By Marco Del Monte
A dream that lasts a lifetime
Parashat Vayeshev is, outwardly, the parashah of dreams. But in reality, it is the point where the dream crosses generations, traversing time and space. Yaakov is the first to truly become a "dreamer".
On the ladder he sees at Bethel, he understands that reality is not linear: there are ascents and descents, angels going up and down, moments of light and moments of darkness. Yaakov learns that the world is not judged by a single frame, but by a movement. In Vayeshev, this gift passes to his son. Yosef receives the language of the dream and translates and re-proposes it over time: not just sheaves and stars, but later on fat cows and lean cows, abundance and famine. Yosef understands what Yaakov had intuited: history is made of cycles, and what appears to be a descent today may be preparation for the ascent. This is why the Sages view Yaakov and Yosef as two parallel worlds: Yaakov, the father, represents what is, or has been, the past; Yosef, the son, represents what will be, the future. Two dreamers, yet with gazes both the same and different: one rooted, the other projected. Together they teach that the dream is not an escape from reality, but the secret code of history and life. And precisely because the dream is a powerful and simultaneously fragile dimension, before dreaming we protect it. Every evening we recite the Keriat Shema al Hamittah. The Sages explain that sleep is a "partial departure of the soul", a miniature of death; this is why we ask for protection from mazikim, the forces that damage or rather confuse. The dream is a permeable territory, it must be guarded. The dream thus reveals itself as an antithetical dynamic, fluid, uncrystallised, composed of ups and downs, what in quantum physics we might define as a "superposition of states" (see Schrödinger's paradox). Yet the Talmud surprises us: “Kol hachalomot holchim achar hapeh” – dreams follow the mouth [interpretation]. It is not what happens in the dream that determines its power, but how you interpret it, how you measure it. So far everything seems clear: we are talking about night-time dreams. But a verse arrives that turns the tables. In the song of redemption it is written: “Shir Hammaalot Beshuv Ad.nai Et shivat Tzion…Hayinu kecholmim” – A Song of Ascents, when H” shall return us (to the dimension called) Zion… We were like “Dreaming Beings”. This does not mean that we dreamt, but that we believed we were awake. Here is the great revelation: the long sleep that we call absolute reality will reveal itself to be a long dream of ladders and cows. And this is where psychology and Torah shake hands. In psychology, it is taught that the dream emerges when the defenses of the Ego fall: the barriers that during the day protect, justify, conceal. When the Ego lowers, inner truth emerges. So too in this world: the truth of Hashem is revealed only when we lower the defenses of the Ego, when we stop obscuring the revealing mirror (speklaria hameirah), when we let a greater light enter the cracks of our control. Now the Shema becomes clear. If this life is the dream, then the Shema protects it. We declare: Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad. Hashem (mercy) and Elokenu (judgment) are Echad, the same dimension: even what we perceive as strictness is disguised mercy, the not-yet-decoded interpretation of the dream. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov takes this secret to its ultimate consequences. Today we bless good with Hatov vehametiv and suffering with Dayan HaEmet. But a time will come when there will be only one berachah: Hatov vehametiv, the correct interpretation of the great dream. Because then we will understand that everything was good: not because there was no pain, but because we will see its meaning and its root. Now everything comes together: just as the dream follows the interpretation, so this life follows the interpretation. At this point we might still play with the mind and suppose something that should not generate anxiety but hope: if the dream is a little death — because in sleep the soul ascends — and if this life is a dream... what we call "death" could be, in reality, the awakening to true life. We cannot always choose what happens, but we can choose how to read it. And the ultimate question is not "when will the dream end." For millennia we have been waiting with confidence, even if it might delay, for someone to come and wish us good morning, but the real question is: when do we want to set the alarm clock? Perhaps the morning has already begun, the table is already set. It is up to us to open our eyes!
“Have a Good Day” and “Chalom Tov, Chalom Shalom”
Shabbat shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.