I Have a Dream - At the beginning of the parasha, Yaakov flees from Esav and has a dream encounter with angels. At the end of the parasha, Yaakov approaches Esav and has an awake encounter with angels. These mirror images bracketing Vayetze define the period of Yaakov’s galut, a darkness in which he discovers consciousness within the context of the subconscious. In doing so, he bequeaths us Arvit, the nighttime prayer, and the reflexive element of tefillah in which being mitpallel bestirs us to greater heights of self-awareness. Yaakov’s awakening from his dream with this newfound knowledge of “Anochi” is the awakening from the primal sleep of Adam HaRishon. Yet, he promptly falls back to sleep, just like Daniel (the only other person ever given a vision of the End of Days) is told to go to sleep.
The dreams of Yaakov and Daniel provide greater understanding into what it means to “have a dream,” in the sense of having a subconscious appreciation of what ultimately could be achieved in conscious reality. A dream can only expose the clarity of a framework – the details themselves must unfold within the course of a person’s life. In this respect, Yaakov gains the greatest insight into his identity: the process of growing into himself, the working out of the details, is what defines him – not the self he achieves at the end. When one's dreams are the aspirations of Ma’aseh Bereishit itself, every moment of one's life is empowered, every quest is a shopping expedition for a gift for one's lover. (BW)

Ver todos los episodios