Mikeitz ("at the end of") -- On Dreams

[Rebbe]

BRI International Internet Yeshiva Parashah Notes, December 24, 2011

CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.
Copyright © BRI 2011 All Rights Reserved Worldwide

"I teach nothing new but all things original" -- Rebbe

Parsha Mikeitz (at the end of)
Genesis 41.1-44.17
Haftorah 1 Kgs 3.15-4.1  (Sephardi)

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past
If all time is eternally present."
(T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton).

There are myriad ways God the Father can and does utilise to communicate with humankind. From the creation of Man the Timeless One has ever sought to share His creative thoughts with human beings.

Thoughts, brethren, are THINGS. That which God THINKS He VISUALISES and when HaShem VISUALISES He projects with PURPOSE an objective (though inward) CREATION which has the illusion of form and substance (Isa 14.24). This creation takes place within His/Her Divine Mind -- which we perceive as a reality inside our OWN heads.

We live our entire lives IN OUR HEADS. That is where our reality lies. (Think about what you just read!)

Thought occupies neither time nor space. It is a dimension of reality that cannot be examined or measured or analysed. It has, in fact, no substance.

Certainly, we are created in the IMAGE of God. We are like God in so many ways, and we are even called "Gods" (elohim) by Our Lord Yeshua. Just as all reality exists in our heads, so it is written that the ONE in whose likeness we are made creates the universe within Her own "head." (I am speaking in terms that are entirely anthropomorphic.)

"In Her head creates God the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1.1).

One of the myriad of ways in which God communicates with humankind is through dreams.

The Zohar tells us, "Blessed be the Presence of YHVH wherever He is!" For He is unknowable. No one has ever been able to identify Him. How, then, can you say: 'Her husband is known in the gates'! [Proverbs 31.23] Her husband is the Blessed Holy One! Indeed, He is known in the 'gates.' He is known and grasped to the degree that one opens the 'gates' of 'imagination'! The capacity to connect with the Spirit of Wisdom, to imagine in one's heart-mind -- this is how God becomes known.

The great Carl Gustav Jung stated, "The voice of God can still be heard [through dreams] if you are only humble enough [to listen]." The Jungian theologian, John Sanford, listed about seventy passages in the Sacred Scriptures referring to dreams and visions such as:  

"God visited Abimelech in a dream at night" (Genesis 20.3).

"Jacob had a dream. A ladder was there..." (Genesis 28.12)

"The Lord God appeared to Solomon in a dream at night" (1 Kings 3.5)

Sanford concluded, "The Bible [regards dreams] as revelations from God" (J. Sanford, Evil, 1986) Likewise, the Talmud tells us: "Although God turned away His face from Israel, yet He spoke in dreams to individuals" (Tr. Hag. 5b)

My own Rabbi taught that nothing can take place "here below" without humankind becoming aware in advance through the medium of dreams. To paraphrase him, "The Rabbis who studied the Kabbalah claimed the existence of a Ba'al HaChalom ("Master of the Dream") as being in charge of nightly visions. It was this same Ba'al HaChalom whom they consulted to resolve disputes and even solve difficult legal problems (Men. 67a)."

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia records that Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg revealed in the dream of a student he had never met the correct meaning of a difficult Talmudic passage (Vol. 3, 594); the same source informs us that the great sage Rashi, in a dream, disclosed to his grandson, Samuel, the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH (ibid); furthermore, a 13th century Jewish scholar, Jacob HaLevi of Marvege, composed a volume of rabbinic response that he claimed had been handed down to him in dreams (ibid).  

It is not only the Chosen People of God, or even the spiritual Community of God, that have prophetic dreams. All humankind can connect to the Consciousness of the Timeless One through dreams.

Abraham Lincoln awoke in tears from a very morbid nightmare in which he was walking through the White House and came upon a funeral in progress. "Who is dead in the White House?" he asked. "The President," came the reply. "He was assassinated." Days later Lincoln was dead.

It is on record that dozens of people cancelled their voyage on the ill-fated Titanic on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in April 1912 because of strong premonitions and dreams, including prominent banker J.P. Morgan. Others also had dreams and refused to heed their warning signals and boarded. They died in the icy waters of the ocean. Indeed, in that same year one noted psychic wrote,

"Very critical and dangerous for you should be April 1912, especially about the middle of that month. So don't travel by water then if you can help it. If you do, you will be liable to meet with such danger to your life that the very worst may happen. I know I am not wrong about this 'water' danger; I only hope I am, or at least that you won't be traveling somewhere about that period" (Cheiro, Confessions, 1932, 167).

Had he lived in ancient times in Israel he would have been called a prophet of God.

By exploring the realm of our own dream images, we are putting on (clothing ourselves in the garments of) the new person -- the enlightened, awakened state which I refer to in many of my lectures on "Discipleship." Once we deliberately take the step to explore our dreams, and dream state, we have entered into, and are experiencing, God's alchemy.

Personally, the Rebbetzin can confirm that I have had many dreams and premonitions and imprints which have come to pass over the last three decades, and I continue to do so. Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I walk in the realm of the angels of God. But this is something ANYBODY can do if they desire to do so strongly enough. It's mainly about having the courage to FOCUS MENTALLY OUTSIDE OF ONE'S SELF and tuning in continually to an invisible CONSCIOUSNESS that pervades all and which both surrounds us and interpenetrates us.

It is written in the Talmud that not analysing a dream is like throwing away a letter unopened.

Let us then THINK to open our mail, and in so doing open ourselves to understanding our dreams, and with our analysis we will discover that we are linking hands with Joseph of ancient times and, along with him, crossing the frontiers of Divine Consciousness.