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But it was only a fantasy?: Some Thoughts on Mystical Experience +

Dreams in Judaism
jrosenfeld@lss.org

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1. Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed; 2:42

That which we said was in a prophetic vision... understand this matter deeply, for it is of the deepest
secrets. As we have mentioned with regard to Jacob this wrestling and the whole conversation
involved was completely within a prophetic vision, as was the entire case of Bilam on the path, the
words of the donkey were all a prophetic vision...

We have already explained that any time that [the Torah] mentions a vision of an Angel or [its]
speech, that this means it was a prophetic vision, or a dream and this: in a prophetic vision or a
dream of prophecy sometimes the prophet will perceive God speaking with him...
2

2. Nahmanides, Commentary on the Torah; Gen. 17:18

and he also said with regards to the verse of and he wrestled with the man, that it was all a vision.
And I therefore am perplexed as to why he would then limp when awake, or why the verse would
recount: because I have seen God face to face and my soul was saved - because the prophets do not
fear that death from the force of the prophetic experience. And he had already seen many visions and
had many experiences more powerful than this one...
O little root of a dream
you hold me here
undermined by blood,
no longer visible to anyone,
property of death.

- Paul Celan, O Little Root of a Dream

3

Edgar Allan Poe, Dream Within a Dream

3. Don Isaac ben Judah Abrabanel, Commentary on the Torah; Gen. 32:25, p. 344

4. Gersonides, Commentary on the Torah; ad loc.

And he saw in a prophecy an angel of God as if it were a man. Due to the force of his cleaving to
God and his lofty [spiritual] level near God, it appeared as if he were wrestling with it, if not for
Jacob already seeing this wrestling because of his worry and stress with regards to Esau and his
designs to topple him if a fight ensues and it appeared to him as if he was hit in his thigh...

5. R. David Kimche [RaDaK], ad loc.

...and even though he may have found himself physically limping upon awakening, it must have
been from God so that he would have some physical sign of his hopping in his thoughts after the
many promises that God had made with him, so in turn he would be physically hopping... or if
youd rather, say that this whole story happened while awake and was nothing more than a
hallucination or imaginative act that he saw a man where there was none...
5

]6. R. Yaakov Yosef of Polonoye, Toldot Yaakov Yosef; 25a-b [Parshat Vayeitzei

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"He had a dream, that is, he saw that the entire world is like a dream, as it is written, we will
be as dreamers. He saw that the only benefit of this world is that it will be for a person like a
ladder set on the ground, so that one can do the preparation in this world by means of which
one ascends, and its top reached to the sky...1
The words mysticism and mystical are often used as terms of mere reproach, to
throw at any opinion which we regard as vague and vast and sentimental, and without a
base in either facts or logic so, I will proposed to you four marks, which, when an
)experience has them, may justify in us calling it mystical: 1) Ineffability; 2
Noetic Quality; 3) Transiency; 4) Passivity; ...let them be called the mystical
group
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience; pp. 206-7

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7. Benny Shanon, Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis; Time and Mind: The
Journal of Archaeology Consciousness and Culture Volume IIssue I March 2008 pp.
5174

8. Elliot R. Wolfson, A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the

Prism of Imagination [Brooklyn: 2011]; pp. 68-9

9. Jonathan Garb, Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah [London: 2011]; (selections)

a. Safedian Kabbalah (pp. 51-60)

b. In Hassidic Sources (pp. 109, 113, 97)

10. Likkutei MoHaRaN #20:2

He who wants to interpret the Torah has to begin by drawing unto himself words as
hot as burning coals. Speech comes out of the upper heart, which scripture calls the
rock of my heart. The interpreter [first] has to pour out his words to God in prayer,
seeking to arouse his mercies, so that the heart will open. Speech then flows from the
heart, and the interpretation of Torah comes from that speech As the hearts
compassion is awakened, it gives forth blazing words, as it is written: My heart blazes
within me; the fire of my words burns on my tongue. On this heart are inscribed all
the interpretations of the Torah, as it says: Write them upon the tablet of your heart.
And so anyone who seeks to bring forth an interpretation must get it from this heart,
by prayer and supplication. It is for this reason that teachers of Torah, before they
begin their expositions, first have to pour out their prayers to God, in order that the
heart be aroused to pour forth words like blazing coals. Only afterwards may one
begin to teach, for the rock has been opened and its waters have begun to flow.

10

11