Jewish dream interpretation: what your dream means

Dreams in the Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is full of dreams. Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and down. Joseph dreams of sheaves and stars bowing to him, and later in Egypt interprets the dreams of the cupbearer, the baker and Pharaoh. Daniel interprets the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar.

In these stories the interpretation comes from God, not from the interpreter. Joseph says so literally to Pharaoh: not I, God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. That attitude, modest about what a person can know from dreams, runs through the whole tradition.

The Talmud on dreams

The most extensive Jewish discussion of dreams is in the Talmud, in the tractate Berakhot. The rabbis are strikingly sober. Just as there is no grain without straw, there is no dream without nonsense, says one of them. And a person is shown in a dream only what comes from the thoughts of their own heart.

At the same time they take dreams seriously. A dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy, as sleep is one-sixtieth of death. And a well-known saying goes: a dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that is not read. The Talmud also says that dreams follow the mouth: the interpretation a dream receives helps give it its direction.

What images can mean

The Talmud also gives readings of concrete images. Three things are said to point to peace: a river, a bird and a pot. Whoever sees a snake would know their livelihood is assured. Such readings are not used as fixed rules in the tradition, but they show how the rabbis thought: often favourably, and with an eye for wordplay and context.

Later Jewish writers, such as Maimonides, saw dreams mainly as the work of the imagination. The kabbalistic tradition, by contrast, sees in them a moment when the soul rises during sleep. So within Judaism too there are different voices.

After a bad dream

Judaism has its own customs for someone who wakes up worried. In hatavat chalom, improving a dream, you tell the dream to three people who wish you well, and they declare that it may turn for the good. There is a prayer that can be said during the priestly blessing: Master of the world, I am Yours and my dreams are Yours.

Someone who had a very disturbing dream may, according to tradition, keep a ta'anit chalom, a dream fast. Rabbis recommend such customs as a way of dealing with unrest, not as confirmation that the dream predicts something bad.

A tradition of asking questions

Judaism is not a single body, and there are great differences between Orthodox, liberal and secular Jews in how they view dreams. For some a dream is a serious spiritual matter, for others mainly a psychological phenomenon. It is no coincidence either that Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, came from a Jewish background.

Dreamkin describes how the sources and the tradition often read images, without saying what your dream must mean. For personal questions, a rabbi or someone from your own community is the right person to ask.

Symbols in this tradition

• Dreaming of dying in Judaism
• Dreaming of eggs in Judaism
• Dreaming of the moon in Judaism
• Dreaming of your period in Judaism
• Dreaming of a deceased loved one in Judaism
• Dreaming of rats in Judaism
• Dreaming of rain in Judaism
• Dreaming of school in Judaism
• Dreaming of snakes in Judaism
• Dreaming of keys in Judaism
• Dreaming of moving house in Judaism
• Dreaming of fish in Judaism
• Dreaming of birds in Judaism
• Dreaming of water in Judaism