Pharoah's dream is the very beginning of the story of Egyptian exile. The dream predicted a famine which eventually caused Yaakov and his family to settle in Egypt where, a generation later, they were enslaved.
In the times of exile, the Jewish people are forced to withstand the fluctuation between two contradictory modes of life: love of G-d at the time of prayer, and then total immersion into the physical world during one's business and private affairs the rest of the day.
Chassidic teachings compare this situation to a dream, because in a dream two opposite, contradictory phenomena can co-exist simultaneously.
In order to hint to this idea, the precursor of the Egyptian exile - our current story - was recorded in the Torah as a dream.
Based on Likutei Sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe vol 15 p.346
So true, Devorah. Two contradictions simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking lately on something. It's like this:
Let's say some people are sitting around having conversation together. One will ask the other, "What is your pet peeve? Or what really bothers you?"
Let's say that one person will respond, "Theft. Theft really bothers me. I can't stand when people steal."
When I think of middos, I think of one long continuum - a line works best to see this.
On one end is gonav(theft). One the other end is honesty(emet).
When a person states that theft is the character defect that really bothers them, I hear something a bit different.
I hear/see that on one hand they have a strong character trait toward emet, which is awesome. I also hear/see that their individual yetzer hara might try to enter them through the portal of gonav.
Eg: There might be a wallet lying on a counter at a store. On the one hand they will be excited to return the wallet to it's rightful owner. On the other hand, they may think inside- even for a split second, I wonder if there's money inside. Maybe there is no identification inside.. Any way to get away with this?
If there yetzer tov is stronger than they return the wallet etc. If not, then so on and so forth.
THIS is also the contradictory modes of life( in my opinion)-"immersion into the physical world during one's business and PRIVATE affairs the rest of the day."
It seems this is another element of exile before the Geulah- when the yetzer hara is still within us.
This contradictory mode is not within a dream like state, although, it is said when Moshiach comes we will see that life as we see it was an illusion and if only we would have persevered we will see that we could have overcome our tests etc...
May we all have the strength it takes to withstand the fluctuation between two contradictory modes of life- no matter where they appear!!!!
Wishing you and klal Yisroel a Chanukah Sameach!!!!