5783/2023
We’ve all had that infamous dream, some time or another,
with the 10-pound marshmallow. In the dream we eat this
massive, delicious, fluffy marshmallow. And when we wake up,
our pillow is gone. Dreams can be very strange
experiences—almost like your brain improvises thinking, but
then decides it's terrible and deletes it all before you realize.
This unrest is addressed during each of the Shalosh Regalim in
Birkat Kohanim. In this prayer, at the end of Musaf, we say a
Ribbono Shel Olam supplication, in which we comment on the
dreams that we don't understand, and ask Hashem that they
should only be good for us or those around us. But why, of all
places, do we talk about dreams during Birkat Kohanim? All the
priests are gathering to bless the people with a beautiful song,
and we take this time to ask Hashem how our pillow went
missing?
The source for this supplication is in Gemara Berachot
55b, which presents the text of the blessing. The Mishna
Berurah says that it was the minhag to say this even if one
didn’t have a bad dream recently, because it's not likely that
anyone went so long between Regalim without having a
nightmare (Orach Chaim: 130). This provides a short, practical
answer: we say it now because it is a time of communal simcha,
blessing, and prayer, and people probably had bad dreams
since the last Yom Tov so Birkas Kohanim is a great
opportunity. However practical this is, it still seems random.
We don’t have any other communal prayer that talks about
dreams. What is so significant about them now?
Luckily, the supplication mentions a multitude of
Tanachic references that may hold the key to understanding
this prayer. The first scriptural source is possibly the biggest
dreamer in Tanach, Yosef Hatzadik himself. We request of
Hashem that if our dreams are good, He should “ואמצם חזקם
fortify and them strengthen” “,ויתקימו...כחלומותיו של יוסף הצדיק
them and let them be fulfilled...like the dreams of Yosef the
Righteous” (prayer in Birkat Kohanim). This is clearly in
reference to the dreams of the wheat field and the stars in the
sky, which symbolized the brothers bowing down to Yosef. The
trouble, however, is that this is the only passage cited in the
supplication that seems in place. The rest are not even about
dreams! We ask that if our dreams are bad, they should be
healed like Chizkiyahu, Miriam, or Naaman, and like the waters
of Mara and Yericho by the hands of Moshe and Elisha
respectively, none of which have a strong focus on dreams.
Before I answer, I would like to thank my Avi Mori, who
sat with me to learn all the different stories and helped
interpret them, and Rabbi Avraham Wein, for helping me
develop some of the ideas expressed and putting me in touch
with Rabbi Baum who kickstarted the idea. Rabbi Baum
informed me that Birkas Kohanim is a time of special closeness
with Hashem and a time of heightened spiritual clarity, and
that is why we ask for help regarding our confusing dreams.
But how does this idea hold up when applied to all the stories
referenced? When Chizkiyahu is struck with a deadly sickness,
he prays to Hashem and is answered. Yishayahu returns to the
king bearing news of his recovery, but Chizkiyahu still requests
a sign. On a simple level, this can be seen as asking for
clarification. He wants to be completely sure with a physical
sign that he will be healed. However, this can still be seen to
some extent as a lack of Emunah. Why didn’t he just listen to
the prophet and trust in his word? I believe that the answer lies
in the wording of the sign. Upon the king’s request, Yishayahu
shadow the Shall” “,הלך הצל עשר מעלות אם ישוב עשר מעלו” :asks
advance ten steps or recede ten steps?” To which Chizkiyahu
correctly responds that it is normal for the shadow to advance
as the day goes on, but not for it to recede, so he asks for that to
be the sign. Why does the prophet even have to ask? If he is
asking for a sign from Hashem, it would expectedly be
something out of the ordinary. Yishayahu is telling him that
many of Hashem’s signs are not out of the ordinary. Hashem
speaks with us in many ways that we don’t always see because
we perceive it as normal. Further, he is teaching him that, to
Hashem, it doesn't matter what is normal or abnormal. It’s all
the same to Him. Just like He dictates that the shadow should
advance, He can decide on a whim that it should recede, and it
will. Yishayahu in this story is teaching Chizkiyahu an
important clarification about Emunah: God doesn't have the
same concepts of normalcy that we do. To Him, there’s no
difference whether He decides for nature to work one way or
another. Because of this, we shouldn't look for signs as if they are massive blessings. The time for open miracles has passed,
now we must find God speaking to us in the normal events of
our lives.
