DO YOU HAVE DREAMS?

Sigmund Freud famously believed that a person’s dreams are crucial to understanding what makes that person tick. “The interpretation of dreams,” he wrote, “is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”

The business of dream interpretation, though, is difficult, because many dreams, or parts of a dream, are meaningless. And yet, certain Sages regularly provided interpretations to those who were plagued by their strange nighttime imaginings.

The Jerusalem Talmud tells several anecdotes of people, both Jews and Gentiles, who approached the 3rd-century Talmudic sage Rebbi Yishmael to ask him to unravel the meaning of their dreams.

One gentile came and said to him, “I saw in my dream that I swallowed a star.” He said to him, “The spirit of that person [the dreamer] should be blown away, for his dream reveals that he killed a Jew, as it is written in this week’s Torah portion, Balak: “A star went out from Jacob.”

In one of his blessings, Balaam declares:

What is the “star that rises from Jacob?” Each Jew is a “star” that has come forth from Jacob. The dream of swallowing, or eradicating, a star, therefore, alluded to the man murdering a Jew, a star.

But something about Rabbi Yishmael’s interpretation of this verse doesn’t sit right.

The first question the Rebbe asked is this: Why would Rabbi Yishmael turn to a cryptic verse in our Parshah to establish that a star is a metaphor for the Jewish people? The very first Jew, Abraham, had one of the most powerful encounters with G-d described in the Torah. Abraham was still childless, and he questioned G-d, how would he pass on his ideals and morals if he had no children.

This is an early, unambiguous verse spoken by G-d Himself saying that your offspring shall be like the stars of heaven. The verse in our Parshah, on the other hand, is spoken by the gentile and

sinister prophet Balaam, it is also much later in the Torah, and most importantly, is not as clear cut. Why did Rebbi Yishmael specifically choose this verse to connect the dots that the star in the dream represented the murdered Jew when he had a far earlier and far clearer verse in the Torah explicitly stating that each Jew is like a star?

When you read the verse in Balak it alludes to a warrior, a leader, a powerful personality, a shooting heavenly star, an extraordinary individual gifted with unique prowess: “A star rises from Jacob, a scepter comes forth from Israel; it smashes the brow of Moab.” Balaam is clearly not referring to every single individual Jew, never mind a Jew who was slain by an anti-Semite. Reb Yishmael, it seems, is misreading the verse.

Indeed, the greatest Talmudic sage, Reb Akiva, has seen this description of the star as referring to Moshiach.

Indeed, the towering 13th century Spanish commentator, the Ramban, follows Rabbi Akiva and interprets the verse as referring to the Moshiach:

 Even the Rambam who interprets these words on King David—clearly does not see them as a description of just any individual Jew. The reason is clear because this “star” is obviously a king, a “star,” a “scepter,” a leader, and someone who will change the world.

And lastly: Why a star? Why is this the chosen metaphor to allude to the Jew?

This is the great Chassidic book, Maor Einayim, one of the first Chassidic works ever printed.

The Rebbe turned to teaching from this book to solve the contradictory meanings of the star shooting forth from Jacob. Reb Nochum attributes this teaching directly to the Baal Shem Tov who taught as follows:

The soul of Moshiach is a broad, capacious, all-encompassing soul. Within it is included every soul from all of history, from the beginning of time until the end. But this soul is dispersed and broken into innumerable fragments. Every single Jew has a fragment, a piece of Moshiach’s soul within him or herself. In order for Moshiach’s collective soul to be complete, “every one of us must first repair and prepare the piece of Moshiach that resides within us.” Only then can Moshiach come and redeem the world.

The Baal Shem Tov is teaching us a powerful idea. It is not that Moshiach is some big, strong, inspiring guy, who will take the world by storm, and change it forever (in a good way, of course). Moshiach is not some grand savior who will one day appear at our doorstep and swoop us up into the wings of redemption, as we passively sit back and enjoy the show. It is much deeper and subtler than that. Every one of us is Moshiach—every single Jew and, by extension, every single person is a “miniature Moshiach,” a microcosm of Moshiach. When I manage to accentuate and reveal my inner micro-Moshiach, and you manage to excavate your micro-Moshiach—we create the Macro-Moshiach!

