestors, we share a respect for the experience of dreaming, through which we discover and recover those things that, perhaps, reveal what it is we need to know.