Over the course of our lives there are many ways in which we express ourselves. We express ourselves through the way we act physically by making gestures, we express ourselves verbally by the way that we speak to one another, and sometimes we express ourselves through silence and by simply watching the world and the way in which others communicate with one another. And then, there are times where we communicate with ourselves, and that perhaps is the most powerful way of communication. But, the question is what is that conversation? Do we really have the ability to communicate to ourselves. It seems that one of those ways in which we do so is through the ability to dream. Dreams come in all sizes, shapes and forms. Some are beautiful and nice dreams about family and friends, and some dreams are horrific, which we often call nightmares. It is these dreams, which often pose for us certain scenarios in our lives that are to be played out or have already taken place. It is these dreams that often are telling us to do something or to create a purpose in our lives and then there are times where they are very weird and provide the daily and appropriate dosage of noureshkeit and nonsense that each of us requires.

Dreams often accompany experiences or encounters we may have had in life and they are at times the journey that leads us to and serves as the solutions to the challenges we are going through in our lives.

In 1974, my mother lost her father from a terrible bout with cancer. After losing him and going through the grieving process, she began to have terrible nightmares about her father’s death. She would have dreams about different ways in which her father had died in the hospital. This was continuing for several months and she was not sure why they were happening and what she could do to make them go away. There was certainly not a dream interpreter around like our Biblical Hero Joseph to help decipher why this was happening. So she chose a different route, and decided to go and speak to the Rabbi of her Congregation where her husband, my father was serving as the Cantor. When she spoke with Rabbi Sultanik and laid out all that had happened and all that was happening, he told her to change her life dramatically, and told her that he wanted her and my father to conceive a child. Upon hearing this, I am sure and I have not asked to this day whether my mother thought Rabbi Sultanik was crazy or if she really believed in his wisdom, but nevertheless she and my father took his advice and my mother became pregnant, and low and behold I was born into the world and her nightmares about her father miraculously disappeared and surprisingly never came back.

Today, I wear my Grandfather’s Hebrew name proudly in knowing the values, the morals and the ethics that he lived by were so important and that I am the one who is able to carry on those priorities in which I share with his memory. I am also grateful to be alive because my mother followed her dreams and turned them into living her life with certain actions and decisions, which was advice she took to be meaningful and holy. It allowed her to live and to allow the dreams that were not fun to go away.

But along with the bad dreams that children and adults have alike, come the dreams of beauty and love, friendship and peace. All of us have encountered dreams, by having them ourselves, and hearing from others about their own experiences. But how do we make sense of them and how do they make up a part of our lives in the world?

In The Bible, we know of many individuals who had dreams. Abraham and Jacob had different dreams and recollections of encountering God while sleeping and certainly nobody in the Bible had the ability to interpret dreams and have them as well as Joseph did, so much so that a Technicolor dreamcoat production was turned into a success based on the dreams that he had and the dreams that he interpreted in our Biblical Narrative. But why was it that Joseph was thought of in such a high manner by those who surrounded him? Why was it that the Baker, the Butler, Pharoah and even his brothers and father Jacob had a different respect, at times even jealousy and envy of his abilities. Perhaps, it was because he took the dreams that he had and the dreams that others had to a higher level. He made the dreams that he had a part of his life by following through on what they meant. By dreaming he was destined to be a leader, he became a leader, by dreaming that Egypt was destined to a famine in the land through the Pharoah’s dreams, he helped prepare for such disaster, he allowed others in on what was destined for them, like the baker and the butler by sharing with them the meaning of their dreams as well. For the Bible, dreams defined life, and for us today our dreams define who we are and what we are compelled to do in the world.

Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism which led to the foundation of the land of Israel began and created a slogan which hangs on so many Jewish institutions and is embedded in so many sermons and within so many Jewish textbooks; Im Tirtzu Ein Zo Aggadah, “If you want something and pursue it, it is no longer a dream.”

For us dreaming is living, dreaming is going, dreaming is being and dreaming is the music of our emotions. The dreams that we have are truly the definitions of our lives. Our dreams give us purpose and help us make sense of the world. But our dreams are powerless if we do not react to them, if we do not live them out and if we do not question their meaning in our lives.

And once we begin to live out our dreams, we begin to live our lives. We respond to them in the way that we should. We live out the will that our souls intend for us to live. Because if we do not pursue after our dreams, then our dreaming is not dreaming and our living will not be living. And it is our living life based on our dreams and based on our Torah, which is the ultimate dedication and holiness to God.

And when the moments arise when our dreams are not pleasant, we must also make meaning for them as well and live our lives based on what they tell us to do and not to do. It is our dreams and our reactions to them that help us and comfort us, it is our emotional and spiritual dreaming that stops the terror in our lives, and it is mental and physical dreaming that brings about the abstract element of peace that we must take and make concrete in our world.

Dreams are such a part of our lives that the music that our world has created has made known that they are a priority to our living.

The following is a song entitled the “Impossible Dream” from the Man of La Mancha.

To Dream The Impossible Dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear the unbearable sorrow
And To Run Where
The brave dare not go
To Right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To Try When Your Arms Are Too Weary
To Reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No Matter How Far
To Fight For the fight
Without question or pause
To be willing to march
March into hell
For that heavenly cause
And I know
If I’ll only be true
To This Glorious quest
That My Heart
Will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m Laid To My Rest
And the world will be
Better for this
That one man, scorned
And covered with scars,
Still strove with his last
Ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable
The unreachable
The unreachable star
And I’ll always dream
The Impossible Dream
Yes, And I’ll reach
The Unreachable star

For us on Rosh Hashanah, on the days of awe, when we come before God with a sense of fear, a sense of awe and a sense of dignity, we ask God for the strength and the courage to continue to dream and to live our lives with meaning and purpose. We hope that God will in turn support our quest by giving us another opportunity, another chance, another year to make our lives holier, and increase the fulfillment that we desperately seek out and search for. We hope our dreams will lead us to making our lives more enhanced by doing acts of lovingkindness, by following the Mitzvot which have been laid out in our Torah that God has given to us, and by pursuing our dreams and turning them into reality which makes our lives and God’s life more meaningful and truly rewarding.

We must continue to dream and we know that our souls will force us to continue to dream. The question that still awaits being answered for each of us as we enter 5766 is what do we do when we wake up after having our dreams. What do we do with the nightmares that we have, do we wake up and hide from them or do we face them and seek help and advice from others and attempt to resolve the tension, which our souls and our bodies struggle with.

And what do we do with the dreams that are telling us to do something with our lives; do we remain passive and allow our dreams to wander into the spiritual abyss below us or the physical sky above us? Or do we take our dreams and make them real and useful, through living them, learning from them and allowing them to bring that extra spark of light and love that they so often want to do, and we often have no desire and are all to often, afraid to let them in.

May our New Year, along with God’s help, be one where we can live out our aspirations and our dreams. May our dreams become our way of living and our way of being. May our dreams and our lives continue to grow and continue to be countless because dreaming is the only way living is truly living.

We are all afraid of these moments when our subconscious tries to tell us something, but we must not be afraid to share those experiences with God, to share them with ourselves, and to share them with others. Only then, can our world be peaceful, ideal and beautiful. May it be our will to fulfill our dreams and may it be God’s will to stand boldly at our side through our strange, fearful yet holy and opportune experiences. Ken Nihiyeh Ratzon, may it be our will. Amen.