Entering the Temple of Dreams

Judy Greenfield, Tamar Frankiel

Description

You spend one-third of your life sleeping. Is spirituality a part of that time?
This book shows you how it can be.

This inspiring, informative guide shows us how we can use the often overlooked time at the end of each day to enhance our spiritual, physical and psychological well-being.

Each chapter takes a new look at traditional Jewish prayers and what they have to teach us about the spiritual aspects of preparing for the end of the day, and about sleep itself. Drawing on Kabbalistic teachings, prayer, the Bible and midrash, the authors enrich our understanding of traditional bedtime preparations, and show how, by including them in our bedtime rituals, we can gain insight into our lives and access the spiritual enrichment the world of dreams has to offer.

Clear illustrations and diagrams, step-by-step meditations, visualization techniques and exercise suggestions for fully integrating body, mind and spirit show us the way to:

• Hashkivenu—Creating a safe space for sleep
• Hareni Mochel—Clearing our hearts through forgiveness
• Shema—Connecting to God in Love
• Bircat Cohanim—Experiencing the reality of blessing
• Hamapil—Thanking God for sleep and the illumination that comes in sleeps

This perfect nighttime companion draws on the power of Jewish tradition to help us enhance our spiritual awareness—in both our waking and sleeping hours.

Preface The Creation of the Sacred Dream 1 The "Other World" of Sleep The Soul as Night Traveler The Moon and the Night Recovering the Sweetness of Sleep A Ceremony for Dreaming: Shema al Mitah 2 Hashkivenu: Meeting with the Angels Protection on Our Journeys Inviting an Angelic Presence Creating a Sukkah of Peace Movement and Meditation for the Hashkivenu 3 Hareni Mochel: Healing the Spirit through Forgiveness—The Gift of Rafael Forgiving, and Pursuing Justice Spiritual Dimensions of Forgiveness A Personal Story about Struggling to Forgive Untangling Ourselves from Pain Compassion Brings Us Freedom Seeing the Grand Design The Forgiveness Prayer with Meditations 4 Shema: Listening to Infinity—The Gift of Michael How the Shema Guards Our Doorways Listening for God's Voice The Awesome Shema of Rabbi Akiva Becoming One Family 10 Entering the Temple of Dreams The Shema and the Land of Promise Unifying the Higher and Lower Worlds Love in the Shema Movement and Meditation for the Shema 5 Bircat Cohanim: Mighty Ones of Blessing—The Gift of Gavriel The Gift of Blessing in Our Lives Blessings Increase Life’s Goodness The Threefold Blessing Blessings Encircle Us with Light The Blessing of Being Seen Becoming a Kingdom of Priests Urim and Tummim Meditation 6 Hamapil: Seeing in the Dark—The Gift of Uriel Praying for Light Judaism’s Dreaming Tradition Dreaming as a Way of Seeing Understanding the Process of Dreaming Dreams Follow Their Interpretation Dreaming in Community Opening Our Inner Eyes The Bedtime Shema: Short Version Appendix A: The Shema Appendix B: Holy Verses to Soothe Us at Night Appendix C: Charting the Patterns of Your Dreams Notes Glossary Recommended Readings

Sujets

• Movements
• Philosophie et théologie
• Cábala
• Jewish meditation
• Tamar Frankel
• Jewish Currents (magazine)
• List of Jewish prayers and blessings
• Kabbalah
• Judaism
• Religion
• Kabbale

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 10 août 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580236645
• Langue: English

