Shabbat Mikeytz: Dreams
Dreams play a very important part in the biblical narrative.
In recent weeks, we have read about Yaakov’s dream of angels going up and down a ladder. Yosef dreamt about his own future. The dreams of the baker and the butcher and those of Pharaoh. The implication is that these were all reliable messages, coming as Yosef says, from God.
The question is to what extent dreams, in general, are ways of getting messages and to what extent they should be relied on. To this day there are people who make a living out of interpreting dreams. Are they charlatans taking advantage of the credulous, or are they on to something?
When it comes to Yosef and Pharaoh, they both had dreams that came true. In the case of Yosef, it’s his turning from a victim in a pit to the ruler of Egypt. In the case of Pharaoh, it’s premonition of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Later on, the Torah talks about false prophets, but it talks about dreamers who should not be relied on (Devarim 13).
It will come as no surprise that the Talmud has pages about how to react to dreams and interpret them. How to respond to bad dreams. Whether dreams and interpreters are reliable or not. I have a selection here of the very different opinions that you can find in the Talmud from only one tractate ( Berachot 55a to 56b). Most take dreams very seriously but disagree over interpretations and their validity. Others do not. The variety and disagreements that you can find in the Talmud are proof of how controversial dreams were then. And indeed, remain so for many people now. A bad dream required a fast, and there are special incantation when priests go up bless, and instructions as to annulling bad dreams.
Amongst the rationalists, you have the opinion of the great Babylonian Shmuel. When he had a bad dream, he would quote the prophet Zechariah, who says that dreams are false. Yet when he saw a good dream, he would quote from Yosef to prove it was a good sign. He covered his bases.
Rav Chisdah said a dream that’s not interpreted is like a letter that’s not read. So, if you ignore it, you’re not going to get any message. He also said that neither a good nor a bad dream is entirely fulfilled. But how do you know which part? He also said that a good person is not shown a good dream, and a wicked person is not shown a bad dream. Go figure. On the cynical side, Rav Yochanan said that there’s no such thing as a dream without idle information. Which is about right for most of my dreams.
The Gemara deals with the charlatans who make a living out of interpreting dreams. Rav Akiva said that there were 24 interpreters of dreams in Jerusalem and each one disagreed as to what the interpretation was. Bar Hadaya, a popular interpreter, would give a good interpretation of a dream to anybody who paid him money and a bad interpretation if they did not. One rabbi who had a bad interpretation because he wouldn’t pay the first time, came back with money and then got a good interpretation. Plenty of those still around today.
Then you have what I might call the Freudians. Shmuel bar Nachmani said that a person is shown in his dream only the thoughts of his own heart (read mind). In other words, dreams are a reflection of our subconsciouses. Which sounds as though it was written by Sigmund Freud himself. Of course, they didn’t use those terms at that time. Rava said that one is neither shown a golden palm tree nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle in a dream. Dreams only contain images that a person has actually seen.
Nevertheless, these pages are full of all kinds of attempts to interpret what one dreams. Some claim that if you see an animal in a dream, all animals are a good sign except for monkeys and elephants. Yet on the other hand if one who sees an elephant (pil), in a dream, it is a good omen that miracles (pelaot) will be performed for him. The linguists interpret dreams based on the actual words themselves. For example, seeing a cat which is a Shunrah in Aramaic, is a sign that you’re going to have a song sung in your praise because Shirah Nae is a nice song. Then there are individuals that appear in dreams. If it is Pinchas the zealot, you will be zealot. If it is Yosef who was protected from the evil eye you too will not be troubled by evil eyes. But you may equally become a politician.
And finally, if I may add a note of humor, if one who defecates in a dream this is a good omen. Provided of course one washes one’s hands when coming out of the toilet. Clearly toilet humor is another very important feature of the Talmud too. In fact, you could draw whatever message you want to from the Talmud, which is often the case when it comes to almost anything other than the law itself.
I have to say that after a year of almost constant nightmares, I’m at last beginning to have sweet dreams. And so I wish you all a very happy Chanukah and may all your dreams be sweet and amusing.
Bereishit Chapters 41-44:17
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
