World of the Sages: Perchance to dreamOn the subject of dreams in Jewish antiquity, note the recent book by Frances Flannery-Dailey, Dreamers, Scribes, And Priests: Jewish Dreams In The Hellenistic And Roman Eras (JSJSup 90; Leiden: Brill, 2004). I believe Steven Fraade also had an article on dream interpretation in the Talmud, published in the 1990s, but I can't find it now. Does someone have the reference?
By LEVI COOPER (Jerusalem Post)
A significant few pages of Talmud are devoted to the subject of dreams, their integrity and interpretation (B. Brachot 55a-57b). A perusal of these pages reveals a variety of approaches as to how dreams should be viewed.
The first approach views dreams as true harbingers of future events. In this spirit, the Talmud details the meaning of various objects and images seen in dreams: a well, river, bird, pot, reed, gourd, various animals or famous people and the list continues.
A second approach suggests that the portentous value of dreams lies solely in their interpretation. A dream that has yet to be interpreted - suggested one sage - "is like a letter that has not been read": it foreshadows neither good nor bad. How a dream is understood and even the initial response to a dream is of prime value. Great care should be taken in responding to dreams for the response definitively and at times harshly dictates the effect of the dream, as one sage opined: "All dreams follow the mouth."
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A third line suggests that dreams are of mixed matter. No dream reflects the entire reality: Each dream contains an element of truth, yet that truth is intermingled with fanciful images. "Just as it is impossible to have wheat without chaff, thus it is impossible to have a dream without some senseless things." A dream, therefore, is not an accurate herald of the future: "A positive dream will not be fulfilled in its entirety nor will a negative dream be fulfilled in its entirety."
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A final approach views dreams as unindicative of imminent events. Dreams merely provide a window into the subconscious and have nothing to do with the future. "A person is shown nothing but the product of his own thoughts." Thus one sage points out that imagination-defying images, scenes that are beyond the pale of reality, are not seen in dreams: "Know that a person is never shown a palm tree of gold nor an elephant entering the eye of a needle." Such impressions cannot be contemplated while awake and hence will not appear in dreams.
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UPDATE (21 September): Manuscript Boy of Hagahot wrote with the article I was thinking of: Maren Niehoff, "A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read," Journal of Jewish Studies 43,1 (1992) 58-84. Apologies to Steven, I have no idea how I got his name in my head.
In any case, readers have sent in some other references:
From Manuscript Boy, a Hebrew doctoral dissertation by Haim Weiss: "The Role of Dreams in Rabbinic Literature: Cultural Aspects." (Click on the link to download a 20-page summary in a Word file.)
From Carla Sulzbach and Justin Glessner:
Philip S. Alexander - Bavli Berakhot 55a-57b: the talmudic dreambook in contextFrom Carla Sulzbach:
Journal of Jewish Studies 46 (1995) 230-248
Simcha Fishbane - "Every dream becomes valid only by its interpretation": dreams, dream interpretations and dream interpreters in the Babylonian Talmud.UPDATE: Another one, from Michael Pitkowsky:
in: Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature; a Collection of Socio-Anthropological Essays, [by] Simcha Fishbane. Leiden: Brill, 2007: 177-212
Richard Kalmin, "Dreams and Dream Interpreters," in Sages, Stories, Authors, and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia (1994) 61-80