Letter & Spirit: What to Make of Dreams and Nightmares

In this week’s edition of Letter and Spirit, we present a letter from the Rebbe to a woman in which he advises her what to make of dreams and nightmares. The letter was written in English through the Rebbe’s trusted secretary Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and was made available by the latter’s son-in-law, Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro.

This weekly feature is made possible by a collaboration between CrownHeights.info and Nissan Mindel Publications. Once a week we publish a unique letter of the Rebbe that was written originally in the English language, as dictated by the Rebbe to Rabbi Mindel.

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                                                                                                                                         By the Grace of G-d

Miss

London, England

P.S. In reply to your question about the significance of your dream I would suggest the following: Where the body with its physical aspects does not obscure the soul – the Divine soul which every Jew possesses – then transgressions committed (even unknowingly) can be seen with the eyes of the soul in their true light, as “monstrosities”; and the persons committing them as “monsters.” Thus, the dream or nightmare .which you describe should be seen as an indication that certain things in the daily life have to be rectified by teshuvah. You should, therefore, review your daily conduct and strengthen your adherence to the way of the Torah, and then completely dismiss the dream from your mind, and G-d will surely bless you with hatzlocho.

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The above letter is from Volume II of The Letter and the Spirit by Nissan Mindel Publications. The letters are from the archives of Rabbi Dr. Nissan Mindel, a personal secretary to the Previous Rebbe and The Rebbe, whose responsibilities included the Rebbe’s correspondence in English.

We thank Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro, director of Nissan Mindel Publications and the one entrusted by Rabbi Mindel, his father-in-law, with his archives, for making these letters available to the wider public. May the merit of the many stand him in good stead.