Dedicated to the memory of Harav Eli Shlanger zl and the other members of our extended Australian Jewish Community murdered on Bondi Beach, Australia.
Let’s start off with a short quiz.
1)
Name five popular songs from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s
that include the word ‘Dream’ or ‘Dreams’ in their title:
In chronological order:
1)
All
I Have to Do is Dream (the Everly Brothers)
2)
Dream
Baby (Roy Orbison)
3)
Dream
a Little Dream of Me (The Mamas and Papas)
4)
Dreams
(Fleetwood Mac)
5) I Have a Dream (ABBA)
Bonus a) Do you know in which years these were hits?
1)
1958
2)
1962
3)
1968
4)
1977
5) 1979
Bonus b) Which of the songs topped the British chart? (Hint: it was only one of the above)
All I Have to Do is Dream.
2)
2) Sefer Bereishit/Genesis describes the dreams encountered
by five individuals. Who are they?
1)
Jacob
2)
Joseph
3)
The
Butler
4)
The
Baker
5) Pharaoh
It is something
that we all do and, according to scientists, this even includes mammals, reptiles
and birds who, referencing the few scientific studies that have been carried out
in this area, dream about their daily activities, such as running and interacting
with other animals. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20140425-what-do-animals-dream-about)
The Oxford
dictionary defines Oneirology as:
‘The scientific study of dreams, a term that emerged in the
1810s from Greek roots (oneiron, 'dream' + logia, 'study of'), focusing on the processes,
neurophysiology and functions of dreaming, rather than solely on symbolic interpretation,
though the broader study often includes interpretation too.
The father
of psychoanalysis, Sigmund (aka Sigismund Shlomo) Freud, in his book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’
(1899), argued that dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious.” They reveal hidden desires, fears and conflicts.
For Freud, dreams were not divine messages
but human ones, namely expressions of what lies beneath the surface of consciousness.
He explains
that dreams are disguised fulfilments of repressed, unconscious wishes, censored
and symbolized by the psyche. Distinguishing
between manifest content (what is remembered) and latent content (hidden meaning),
using free association to uncover repressed desires. (‘Sigmund Freud Dream Theory’ book reviewed
by Saul McLeod Phd, https://www.simplypsychology.org/sigmund-freud-dream-theory.html)
Whereas one
of our greatest philosophers, the Rambam/Maimonides, took a different approach.
In Moreh Nevuchim,
Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, Chapter 42, he discusses dreams in the context
of being a medium of prophecy blending psychology and theology (except for Moshe
Rabbeinu who Gd communicated with as ‘one person speaks to his friend’, Shemot 33.11).
He described
prophecy as ‘occurring in dreams or visions, where normal senses cease and spiritual
facilities are heightened. In other words,
dreams serve as channels of divine communication, structured and ordered, not random
imagination’ (Rabbi Jack Abromowitz, ’23. Dreams and Visions, https://outorah.org/p/22475)
These two Jewish thinkers came to very different conclusions as to the function of dreams.
Are dreams
a way in which we find insights into our unconscious desires and heal ourselves
or are they a method by which Gd communicates with us on a higher plane? Could they be both?
Our Parasha
begins with a vivid description of Joseph’s dreams.
We have sheaves
of wheat and celestial bodies prostrating themselves before Joseph which on the
face of it, seems bizarre. Freud might have
posited that being one of the youngest of Jacob’s children, Joseph had an unconscious
wish to be recognized by his older brothers and even their father. He sees this as indicative of a tension within
the family (which granted the circumstances that we’ve hitherto read about in the
Torah, would not be surprising).
The Rambam
in tandem with other commentators, views his dreams as not being simply adolescent
fantasies but visions of a future that would eventually materialise. Joseph did rise above his brothers and their father
and yes, they eventually bowed to him, as we will read about in the next few weeks.
Yet, although
both approaches may seem to be diametrically opposed, the gap between them is not
that wide.
Rabbi Sacks
ztl often taught that Judaism exists within a tension that is present between Freud’s
psychology of the self and the Rambam’s theology of prophecy (which is a fascinating
topic in itself that goes beyond the scope of this Drasha). Where Freud discusses the idea that dreams reveal
our inner conflicts, the Rambam sees these same visions as being Gd’s call to us.
Applying this
to our story of Joseph, we can see elements of both thinkers’ approaches.
According
to Freud, Joseph’s dreams both expose his family’s fractures and (as the Rambam
teaches) also indicate a way in which Gd will help him overcome them through the
prophetic visions that he is experiencing.
Synthesising these two views one can conclude that, according to Rabbi Sacks, dreams are the point at which the human and divine meet, where our deepest desires intersect with the Gd’s purposes or as he wrote, “Where what we want to do meets what needs to be done, that is where God wants us to be.” (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=u7g5WVpA4IY#:~:text=Finding%20Purpose%20%2D%20YouTube,God%20wants%20you%20to%20be.%22)
Tonight we
will, Gd willing, light the first Chanukah candle. I believe that in these days of darkness, both
metaphorical and physical, there can be no more fitting example of these ideas than
in the context of our Festival of Lights.
It began as
an ‘impossible dream’ by the Maccabees to take on the colossal Seleucid (Syrian
Greek) Empire. The goal being to re-establish
Jewish religious sovereignty over the Land of Israel and liberate the Beit Hamikdash
from Hellenistic control. Freud might have
viewed the revolt as an expression initiated by conscious and/or subconscious feelings
of repression felt by Mattityahu the Hasmonean and his five sons (along with some
others in the Jewish population). The result
being the manifestation of these dreams which stemmed from a refusal to let their
identity be extinguished.
The Rambam
takes a rationalist approach viewing the rebellion as a fulfilment of a prophetic
vision emanating from the belief that even in exile, Gd’s presence had endured.
The result being the coruscating light emanating
from the Menorah, filled to the brim with a supply of oil that should have only
lasted for one day.
Both men’s
understanding of dreams coalesces into the outcome that we will celebrate throughout
the world over the next week, in the same manner that we have done for over two
millennia.
Both Parashat
Vayeishev and Chanukah together remind us that the world in which we live can be
changed by dreams. As Herzl wrote, “If
you will it, it is no dream,” and it took five decades until it was realised
with the establishment of the State of Israel.
Joseph’s nocturnal
visions, borne from his psyche (using Freud’s theories), eventually led to events
that he could not have envisioned without Divine assistance (referencing the Rambam).
Similarly, as was witnessed in the case
of the Maccabees and their stunning victory against their overlords where the subconscious
led to the miraculous.
In these trying
times, we should remember that whatever may be taken from us, our dreams will never
belong to anyone else. May they bring us
to a future that is brighter, so much brighter than the present we are living through.
