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.