In the coming weeks, each weekly parasha begins with a dream. During the month of Kislev (in the northern hemisphere) we experience a decline in our energies, and lights. We withdraw inward. The external hibernates; the internal awakens. One of the characteristics of human consciousness (as opposed to AI) is its need for regeneration in sleep and dreams. Dreaming is a biological and psychological need.
To understand our dreams is a spiritual need. Our forebears (as in any tribal culture) understood this, and in the book of Genesis the primary means of communication with the Divine is dreaming. That is the ladder placed on the ground, with its top in the sky. “Sleep is 1/60 of death. A dream is 1/60 of prophecy,” we learn in the Talmud (Ber. 57b).
In sleeping and dreaming, the “I” is not in charge. On the contrary, dreams reveal that the “I” is just another construct of thought. Freud understood that dreams are the “royal road” to the unconscious. Kabbalists and Hasidim understood that a dream is the unconscious road to the King. Take an interest in your dreams, because they are the language of your soul. The path to healing (haḥlama) passes through dreaming (ḥalima).
