Perchance To Dream The Halachic Significance of Dreams YI North Netanya Netanya, Israel 5775

(6) And He said: ‘Hear now My words: if there be a prophet among you, I the LORD do make Myself known unto him in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream.

Fire is a sixtieth part of Gehinnom; honey a sixtieth of manna ; the Sabbath a sixtieth of the world to come ; sleep a sixtieth of death ; a dream the sixtieth of prophecy.

(6) For through the multitude of dreams and vanities there are also many words; but fear thou God.

(2) For the teraphim have spoken vanity, And the diviners have seen a lie, And the dreams speak falsely, They comfort in vain;

Our Rabbis taught: .... If one felt distressed over some money which his father had left him, and the dispenser of dreams appeared to him and named the sum, indicated the place, and specified its purpose, saying that it was [for the redemption] of the second tithe — such an incident once occurred, and they [the Rabbis on that occasion] said: The substance of dreams are inconsequential.

An incident occurred when a person was upset because of money that he knew that his father had left him, but he did not know where his father had hid it. He was told in a dream: "There was so and so much money. They are in this and this place, but they belong to so and so," or "...but they are ma'aser sheni." He found the exact sum of money in the place that was told him. The question was brought before the Sages and they said: "the substance of dreams are inconsequential."

If one was told in a dream: "The produce from the second tithe of your father that you are seeking is in this-and-this place," [the statements are of no consequence. This applies even] if he found the produce there like he was told. For words communicated in a dream are of no significance at all.

Collateral was left in their father's posession and it was not know how it came into his posession. And he said to him in a dream they are such and such in this specfic place and they belong to so in so or it is Ma'aser Sheini money and he found them in the specified place in the specified amount. As it says For words communicated in a dream are of no significance at all and they are false.

There was a certain administrator who ws living in R' Meir.s neighborhood who sold the orphans' land and purchased slaves with the proceeds, and R' Meir did not allow him to violate the law in this matter. They [i.e., the Heavenly court] showed [R' Meir] in his dream the following statement: I G-d desire to destroy and yet you attempt to build? Even so, [R' Meir] did not pay attention to the dream and continued to oppose the administrators actions. [R' Meir] said: The substance of dreams are inconsequential.

Rav Yosef said: If they excommunicated someone in his dream, he needs ten people to annul the excommunication for him...Ravina said to Rav Ashi: If he knows who excommunicated him in the dream, what is the law with regard to lifting the excommunication from him? He said: To excommunicate the dreamer, they made this person an agent but to lift the excommunication for him they did not make him an agent. Rav Acha said to Rav Ashi If they excommunicated a person and annulled the excommunication for him in a dream what is the law? He said to Rav Acha Just as it is impossible to have grain without chaff mixed within it, so it is impossible to have a dream without senseless matters...

Just as one cannot have wheat without straw, similarly it is impossible for a dream to be without something that is vain.

When Samuel had a bad dream, he used to say, "The dreams speak falsely" (Zech. x. 2) ; but when he had a good dream, he used to say, "Do the dreams speak falsely? For lo, it is written, 'I [God] do speak with him in a dream' (Num. xii. 6)." Raba asked : It is written, "I do speak with him in a dream," and it is written, "The dreams speak falsely" ! There is no contradiction ; the former being through an angel, the latter through an evil spirit.

[Rava's] father came and appeared to him in a dream and said to him: "Is there anyone who has the audacity to impose upon Heaven to such and extent?" [His father] then said to him: "Change your sleeping place." He changed his place and the next day he discovered his bed marked up by knives.

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If he napped he has still fulfilled his obligation What is considered napping? R. Ashi said: Sleeping, but not really sleeping. Awake, but not really awake. If they call him, he would answer. But he would not know how to offer a reasonable response, but when they remind him, he remembers.

A man is only shown [in a dream what emanates] from the thoughts of his heart ; as it is said, "As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed" (Dan. ii. 29). Or if thou wilt I can say from this passage, "That thou mayest know the thoughts of thy heart" (ibid. v. 30).