Dreams, Straw, Lies, Grain

Jeremiah 23:29

How can we tell who tells us the truth and whose words betray ulterior motives or false intentions? In this world of so much ‘fake news’ - who are the trusted truth tellers? 

It was likely just as complicated for the people of Jerusalem, 2,400 years ago, as prophets and soothsayers, political spokesmen and false messiahs filled the streets with contradicting calls for action and divine visions of how to be and what to do.  

Jeremiah claims that he alone speaks for the one true god  - and also claims that he has at least one way to tell who’s real and who’s not: He differentiates between those who meet God in dreams - and those, like him - who meet YHWH through visions. It’s not a popular view among psychoanalysts now and it was not very popular in Jeremiah’s day either. Dreams have always been a vital part of the life of the soul and goes back in the Bible all the way to Genesis.  Even Jeremiah has to step it back a bit and later in the chapter admit that the divine shows up in more ways than one, and that sometimes even dreams contain kernels of important messaging. So the prophecy he shared in this chapter leaves it a little vague, and open for interpretation,  just in case:

הַנָּבִ֞יא אֲשֶׁר־אִתּ֤וֹ חֲלוֹם֙ יְסַפֵּ֣ר חֲל֔וֹם וַאֲשֶׁ֤ר דְּבָרִי֙ אִתּ֔וֹ יְדַבֵּ֥ר דְּבָרִ֖י אֱמֶ֑ת מַה־לַתֶּ֥בֶן אֶת־הַבָּ֖ר נְאֻם־יְהֹוָֽה

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream; and let the one who has received My word report My word faithfully! How can straw be compared to grain?—says YHWH.

Jeremiah 23:29

What’s the symbol of the straw and grain?  Many have puzzled over this over the years. One response is mentioned in the Talmud, tractate Berachot 55:, in the context of a long discussion about the importance, role and meanings of dreams.  Rabbi Yochanan quotes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s saying: 

“Just as it is impossible for the grain to grow without straw, so too it is impossible to dream without idle matters.” 

In other words - some dreams contain important information and for many of us, without proper training or attention to the vocabulary of the subconscious, mere details may seem as meaningless as straw. But every dream does contain the grains of growth and meaningful insights - perhaps it takes a prophet or a very good psychologist to turn the fragments into nourishment.  C.G. Jung once wrote that  the one “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

Jeremiah, grasping at straws to try to get the people to listen, sometimes gets it wrong. But again and again he tries to get us to listen to the truth, beyond veils or false hopes, distortions or dreams that blur the bitter news. He’ll prefer visions over dreams, anyway. And in the next chapter will deliver yet another of his famous icons -- two baskets of figs. Even Jung would have had a field day with that.

Shana Tova.

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