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Parshat Miketz
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

 

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

 

והנה חלום

 

"Master of the Universe, I am Yours and my dreams are Yours. I have dreamt a dream and I do not know its solution... if it is good please strengthen it like the dreams of Joseph, and if it needs to be cured, please cure it like the Bitter Waters by Moshe Rabeinu..." (Prayer on Dreams)

Dreams in Judaism are given a certain level of importance, since they are considered to be '1/60th of prophecy'.  Nevertheless, the power of dreams is limited in a halachic sense. For example, the Talmud tells of one who saw in a dream that his father had hid at a certain location money of Maaser Sheni status, which needs to be taken to Jerusalem in order to be used to buy produce there and be eaten there. The man who dreamt this dream indeed found money hidden in the exact location told to him in the dream. Nevertheless, the Sages ruled that this money need not be taken to Jerusalem as Maaser Sheni, since dreams do not determine any halachic status. On the other hand, halacha mandates that if one is banned by someone in a dream he is to conduct a 'removal of a ban' before ten men. Some explain the seeming contradiction between these halachic sources by differentiating between the levels of validity of different dreams, such as a dream dreamt from things a person thought about before versus a fully novel dream. There are many explanations and opinions on this topic which are outside of the scope of our discussion.

In any case, all agree that outside of halacha dreams may have importance, as we see in the story of Joseph in numbers of instances. Indeed, we should note that one of the landmark sites of Hebron today received its name on basis of a dream. The Avraham Avinu Synagogue received its name based on a dream dreamt by the Rabbi of this community's synagogue. According to the book 'Emek HaMeleh' the Jews of this Hebron community were missing a tenth man to complete a minyan for the prayers of Yom Kippur and were very vexed by such. Miraculously, a stranger appeared and completed the minyan, disappearing right after Yom Kippur. Soon after, the Rabbi of the community dreamt that it was Avraham our Patriarch - 'Avraham Avinu' - who had compassion on the community and thereby appeared as the man who had completed their minyan. This miracle is only one of many miracles that one can discern from the amazing history of Hebron. Indeed, the Tikunei Zohar (tikun 21) mentions that the miracles of Messiah will occur in the Land of Israel due to Hebron where the Patriarchs are buried.

Ultimately, we may say that, although dreams - 1/60th of prophecy - may have limited importance, prophecy itself is of much greater importance, as we say in the Haftorah blessing,  'for even one matter of Your words (through the prophets) will not return empty.' Indeed, the prophets foresaw the great return of Israel, a miracle unfolding before our very eyes. In this way we are continuing, in our generation, the Hanuka miracle of re-dedicating mini-sanctuaries in our Holy Land generally and in Hebron specifically, such as the Avraham Avinu Synagogue which, before our generation, had been turned into an Arab public restroom and pasture for goats. Thank God, our generation has merited to see this site 're-dedicated' and returned to its glory, as the synagogue honoring Avraham our Father. 

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #201

‘Last week I dreamt that it poured in the summer months (I did not see or know of any forecast). The next day, on Hebron Day, it suddenly poured in Hebron, something very rare this time of year here.' I.G

 

Sources: Sanhedrin 30, Nedarim 8a, Rambam T' Torah 7, 12, Emek HaMelech, R. Naftali Bachrah, Sefer Hebron, Kloizenberg Rebbe based on Brachot 55b

 

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