What does it mean to dream?
As Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson notes, we use the word
“dream” to connote two very different things (this is also true of the Hebrew
term, chalom).
Merriam-Webster’s first definition is: “a series of thoughts, images, or emotions
occurring during sleep”. This is the
sort of dream that Pharaoh recounts to Joseph in this week’s portion, Miketz.
In the Joseph story—and often in literature—this sort of dream may prove
prophetic. At other times, however, our
sleep-time dreams seem to be of little or no significance in the waking world.
But there
is another definition of dream: “an aspiration, goal, or aim.” This is the meaning expressed in Martin
Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech or Theodor Herzl’s proclamation, “If you
will it, it is not a dream.”
The first
sort of dream is mostly something that happens to us, conjured up unconsciously
by our sleeping brains. They may confer
insight, but they do not require any action.
The second sort of dream, by contrast, provides a kind of roadmap
through life—a vision of where we seek to move ourselves and our society.
Pharaoh
has dreams. But Joseph, as he grows up,
from a spoiled youth to a compassionate sage, becomes more than one who has, or
even interprets, dreams. The mature
Joseph is, in the more active and far-reaching sense, a dreamer. It is
his vision, in which we are all vessels through which the Divine works, that
ultimately enables him to forgive his brothers and finally break the
dysfunctional favoritism that has plagued every family in Genesis since Cain
and Abel.
Proverbs
teaches that when there is no vision, the people perish. As we celebrate Chanukah this week, enjoy the
light and consider: what is the state of your dreams and visions? Are they calling you to do your part in repairing
the world?
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