The Meaning of Dreams in Judaism

B"H

The month of Kislev is the month of dreams and sleep. One of the reasons is that we read a few Torah Parashot dealing with dreams during that time. One of those Parashot is Vayetze dealing with Yosef's dream about the ladder.

What do dreams tell us and what is the Jewish response ?

There is a very important difference between dreams and prophecies, the prophets used to have. Although the Gemara in Masechet Berachot 57b teaches that dreams are one sixtieth of prophecy, the whole subject is to be considered very carefully. Not everybody dreaming is a prophet.

Every night, we ask G-d in the Bed - Time - Shema to save us from nightmares. Rabbi Elie Munk explains that we should not be bothered by our ideas and fantasies which we have during the day (World of Prayer).

There are many discussion about dreams in the Talmud Masechet Berachot. Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachmani says in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: We only see in our dreams what we have thought or experienced during the day (55b).
Psychology agrees to that; in dreams we see things which remained in our subconscious.

According to the Gemara in Berachot (55a), dream interpretation is very important. Already at Temple times, people went to dream interpreters. Rabbi Chisda said that an uninterpreted dream is like an unread letter.
Rabbi Chisda continues: A bad dream is better than a good dream. Rashi explains that a bad dream or nightmare might have the power that people repent. Already the Baraita teaches that King David never had a good dream during his life. This is the reason why he made his decisions very carefully.

According to the Maharsha there are dreams with symbols. A house, a cup, a cabbage, an apple etc. Such things usually stand for different events which need interpretation.

It says in the Zohar that our souls (neshamot) leave our bodies at night and go up to G-d. While we are asleep. While they are going up, they go through different stages which can influence them positively or negatively. And not always reach our neshamot the highest level, hence G-d.
Many times they just stop in the middle and return into our bodies. It happens very often that those neshamot were negatively influenced on their way and now back in our bodies, they are causing us nightmares.

As soon as our soul leaves the body while sleeping, the body is halachically considered as a dead body. For this reason we wash our hands in the mornings when we are getting up. To get rid of the impurity. Chassidim even go a step further: They always have bowls full of water standing next to their beds in order to wash their hands right after getting up.

I wish all of you a great sleep without any nightmares.

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Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040 - 1105. Famous Talmud and Torah commentator. Lived in France.

Maharsha: Rabbi Samuel Eidels, 1555 - 1631, Famous Talmud commentator. Born in Krakow / Poland. His mother Gitel was a cousin of the Maharal of Prague.