He said to them, "Listen, now, to this dream that I dreamed."
The possuk uses the word נָא, which could mean ‘now’ and ‘please’, depending on the context. The Ohr Hachaim first explains the possuk that the brothers did not wish to hear about the dream, and he had to plead with them.
Another explanation offered by the Ohr Hachaim is with the other translation of the word. Chazal tell us that a dream should be interpreted immediately, ideally on the same day. This is why the Halacha permits a person to fast even on Shabbos, when he has experienced a difficult dream. The fast cannot be pushed off to the next day.
Yosef was telling his brothers that they needed to interpret his dream immediately. Time was of essence.
Another explanation for the word ‘now’ is that Yosef was that they should not think that he had already asked some other friends to interpret the dream for him.
Yosef wished to draw closer to his brothers and placate them. By asking them to interpret his dream and not someone else, he has shown his willingness to draw close to them. If he would have asked someone else to interpret his dream, it would show that he did not trust them to interpret the dream favorably. He wanted to be sure that he had a favorable interpretation, and by asking someone else first he did not have to rely on his brother’s goodwill. By asking for his siblings’ interpretation and relying on it, he was showing trust that could open their hearts.
However, this seems to be in contradiction to the Gemara that says that all interpretations of a dream come true. Rabbi Bena’ah said that he once dreamt and needed an interpretation. He went to twenty-four professional dream interpreters who each said something else. Each interpretation came true. How would going to someone else change the brothers’ interpretation?
To this, the Ohr Hachaim explains that this may not be true if the interpretations contradict each other.
Yosef told them that they should interpret the dream ‘now’ because theirs was the first one.