Extrait

This Book Is for You If
You want to enrich your daily spiritual practice.
You want to know what the Jewish tradition has to say about sleep and dreaming.
You have said the bedtime Shema-perhaps since you were a child-but you don t know what it means or what it can mean in your life.
You re practicing Judaism, and you want to enhance your practice with a deeper level of spirituality.
You have had difficulty sleeping or remembering your dreams.
You re not Jewish, but you are curious about various aspects of Jewish spiritual practice and mysticism.
If any of these statements apply to you, you will want to delve into this book. You ll find here explorations of the meanings of traditional prayers that will surprise and enlighten you-and may even delight you. You will gain insights into sleep and dreaming. Your perception of your soul and your relationship to God will broaden and deepen. Most of all, if you integrate into your spiritual practice the concepts, movements, and meditations that are in this book, you will feel their effects in your life, in both sleeping and waking.
How to Use This Book
Don t worry about mastering all the information in this book immediately. We recommend you read it without trying to absorb everything, and that you then reread bits and pieces that attract you. Try the parts you like best from the prayers and meditations, work with them, and give yourself time to internalize the material.
We highly recommend that you spend about twenty minutes at night meditating or reading a prayer before you sleep. Do this for several nights before you add the next prayer or meditation. Eventually you will become accustomed to them, and the whole set of five prayers in the bedtime Shema will take about twenty minutes.
An abbreviated version of each prayer is at the end of the book (see p. 145). You can use these when you are too tired to say the full versions. Alternatively, on some nights you will want to spend a longer time with one prayer, and you can use the short version for the others.
This is a workbook for your spiritual growth, and you are the arbiter of how your spiritual growth develops. What we can tell you for certain is that if you use these prayers and meditations, you will deepen your life immeasurably.
We welcome your feedback, questions, and dreams. E-mail us at [e-mail] or [e-mail] ; be sure to put Temple of Dreams in the subject line. Or write to us, care of Jewish Lights Publishing.
I N LOVING MEMORY of Ruth Jacobs Sizer (1917-1997) and Martha Darlington Jacobs (1875-1965).
-from Tamar
T O MY MOTHER , Belle Savransky, my greatest supporter.
-from Judy
Prayer Wheel

Ending the Day with Blessings
Contents

Preface
The Creation of the Sacred Dream
1 The Other World of Sleep

The Soul as Night Traveler
The Moon and the Night
Recovering the Sweetness of Sleep
A Ceremony for Dreaming: Shema al Mitah
2 Hashkivenu : Meeting with the Angels

Protection on Our Journeys
Inviting an Angelic Presence
Creating a Sukkah of Peace
Movement and Meditation for the Hashkivenu
3 Hareni Mochel : Healing the Spirit through Forgiveness-The Gift of Rafael

Forgiving, and Pursuing Justice
Spiritual Dimensions of Forgiveness
A Personal Story about Struggling to Forgive
Untangling Ourselves from Pain
Compassion Brings Us Freedom
Seeing the Grand Design
The Forgiveness Prayer with Meditations
4 Shema : Listening to Infinity-The Gift of Michael

How the Shema Guards Our Doorways
Listening for God s Voice
The Awesome Shema of Rabbi Akiva
Becoming One Family
The Shema and the Land of Promise
Unifying the Higher and Lower Worlds
Love in the Shema
Movement and Meditation for the Shema
5 Bircat Cohanim : Mighty Ones of Blessing-The Gift of Gavriel

The Gift of Blessing in Our Lives
Blessings Increase Life s Goodness
The Threefold Blessing
Blessings Encircle Us with Light
The Blessing of Being Seen
Becoming a Kingdom of Priests
Urim and Tummim Meditation
6 Hamapil : Seeing in the Dark-The Gift of Uriel

Praying for Light
Judaism s Dreaming Tradition
Dreaming as a Way of Seeing
Understanding the Process of Dreaming
Dreams Follow Their Interpretation
Dreaming in Community
Opening Our Inner Eyes
The Bedtime Shema : Short Version

Appendix A: The Shema
Appendix B: Holy Verses to Soothe Us at Night
Appendix C: Charting the Patterns of Your Dreams
Notes
Glossary
Recommended Readings

About the Authors
Copyright
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Preface

