Mikeitz
Can we hear our dreams?
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama:
כל עניני עוה"ז הם כחלום הצריך פתרון
All of the affairs of this world are like a dream that needs interpretation
"This is how the Mei HaShiloach opens his commentary on parashat Mikeitz.
After a certain period (the meaning of `Mikeitz`) that Yossef was in prison, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, keeps dreaming strange dreams he cannot make sense of.
When none of his officers were able to help, the chief cupbearer remembers the young Hebrew slave whose dream interpretations had proven true.
This is the beginning of the overturning of Yossef’s fate.
`… you can understand a dream, to interpret it.`(Bereshit, 41:15), says Pharoh to Yossef
תִּשְׁמַ֥ע חֲל֖וֹם לִפְתֹּ֥ר אֹתֽוֹ:
Literally, the words are saying: `you hear a dream so that you can solve it. `
Indeed, a dream is like an enigma waiting to be solved; in order to make sense of it, we need to hear, to make ourselves very attentive.
This may be the first step of mindfulness practice: when we sit to meditate, we make ourselves still and quiet, so that we can be available to what arises in the mind.
Then insight can arise.
It takes some form of interpretation to understand what our own minds are trying to tell us.
In short, mindfulness meditation is a bit like a form of dream interpretation, only we are awake all the time.
` All of the affairs of this world are like a dream that needs interpretation. `
But this is not all. The Mei Hashiloach suggests something else: the interpreter has power over reality:
`As one interprets it, so will it be with him. `
By so saying, the Hasidic Master is reminding us of our own agency, and of the power of our views: just the way we see things, so they behave, and such they become.
For this Shabbat Hanukkah of Parashat Miketz, I catch myself dreaming of a new miracle, a moment in the world where people could pause and listen deeply, to spend a little less time commenting on reality, and a little more time meditating.
Then perhaps many Pharaohs could be relieved from ignorance, and many young captives could be set free."