לְקַיֵּים מַה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״כׇּל הַחֲלוֹמוֹת הוֹלְכִים אַחַר הַפֶּה״.
What one interpreted for me the other did not interpret for me, and, nevertheless, all of the interpretations were realized in me, to fulfill that which is stated: All dreams follow the mouth of the interpreter.
וְאָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא: חֶלְמָא דְּלָא מְפַשַּׁר כְּאִגַּרְתָּא דְּלָא מִקַּרְיָא.
And Rav Ḥisda said: A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read. As long as it is not interpreted it cannot be fulfilled; the interpretation of a dream creates its meaning.
Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria
ABSTRACT: In "Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria," Freud examines the case of an intelligent eighteen-year-old girl who is nevertheless very troubled. Exploring every aspect of her life, he discovers a series of intrigues that could be found in a detective novel. Freud finds many characters in Dora's neurotic family, ranging from her mother who cleans the house all day to her father and his mistress, the famous Frau K. Freud also discusses Frau K.'s husband, who seems to desire an affair with Dora. The people in Dora's life are all part of her distress, and Freud uses his ability to explain the motives behind her fixation on her father's mistress and uncovers her inner life.
אָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא: כׇּל חֲלוֹם, וְלָא טְווֹת.
. Rav Ḥisda said: One should see any dream, and not a fast. In other words, any dream is preferable to a dream during a fast.
The Washington Post, Edith Piaf sneezed on my cheesecake’ and other coronavirus dreams
By: Monica Hesse
April 10, 2020
Okay, bear with us, because this will get bizarre at first and then make total sense: Molly Kleinman, a program manager in Michigan, was in an unfamiliar cafe when she looked up at the chalkboard menu and saw there was a dessert named after her. “Molly’s Blueberry Maple Bar,” the sign said, and she knew somehow, with oracle-like clarity, that she was the Molly. She decided it was only right to order her bespoke cookie, but as soon as it touched her plate, it started to decay. Kleinman panicked. “I’m not supposed to be in a crowded coffee shop,” she realized. “None of us are supposed to be in a crowded coffee shop.” The blueberry maple bar crumbled into sawdust before her eyes.
And then she woke up. Because Kleinman had been not in a charming cafe, but in a coronavirus-inspired dream. Lots of people seem to be having them now. It’s apparently not enough to panic about the virus in our waking hours; the dread has now come for our sleep.
The real-world ingredients for Kleinman’s nocturnal dessert: Like many of us, she’s been doing a lot of baking. She’s out of maple syrup, but buying it would require a trip to Trader Joe’s, which — Satan, get (six feet) behind me — we’re now only doing if absolutely necessary. Most of all, charming cafes, along with every other public space, have gone from feeling like the setting of a Nancy Meyers movie to a Jordan Peele creation, and everything mundane is now malevolent.
“I dreamed that we couldn’t record [my podcast],” says Alex Scheer, an Ohio music student and the co-host of “College Sports Connection.” “Because covid-19 spread over the airwaves, and if we recorded, we would be risking each other’s lives.”“I dreamed that I planned a duck boat tour for a conference,” says Christi Showman Farrar, a Massachusetts librarian. “And we were going to meet at the Prudential Center, which is a shopping mall, but we got there and it was eerily quiet and I couldn’t figure out why. And then I realized there
were a few people around, but they were all dressed like Santa or elves, and all the stores had been covered in wrapping paper like they were holiday gifts.”Did the wrapping paper signify that the concept of public shopping now seems like an underappreciated treat? Did the elves signify that things won’t be back to normal until Christmas? Does anything in a covid-19 dream signify anything more than the pitiful bleating of our collective subconscious, creating a different ludicrous reality than the ludicrous reality we’re already inhabiting...
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
The whole plea - for this dream is nothing else - recalls vividly the defence
offered by a man who was accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition. In the first place, he had returned the kettle undamaged; in the second place it already had holes in it when he borrowed it; and in the third place, he had never borrowed it at all. A complicated defence, but so much the better; if only one of these three lines of defence is recognized as valid, the man must be acquitted.
וְהָאָמַר רַבִּי זְעֵירָא: כׇּל הַלָּן שִׁבְעָה יָמִים בְּלֹא חֲלוֹם — נִקְרָא ״רַע״. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְשָׂבֵעַ יָלִין בַּל יִפָּקֶד רָע״. אַל תִּקְרֵי ״שָׂבֵעַ״ אֶלָּא ״שֶׁבַע״. — אֶלָּא, הָכִי קָאָמַר: דַּחֲזָא וְלָא יָדַע מַאי חֲזָא.
Didn’t Rabbi Zeira say: Anyone who sleeps seven days without a dream is called evil, as it indicates that God does not wish to appear to him even in that indirect manner. Allusion to this is, as it is stated: “And he that has it shall lie satisfied [vesave’a], he shall not be visited with evil” (Proverbs 19:23). The Sages said: Do not read it as satisfied [vesave’a], rather read it as seven [vesheva], which is an allusion to the fact that one who sleeps seven times and does not experience a dream is considered evil. Rather, one must say that David saw dreams and the baraita says as follows: David certainly saw dreams, but he did not understand what he saw.