This week’s and last week’s Torah-portions speak in great detail about dreams. First we read of Joseph’s two dreams of how his brother will bow to him, the first dream speaking of bundles of straw and the second dream of stars, the moon and the sun bowing to his bundle of straw and to his star. Then we have the dream of the wine-merchant with the three baskets of grapes on his head, and the baker with the three baskets of pastries on his head. Finally, we have the two dreams of Pharaoh in the first one there are the seven fat cows swallowed up by the seven skinny cows, and in the second dream the seven fat stalks swallowed up by the seven skinny stalks.
All these dreams are told in great detail, in which the details are all specific details in the message and interpretations of the dreams to its dreamer.
People react to dreams very differently, from one extreme to the other. Some see their dreams as a message, and reconfirm this by stories upon stories of how they dreamt about someone who they haven’t seen in ages, or about something they haven’t encountered in ages, and suddenly that person or thing, immediately following the dream, comes into their lives. Other people are to the far other extreme of total cynicism of trying to interpret any sort of reality out of a dream. Then there are those who cautiously are uncertain as to what their dreams mean, if there is to be any meaning at all.
What we are going to explore in this lecture is not the specifics of how to interpret dreams. Rather, we are going to present here the totality of the structure of dreams, as it is explained throughout the teachings. What is thoroughly confusing of the teachings upon dreams is that they seem to contradict themselves again and again. It is only when we have a clear picture of the structure of the world of dreams that suddenly all the teachings fall into place and complement each other. Thus, we will start by quoting the teachings from the Talmud, Zohar and other sources from our sages, experiencing the contradictions amongst them.
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Here is a link to the written notes of this lecture, which will be available until December 30, 2016, after which you can email TheJewishMind@icloud.com to request them:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vjk5ijclhcg6kt/10.%20Mikeitz%205777%20-Interpreting%20Dreams%20-deciphering%20the%20world%20of%20dreams..pdf?dl=0