By the story of Miriam, the sin that warranted her
Tzaraas was Lashon Hara. She makes an assumption about
prophecy that downplays Moshe. Hashem responds by
informing her that He does not communicate with Moshe like
he does with other prophets. With most prophets, Hashem
communicates through dreams, visions, and riddles. He relates
to them through foggy, unclear means. Not so with Moshe,
though. With him, Hashem speaks face to face, not holding
anything from him in forms of riddles or muddled images. We
don’t always understand when Hashem is trying to reach out to
us—it’s often very confusing. This crucial point, that regular
prophecies are vague and blurry, as opposed to Moshe’s which
are clear, was a necessary clarification that Miriam had to learn
to atone for her mistake.
Next comes a lesser known story from Navi, the
Tzaraas of Naaman. Naaman was a general of Aram’s army, and
he had Tzaraas. A Jewish maid, whom he received from war,
suggests that he go see Elisha the prophet in Israel, and his
king gives him permission. Upon asking for a cure for his
Tzaraas, Elisha tells him to bathe in the Jordan River 7 times. At
this answer, Naaman gets very upset. He had expected the
prophet to pronounce some Godly spell and cure him with the
wave of a hand, not to tell him to take a bath. He exclaims that
he has much better, cleaner rivers at home to bathe in.
However, his servants reminded him that no matter how
outlandish the prophet’s advice would have been, he would do
it—so why would he refrain from doing something so simple?
This convinces Naaman, so he follows Elisha’s counsel and is
healed. Afterward, he makes a proclamation of Hashem’s
power and existence. Naaman’s original mistake is one that
should seem familiar by now. At first he thinks that Hashem
acts through big displays, but this is not the case. When one is
dirty or has a blemish, he washes off. Elisha instructed
Namman to bathe in this way, to teach him that Hashem talks to
us in the ways of the world. We just have to find Him there, and
He will answer all our pleas.
Now we know the ways in which Hashem connects
with us, but how do we connect with Him? We affix ourselves
to Him via the Torah, which is compared to water. The Gemara
states that just as a fish cannot exist at a distance from water,
so too a Jew cannot exist at a distance from Torah (Avodah Zara
3b). The Gemara further learns out that Moshe instituted for
the Torah to be read communally on Monday, Thursday and
Shabbos, because just like a man cannot go without water for
three days, so too one must learn Torah every three days (Bava
Kamma 82a). Understanding this analogy, the interpretation of
the next two Biblical stories becomes clear. When we ask that
Hashem heal our dreams like Moshe and Elisha healed the
water, it refers to the healing of our Torah learning. Just like in
those stories, each respective prophet made the water sweet,
we want our Torah learning to be sweet. We request that
Hashem give us clarity in our learning, and make it easier to
connect with him. Anyone who learns knows that it's not
always easy, and having a clear understanding of one's learning
is a great blessing. In this portion of the supplication, that is
exactly what we ask for.
In these contexts of clarity in Hashem’s contact with
us, we can understand why Yosef Hatzadik is the ideal scenario
when it comes to dreams, and the one that we want Hashem to
emulate for us. In Yosef’s dream, all the brother’s are gathering
grain, and their eleven stalks of grain all bow down to Yosef’s.
As far as dreams go, this is a pretty clear sign that Yosef will
rule over his brothers. In his other dream, the sun, moon and
eleven stars bow down to him. What were the odds that he had
two dreams, both with eleven entities bowing down to him,
and that he just so happened to have eleven brothers. Yosef’s
dreams are so clear and obvious in what they mean, when most
of us don't even remember ours a minute after waking up. We
want Hashem to connect with us vividly, or at least help us
understand His messages.
והאמר רבי זעירא: כל הלן שבעה ימים בֹלא” :says in Gemara The
רע נקרא חלום,” “anyone who sleeps seven days without dreaming
is called evil” (Berachot 55b). Dreams are one of the ways in
which Hashem gives us visions, and if someone does not have
dreams, it means that Hashem does not want to contact them
like this. The time when the Kohanim bless the nation is a time
of particular closeness to the Shechina, a time when spiritual
secrets can be clarified. Dreams as we see them are inherently
confusing, we almost never remember or understand them, but
they are how Hashem talks to us. There would be no better
time to ask to spell out our dreams, then at this time of divine
certainty. But dreams are not the only way Hashem reaches us.
All the time, He’s there in the world around us. Many make the
mistake of only looking for Hashem in the wondrous sights and
events, in the extraordinary happenings. We must learn to see
Hashem talking to us in simple, everyday experiences. But this
is very difficult, so right after Musaf, when the whole of Bnei
Yisrael would gather in the Mikdash, when the Shechina is so
close, we ask for help understanding Hashem’s signs, both in
our waking lives and in our dreams.