The Power of Dreams - a Thought for Parashat Vaytezei

Just about everybody I know has, at one time or another, personally experienced the

power of dreams.  Either they dreamt something that gave them a window to their future.  Or they dreamt something that offered clarity on something that had been perplexing to them.  Or which enabled them to decide some important life issue with confidence.

I include myself among those who have benefitted from dreams.  Probably in all three ways I mentioned above.  There has been much literature on the phenomenon of dreams.  Psychologists frequently use dreams as a tool for understanding the inner person.

In the beginning of this week’s Torah reading, we see Jacob dream the ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ dream.  His mother, Rebecca, has sent him to travel back to Haran, to find a wife from among her people there.  But the most urgent reason he’d leaving the Land of Canaan, is that his brother Esau is of a mind to kill him.  This, after Jacob and Rebecca conspired to get the aged and feeble Isaac to give Jacob a blessing that he intended for the older twin, Esau.  Esau is angry to the point of fratricide.  Jacob is running for his life.

It’s understandably difficult for Jacob to see a future which includes the fulfillment of his father’s blessing when his powerful brother wants to kill him.  Jacob is therefore not only running for his life.  He wonders what shape his life, if spared, might possibly take.  Understandably, he wonders if he has any kind of future whatsoever.

Jacob’s dream shows him a ladder planted in the ground, stretching to the heavens.  Angels of G-d are ascending and descending.  In the dream, G-d Himself is standing over Jacob.  He promises that he will watch over Jacob wherever he roams, and that he will ultimately be restored to the land that was promised his ancestors.  G-d will be with Jacob and will protect him, and ultimately Jacob’s seed with be numerous and the other families of the earth will be blessed through the.

Some of the biblical commentators believe that the angels in the dream represent the other nations of the earth.  Their ascent and descent of the ladder shows that these nations will experience ascendency and decline.  Jacob will, at various times, by subjected to one nation of another.  But in the end he will prevail; he will achieve the greatness that is his destiny.

Jacob’s dream enables him to take heart and face the future with the confidence that things will work themselves out.  It gives him the strength to face whatever hardships may lie ahead.  And those hardships will come.  In the near future, Jacob will be deceived by his new father-in-law, Laban, who will trick him into marrying Leah instead of Rachel.  Then Laban’s sons will try to trick Jacob out of his due for the work he’ll have done for Laban for 14 years.  Then he’ll face his brother, who will still hold a grudge for Jacob’s past trickery.  Then he will see his sons fight bitterly.  And will think that his favored son Joseph will have been killed.  And will find Joseph yet live only in the context of a famine which threatens to wipe out the entire family, and will be reunited with Joseph only in the context of the entire family going into exile in Egypt.  Any one of these challenges should be enough to make Jacob give up and give in.  But this dream sustains him and enables him to continue to live and thrive through the various tragedies he will experience.

So too, our dreams can give us the strength to face whatever adversity comes our way.  And each one of us experiences adversity.  When we’re unhappy in our circumstances, we have a tendency to think that our troubles surpass everyone else’s.  We cry out – if we believe in G-d – Why me, G-d??!  In our misery, we can’t imagine that someone else is suffering as much as, or even more than, we.  But the truth is that there is always someone whose lot is worse.  For everybody who is sad because his shoes have holes, there is someone who is going around barefoot.  For everybody who goes around barefoot, there is some who cannot walk at all.  Our misery tends to blind us to those who suffer more bitterly.

But our dreams can help put things in perspective.  When we refuse to look at the bright side, our dreams can serve as a vehicle to bring us hope.  Or they can give us clarity that we have, but cannot see through our tears.  As long as we have the capacity to dream, we can see the potential for a postivie future.

May we always listen to our dreams and thus, take hope!  Shabbat shalom.