To Always Be Like Dreamers
Ps. 126:1-2
How can we prepare holiday feasts when there are so many starving, when there are so many too burdened by war to eat or feast with joy?
Mid this ongoing war, and with enough non-war related persistent troubles of poverty and injustice, we are nevertheless invited to show up as best we can, and lay the table for a new year’s feast. Not before we’ve done what we can to be generous so that others can have what they need to feast as well.
This week, the new Jewish year begins, and many will gather to dip apples in honey, pray for peace, and hope for a much sweeter and safer year for all.
In some homes, after traditional foods and flavors, there will be a blessing to finish the meal. This ‘Grace after Meals’ prayer, recited by the pious after each meal, is an evolving set of blessings and psalms that honors the labor that’s gone into the preparation, and thanks the source of all for the privilege of nourishment - on a full stomach.
In the Ashkenazi tradition I grew up with, Psalm 126 is the opening song of this lengthy prayer, and is often sung.
That’s how I know it by heart - and have probably known it like that since a very early age.
But what I didn’t know as a child, and am still learning, is that this psalm is not just about gratitude for nourishment that sustains the body, but also about the power of imagination to sustain the soul. It’s a poem about planting seeds of hope when life seems hopeless.
I also didn’t know that at some point in the 20th century it was on the list of suggestions to become the anthem of the State of Israel. It was not chosen because of its overt religious messaging - but a core concept from this psalm, transcending religiosity, is nevertheless at the heart of the Israeli project and the human story - within the only hope we’ve got for whatever redemption is, and a future of justice and peace. This too is in this psalm -- giving us life-sustaining tools for handling trauma - by learning how to dream.
This 6th psalm of Ascent begins as a dreamscape:
שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת בְּשׁ֣וּב יְ֭הֹוָה אֶת־שִׁיבַ֣ת צִיּ֑וֹן הָ֝יִ֗ינוּ כְּחֹלְמִֽים׃
A song of ascents.
When YHWH restores the fortunes of Zion
—we see it as in a dream—
Ps. 126:1-2
Is this dream in past, present or future tense?
It’s actually impossible to tell and that’s exactly the idea. The exiles writing this psalm in response to the removal from Jerusalem - whether it was in their lifetime or during a previous generation -- imagine a joyful return to their ancestral home. And yet it seems to be a dream.
The rest of the psalm includes references to ‘mouths full of joy’ and planting seeds that will feed the future -- but it’s the opening line that is about the gratitude for what is yet to come - and not just for what we just ate on our plate.
Norman Fischer translated this opening line beyond the specific context of the Judean exile to be about the human aspiration to be delivered from constraints:
“When You bring us out from enclosure
We will be like dreamers”
For many generations, readers have read these words, sang them, and imagined what it’s like to dream of returning home, from exile to Zion, from what was not possible to what becomes reality, again.
When my brother, Rabbi Benny Lau, was installed as a communal rabbi in Jerusalem in 2000, he opened his speech with this first verse of Psalm 126, and these words:
“Had somebody stopped by grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Chayim Lau, of blessed memory, at the entrance to the gas chambers in Treblinka, and tell him that in sixty years, his son, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, will install one of his grandsons as a rabbi in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish state, how would he have reacted?
I think he would not have laughed. I think he would have quoted this verse: “We were as dreamers.”
24 years later, there are many serious questions facing those of us who insist that the dream of the Jewish homeland must keep perfecting itself so that it doesn't become more of a nightmare for all those for whom this land is sacred home.
The psalm was written in this way that blurs past, present and future perhaps as a way to remind us that no single scenario and situation is permanent and lasting. That our wildest dreams and visions must continue fueling our imaginations as we try to repair the damage and conceive of better solutions and strategic visions for the holy land and for all holy lands in this world.
My brother concluded his words with this trope of wishful thinking:
“It all begins with dreams. The realization of this ancient dream is slowly manifesting. It must not be fast. Slowly, with ways that are not always leading us forward, our path remains. We are in the midst of days that demand a lot of patience, and optimism, to lift up our heads and see that the path leads towards a great repair, and grand redemption. We were and are as dreamers.. And will reap with joy:
הַזֹּרְעִ֥ים בְּדִמְעָ֗ה בְּרִנָּ֥ה יִקְצֹֽרוּ׃
They who sow in tears
shall reap with songs of joy.
Ps. 126:5
I wish us all Shana Tova.
A year of big dreams that will wake us up to be, do and dream bigger and better for all.
May peace prevail.
Dream big.
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