ותפעם רוחו. פרש"י אבל גבי נבוכדנצר כתיב ותתפעם רוחו לפי שהיו שתי פעימות ששכח החלום והפתרון וכאן לא שכח כי אם הפתרון ואע"ג דכתיב בנבוכדנצר חלום חלמתי ותפעם רוחי התם משבאו החרטומים לפניו ולא הי' שם כי אם פעימה אחת שאלו הי' החלום ידוע יהא הפתרון ידוע להם ולפיכך שכח זה החלום והפתרון. וזה שלא שכח כי אם הפתרון לפי שחלום נבוכדנצר הי' לזמן מרובה ואלמלא שאמר לו דניאל החלום לא הי' מאמינו מן הפתרון. אבל חלום פרעה לאלתר הי' והאמין בו. ומה שצוה נבוכדרנצר להרוג החרטומים כדכתיב ואמר להובדא לכל חכימי בבל. ופרעה לא אמר כן לפי שאמרו לו החרטומים לנבוכדנצר האיך אתה סבור שנאמר לך החלום וכי נביאים אנחנו דכתיב מלתא די מלכא שאיל יקירא היא כלו' צריכ' נבואה כדכתיב ודבר ה' הי' יקר בימים ההם ואחרן לא איתוהי קרי ביה ואהרן כלו' אהרן איננו הנושא אורים ותומים להגיד הנעלמים אמר להם נבוכדנצר הזכרתני אורים ותומים ובעצתכם הכהנים שנושאים אותם אבדתם מן העולם חייכם שתאבדו מן העולם ולכך צוה לאובדא יתהון: ותפעם רוחו, “his mind was disturbed.” Rashi draws our attention to the fact that when the reaction of King Nebuchadnezzar to his dream is described in the Book of Daniel 2,1, the author uses a different conjugation, i.e. ותתפעם which is a combination of the passive and reflexive mode. [The latter could not even remember what he had seen that disturbed him so much. Ed.] His interpreters were required to tell him what he had dreamt as well as what it meant. Pharaoh, on the other hand, had only forgotten the interpretation of what he had seen in the dream. (B‘reshit Rabbah, 89,5.) Even though when relating his dream to potential interpreters he did not let on how deeply he was troubled and he used the same words for his reaction as are reported of Pharaoh, חלום חלמתי ותפעם רוחי, “I have dreamt a dream and my mind is disturbed,” (Daniel 2,3) the difference was that the inability of his interpreters to offer any interpretation was due to the fact that they had not been told what he had dreamt. One of the differences between the two dreams was that Nebuchadnezzar dreamt something that would occur in the distant future, whereas Pharaoh dreamt something that would occur almost immediately. If Daniel had not been able to tell Nebuchadnezar what he had dreamt, he would never have believed the interpretation that Daniel offered him. Seeing that Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream as predicting matters that would occur in the immediate future, he believed him, as otherwise he could have called him a liar within a short time and have dealt with him as a false prophet. As to Nebuchadnezzar having meted out the death penalty to all the interpreters that had failed to interpret his dream, (compare Daniel 2,12) this was partly due to their having said that no human being could interpret his dream, only angels (verse 11). Prophets had been rare already in the time of Samuel; (compare Samuel 3,1) The word ואחרון לא איתי, in Daniel 2,11, should be read as ואהרן לא נמצא, “there is no Aaron nowadays who by means of the urim and tumim in the folds of his breastplate could have secured an answer from G–d to his query.” Nebuchadnezzar, when hearing these words of Daniel, told him that he now remembered about the significance of that breastplate and the urim and tumim. He added that the Jewish people had lost their world because their priests had made unlawful use of that breastplate. This is why he decreed a similar fate for his own priests. (Tanchuma section 2 on our portion)