I N OUR PREVIOUS BOOK , Minding the Temple of the Soul , we wrote about waking up in the morning and how to start your day with a spiritual focus. But we did not discuss another very important transition: going to sleep at night. As we have been teaching and working with people on their spiritual issues, questions have often arisen about this. Many people remembered, as one of their earliest spiritual moments, saying the bedtime Shema (pronounced sh mah ) with their mothers or fathers. People also told us of difficulties they had sleeping and how they needed to close down the day in a meaningful way. They also asked us about dreams. Since we had been doing dream work and bedtime rituals for some time, this was the next step in the work we wanted to bring to readers.
Much to our surprise, when we began to do research on the bedtime Shema , it was difficult to find much commentary on it. Most of the standard commentators took for granted that night was a time of danger and demons, and that we had to protect ourselves from these dangers. While nighttime does bring fear, and almost all of us have had bad dreams, we wondered what positive things Jewish tradition might say about what happens at night. We knew, for example, that the Talmud regards dreams in a positive light. As we delved more deeply, we began to find in the mystical traditions, particularly those represented in the Zohar, the missing pieces we were seeking.
To our delight, once we began putting together the various segments of the Bedtime Prayers, we found that this ritual is indeed all of a piece. It takes us into a space of protection, clears our hearts and minds, and evokes the deepest layers of ourselves as we go into the world of dreams. In our rush toward fulfilling our material and technological aspirations, we have forgotten the profound significance of that world. We have forgotten the truths our ancestors knew, and neglected one of the crucial keys that will help return us to our Source-the world of night, moon, and dreams.
We are delighted to be among those helping to bring these truths back into our consciousness through the bedtime Shema .
This book would not have been possible were it not for the support, teachings, and insights we received from so many sources. First among them is our teacher and colleague Connie Kaplan, a woman of wisdom, compassion, and vision. From our Torah study circle, now in its sixth year of weekly meetings, we want to thank especially Toba August, Joyce Kirsch, and Randi Rose for their encouragement and interest. Our dream circle has nourished us for years as well and, although there are too many of you to thank individually, we must mention Jeanne Dancs, Ellie Farbstein, and Elaine Levi. Thanks to our students at Stephen Wise Temple who have studied with such enthusiasm.
Thanks to Randi Rose for reading an early draft of the manuscript; to our editor, Arthur Magida, for his most helpful comments and suggestions; and to Stuart Matlins, Sandra Korinchak, Emily Wichland, and all the staff at Jewish Lights who work toward success with such diligence and enthusiasm.
A special thanks to our families, who tolerated our long phone calls and meetings that were squeezed out of time they would have liked to have had with us. Thank you, Mike and Hershel; Samantha and David; Shmuel, Yaakov, Chava, Rina, and Devora-for supporting us, sharing your talents, and sharing your dreams. We are grateful as always for the continuing encouragement of our parents, Belle Savransky and John Sizer.
The Creation of the Sacred Dream

I N THE BEGINNING , God created a vast space for a dwelling place. God loved this makom , this sacred space, where Divinity could spread out in all its Glory. It was Good.
Eternities passed, and the magnitude of all this serenity and open space created a yearning, a desire to share this with another. The yearning that God did not know how to fill began to grow stronger and stronger, and it became painful. There was a Divine sadness because God did not know how to remedy this state of being. God began to withdraw into a void. This was tzimtzum .
One eternity, God fell into a very deep sleep and dreamed of four angelic beings who came and led God to a mirror. God gazed into the mirror and saw an image, which introduced itself as Shekhinah . As God watched, Shekhinah raised her hands and began to weave a most extraordinary vision. The makom began to fill with light and color that wove a new consciousness into God s reality. Shekhinah wove for him the dream of future worlds, of Creation, Formation, and Action, and of Wisdom, Beauty, Goodness, and Mercy. She wove the dream of the stars and planets, and the Divine order of the constellations. In the weave appeared Man, Woman, Child, the Jewish people, a Land, Torah, on and on through the frame of space-time until the weave was complete.
God was filled. The vision awakened such love and gratitude that God kneeled in front of Shekhinah . As the remnants of the weave dripped from her hands, God reached out and kissed them, then led her to join him for all eternities on the Throne of Glory. Shekhinah consented to unite with God beyond the worlds, so that together they could weave the Great Dream into manifestation.
As they stepped out of the Dream into the morning, their light created a great explosion. Billions of light fragments sca