For the past 15 years, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside my wife. People often ask us whether it’s difficult to live and work together, and the truth is I really can’t imagine it any other way. We both like to talk about everything from Torah to what’s on sale at Schnucks to who’s turn it is to serve as our kids’ Uber driver. And while we don’t always agree, we nearly always find a comfortable middle ground.

However, once a year, at the same time of year, we always have the same argument, and this happens to be the week of that annual tiff. The question at hand is always this: Will we or will we not be singing something from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Shabbat services?

For those of you who know Rabbi Amy and her penchant for musical theater, you can probably guess which side of the argument is hers. Though, in my defense, I also happen to enjoy a Gershwin tune as much as the next guy. I just don’t like this one particular musical.

Hear me out. I am all for the idea of taking a biblical story and making it accessible. Some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s songs are beautiful. And I’ll be the first to admit that making the character of Pharoah into an Elvis impersonator is pretty clever.

But the story of Joseph is perhaps my very favorite story in the Torah.  Stretching over several weeks of parashiyot, we get to see Joseph over the whole span of his life, from a pampered, favored child to a prisoner to the savior of a nation. 

This story is so incredibly rich with meaning that every time I read it, I discover something new. This year alone, in studying the story with a few fantastic b’nai mitzvah students, I found messages in it I’d never noticed before.  

What if, like Jacob Goldenberg suggested, this is really a story about loyalty? What if, as Irie Rubenstein realized, Joseph’s problems with his brothers would never have gotten so bad had he just stopped talking for a minute and tried to listen? 

The Joseph story is an epic telling of one person’s journey, yet it’s so richly woven in the text that anyone can find themselves in it if they try. And while Webber had his interpretation, I’m much more interested in the ways that we’re able to interpret it on our own without his words as the soundtrack to the story, giving us the freedom to find our selves in this text each time we read it. 

This year, I encourage you to read the Joseph story once more, whether it’s an annual read for you or the first time in a long time. Let your imagination run wild. Find your meaning and your dreaming in the text. Don’t be limited to just one telling, just one interpretation, just one dream, because in the end (cue the soundtrack here), any dream will do.