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I'm working "backwards" in my assumption.

Pharaoh had a double dream. When Yosef interprets it, he says, in Breishit 41:32

As for Pharaoh having had the same dream twice, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and that God will soon carry it (Sefaria translation)

It seems that Yosef implies that it may have taken two dreams to make his interpretation convincing.

When Yosef has dreams, it seems that it also took two dreams before Ya'akov seems to interpret it as a sign that Yosef may actually rise to leadership and his brothers will come to bow down to him.

However, while Yosef was in jail, the wine steward and the baker have each one dream, and each of them seem to believe Yosef's interpretation after just a single dream.

I realize that I'm making some assumptions here...

Yosef's suggestion to Pharaoh when he says to him the fact that you had two dreams proves that G-d showed you what was about to happen and it is true. In a way, he's saying to Pharaoh, "you should believe my interpretation, because you had a double dream."

Is there a precedent that at least two dreams confirms that the interpretation is believable? Or, were there some special circumstance (perhaps, when the wine steward heard good news that he would leave jail, he was thrilled enough that he didn't need a second dream to believe Yosef's interpretation?)

Regarding Ya'akov's reaction, we see that he reacts and interprets only after the 2nd dream. Perhaps, he didn't think much after the first one?

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  • The Beis HaLevi answers your question. Dec 10, 2017 at 21:48
  • I would post it but I can't find a pdf anywhere of it Dec 10, 2017 at 21:48
  • I don’t follow. The reason Paroh had two dreams wasn’t to make it more convincing. It was to tell him that it would be happening immediately.
    – DonielF
    Jan 10, 2018 at 2:01

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Yaakov was not involved with the first dream. As it says Vayeishev 37:5

And Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers, and they continued to hate him.

The second dream he first told his brothers (37:9) and repeated it in the presence of their father Vayeishev 37:10

And he told [it] to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will we come I, your mother, and your brothers to prostrate ourselves to you to the ground?"

Thus a dream does not need to be repeated in order to be true. The dreams of Par'o was actually a single dream shown in two different phases in order to emphasize the seriousness and immediacy of the danger. The dreams themselves explained how the danger was to be avoided and showed the necessity of someone who would be able to continue storing the results of the years of plenty and not think that they had too much stored already part way through.

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