Torah Dreams By Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian) Torah Dreams 1 The Ten Dreams 2 The First Dream Avimelech 2 Yosef’s Dreams 3 Paro’s Dreams 4 a dream

The Ten Dreams

There are ten dreams (dreamed by seven “dreamers”) in Bereshit (Genesis). What makes this remarkable is that there are no other dreams in the Torah. By Divine Providence, all ten appear in the annual weekly Torah portions read during the month of Kislev. Lets first examine the ten dreams:

The principal Torah figure connected with dreams, both as the ‘dreamer’ and as the ‘dream interpreter’, is Yosef, called “the master of dreams”¹ by his brothers. The four dreams preceding those of Yosef, the dream of Avimelech, Jacob’s first and second dreams, and the dream of Lavan, were transparent and did not need special dream interpretation. In these dreams, HaShem, or an angel, appears to the dreamer and directly reveals information. In contrast, the final six dreams, the two of Yosef, the two of Pharaoh’s ministers, and the two of Pharaoh, require interpretation, having become “enclothed” in the imaginative faculty of the dreamer’s soul, and appearing in the form of an allegory and riddle.