The World of Dreams

In Hebrew, we speak of “opening” a dream, which our sages likened to an unopened letter. In this series of classes, we will examine our dreams in the tradition of my teacher, Mme. Colette Aboulker-Muscat, who inherited this practice from her family and developed it in advanced study. She not only taught us ways to “open” our dreams, but also ways to “repair” dreams that require tikkun, by a practice called “waking dream”.

In preparation for this class, I suggest the following: Put a new unlined notebook and pen or pencil by your bed. Before going to sleep, write the following day’s date at the top of the page. Reach for it the next morning as soon as you waken, and write or draw whatever you remember. Full sentences are not required.

Eve Ilsen is a psychotherapist and rabbinic pastor. She has lived, worked and learned in New York, Philadelphia, California, Alaska and Israel. She learned to work with imagery and waking dream daily with Mme. Colette Aboulker-Muscat in Jerusalem for four years. Returning to the States, she spearheaded the Wisdom School with her late husband, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and taught in tandem with him as well as her own classes.