Dreams and Dreamers

Joseph is a dreamer. His dreams - or at least his sharing of his dreams put him in danger. They are the dreams of a prophet, dreams that know something that can't be known.

Dreams can be like that. Dreams sometimes tell us a situation is or isn't right in a way we don't seem to grasp in our waking life. 

The double entendre of the word "dream" is really quite profound. We dream in consciousness about our hopes, and we dream to process life while we sleep. I believe that in dreams my subconscious mind can work in the space, the veil, between olam haba (the world to come, or the spiritual world) and olam hazeh (this world, the physical).  

Someone recently asked, thus reminding me, about my journey from anthropologist to rabbi. It is a multifaceted journey, one that relies on conscious and subconscious dreams. Since childhood, I have loved digging through layers of past cultures, and this passion is directly connected to my spiritual and moral identity. 

Sleeping dreams have directed my journey through these interests on more than one occasion. A series of dreams during my work as an archaeologist ultimately led me to leave that academic field and pursue the rabbinate. The dreams were difficult, filled with ethical dilemma, and left me raw. The transitions weren't easy (if ever they are).

Unlike Joseph, whose initial downfall may be in sharing his dreams too readily, I was cautious about with whom and how I shared my dreams. But like Joseph, my dreams have led me on a long, sometimes arduous, often splendor-filled journey.

I am never sorry when I follow my dreams.  It is good to be reminded of this.

How do you make use of conscious dreams - dreams of hope? And how do your subconscious dreams - of sleep - speak to you? Do you have a little Joseph in you?

[edited for clarity]