The Galus Dream..... וַיְהִי מִקֵּץ שְׁנָתַיִם יָמִים וּפַרְעֹה חֹלֵם (בראשית מא, א) It came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh was dreaming… (Beraishis 41:1) It was a series of dreams that brought about the descent of Yaakov and his family to Egypt, which later evolved into the slavery of the Jewish people in Egypt. Dreams caused Yosef’s brothers to hate and sell him. Yosef earned fame as an interpreter of dreams, and ultimately, his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams earned Yosef the position of Egyptian viceroy. It was this position which enabled Yosef to invite his family to come join him in Egypt. The Ariza”l taught that all subsequent exiles of the Jewish people are rooted in the exile of Bnei Yisrael in Egypt. It follows then, that dreams play a significant role in our current exile as well. In fact, Chassidus (Torah Ohr, Vayeishev) explains the phrase “היינו כחולמים - we were like dreamers” (Tehilim 126:1), to mean that, spiritually, galus is exactly that: a dream. The subjects in a dream may be real things that we’ve seen or thought about consciously, while the context in a dream can be contradictory. For the dreamer however these contradictions will seem plausible. Similarly, the spiritual effect of galus is that our lives are filled with spiritual contradictions. Despite the obvious inherent contradiction, we may feel a selfless love toward Hashem while davening, for example, all the meanwhile maintaining our love for physical and selfish pleasures, even those that are contrary to G-d’s will. A life filled with such inconsistencies is but a dream… By the same token, however, galus shares another characteristic with dreams. When it gets very light around us, we wake up from our dreams, so too with Galus. Therefore one should not be discouraged by the dreamlike and contradictory nature of our service of Hashem in Galus. In fact, when we consistently add in the light of Torah in and Mitzvos, notwithstanding our flaws, we will cause ourselves to ultimately awake from the galus to the bright world of Moshiach. - Likutei Sichos, vol. 1, pp. 85-88 Curetesy of Machon Or Hachasidus - likras shabbos
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:47:55 +0000
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