The Moshiach that emerges from the inspired poetry of the prophets — a heroic savior swooping in to restore peace to a world at war, abolishing famine and poverty, and healing the earth— is not some remote superman; he is essentially the Moshiach that we create, empower and generate through discovering the “small” Moshiachs inside of ourselves.

The person we refer to in Judaism as Moshiach is not some superhero who will wow us into submission; rather, Moshiach is the person chosen by G-d to help each person see the Moshiach inside themselves, the person who more than anyone is a conduit to help each of us see the Divine infinite light inside our very beings.

Two years ago on July 13, 2022, President Biden of the strongest superpower in the world met two of the strongest women in the world. This is not just about these two women personally, but about the message and the spirit of the entire generation of Holocaust survivors.

It wasn't written in any protocol, but during his visit to Yad Vashem Biden knelt for an extended conversation, while Israeli government leaders waited, with Rena Quint and Gita Cycowicz.

"This meeting was like the fulfillment of a prophecy," Gita said.

Gita survived Auschwitz and other camps and, upon liberation, began a journey of 600 kilometers back to her home in Czechoslovakia. Later she would build a life in the United States. Her schooling was interrupted at the age of 12 due to the war, but at age 56 she completed a doctorate in psychology. She later made aliyah and until today has worked as a counselor for Holocaust survivors. Fluent in both English and Hebrew, she accompanies many groups that travel to Poland to increase their understanding of the Holocaust.

Rena was born in the city of Piotrkow, Poland, and was eventually sent to the camp at Bergen- Belsen. This was exactly the same path traversed by my grandmother, Ada Rosenstrauch z"l. At the age of 10, after her entire family perished, Rena was left alone. She eventually immigrated to the United States where she was adopted by a Jewish couple. 40 years ago she made aliyah with her husband and four children. Since then, she has served as a guide for thousands of visitors at Yad Vashem. "Each day I am given another opportunity to help others live fully Jewish lives," she said. "The fact that I survived is a great privilege, but with it comes great obligation and great responsibility."

I am reminded of the last time Biden knelt before a Jewish woman - Rivka Ravitz, chief of staff of former President of Israel Reuven Rivlin and mother of 12. On that occasion, too, he asked to hear the story of refugees from Europe who established a new life for themselves and raised a glorious family of their own.

As parents or educators, we have this powerful mandate. Recognize that every child is anointed by G-d! Every soul entrusted in your care is a spark of Moshiach, a shining star who can redeem the world piece by piece. Do not allow this child to lose her hope just because she will experience loss or failure. Protect her, build her up, and tell her that despite whatever disappointments she will encounter in life, she is still chosen by G-d to reveal the consciousness of Moshiach to the world. What is more, the very obstacles in life in truth are here to help us reach even a deeper Moshiach place within our souls.

This is the message of Rabbi Yishmael. Not only are the important Jews. Every Jew is a star; every Jew is an integral part of the Moshiach collective soul. Even if your light has been swallowed and diminished through external or internal oppression, even if the world and its demands have devoured you, you are still a star. Your spark of Moshiach lives on, and the world needs your spark to complete its redemption.

It goes one step deeper—and here we come to the meaning behind the metaphor of the star. Why the star?

As we discovered, stars have tremendous light, some of them are greater, larger, and more powerful than the sun or the moon. But they are so far from us, thousands of light years away, that, to us, their light appears faint. This is the message of the star. From the vantage point of Earth, the star seems so small and insignificant. But these stars are gigantic and have enormous light and power. “A star rises from Jacob:” Don’t think that only a person like the sun or the moon Moses and Joshua ae compared to the sun and moon, whose impact is felt immediately, whose light and warmth we see and feel daily, is integral to our people’s future. No! The light of every Jewish soul is like the light of the star, it is brilliant and blinding, larger than Earth itself, some of them larger than the sun, even if from the distance we don’t see it in its full splendor.

Balaam, the gentile prophet, the outsider who can see things that those who are too close cannot, reminds us of and admits to us that every one of us is a star. Every soul, even one who seems small, darkened, and distant, in reality, is full of light and Messianic potential. Never forget how powerful you are, never underestimate your light.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky