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Bad Dreams
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
December 13, 2024, Israel
מובא בגמרא שם כי "אין מראים לו לאדם אלא מהרהורי לבו"
"במסכת ברכות נז, ב "חלום – אחד משישים לנבואה"
"סנהדרין ל - "דברי חלומות לא מעלין ולא מורידין
Ever wake up after a really bad dream and think, Wow, Thank God it was only a dream? Or, on the other hand, have a really bad experience, and then think, I can't believe this is actually happening, perhaps it is all just a bad dream and I will wake up and everything will be fine?
I have had both, many times.
Let us look at the first situation. You wake up, or you in the state of semi consciousness, (before coffee) and you just dreamt something awful, something terrible happened to a loved one, or you were robbed and beaten, and you wake up, and then...wait, did this really happen? No, I am in my bed, everything is ok, Thank God it was only a bad dream, ok, coffee.
On the other hand, you are driving down the road, there is a car stopped in front of you, horizontally, totally blocking your path, you feel you are about to hit them, certainly causing death, you see death, you step on the breaks, but...nothing, no traction, there is oil on the road and it is as if you have no brakes at all. Well that just happened to me, November 3, 2024. I turned and hit the stone and metal gate that protects from falling down the mountain. My car was totaled, and I was in pain, and I thought, no, this must be a bad dream, this can't actually be happening, I will wake up and everything will be as it was. But next morning turns out that things were not the same.
I felt the same way the morning after my father suddenly died. I woke up thinking, can you imagine that? I actually thought my father had died, but of course he was he still alive, that was just a bad dream. Only it was not.
Such is life, such are dreams.
I have often had dreams where I missed flights, missed connections, booked in the wrong direction, came on the wrong day, the airline messed up. Now all this makes sense, as the Talmud says, One is only shown the thoughts that he had (during the day). And for me these things are real. That is why I always check, and double check my flight schedule, and I make sure to get to the airport plenty of time before my flight.
Last night I had another bad dream, involving crime. I will skip the details. As usual, I woke up thinking, wait, it was not real? I was not robbed, I am not on a street corner in Calcutta with a one-legged Hindu Indian trying to convert Canadian dollars, whoa, time for coffee. It was not real, but I take it as a warning. I will elaborate. but first we turn to Jewish tradition. What do dreams mean?
Do dreams have any significance, are they divine messages or just nonsense. So I look at the Jewish sources, the Bible, the Talmud and Jewish tradition.
The results are mixed and contradictory. The Bible has of course many dreams, but also warnings about listening to dream weavers. The Talmud offers different opinions, one is that dreams "neither raise up nor take down", meaning that dreams have no meaning and should be disregarded. But other rabbis did worry about dreams.
Another Talmudic source says that a dream contains "one sixtieth of prophecy" but that the remainder is to be dismissed. Another source says that a person who suffered a bad dream is being warned, that this is a punishment that he should have received in real life, but instead only received it as a nightmare. It is considered a warning to repent.
This is the interpretation I want to apply to Krav Maga.
We need warnings, we need to be reminded of the dangers we may face in life, but our nature is to forget, until that reality becomes a nightmare. We push aside the warnings because they are inconvenient. We prefer not to be bothered. We certainly do not feel like doing any serious training.
When God forbid we face a situation that reminds us of our worst nightmares, we will wish to believe that it is all a dream, that we can close our eyes, pull over our comforting blanket, and go to sleep and when we wake up later it will all be forgotten, just a bad dream.
But what if it is not? as I said I have experienced both. What if the nightmare is real? but you are not prepared, you don't know what to do and you can't turn back the clock. What now?
What now?
When we wake up we have basically two options, Dismiss it; forget about it as soon as possible, and pretend it never happened. Or, Take it to heart, and think, perhaps this is a wake-up call, perhaps this is my early warning that I should prepare for such a possibility?
I take it as the second, how can I prepare for such a situation? How can I avoid such a situation? How would I handle such a situation?
I am not a mystic nor an interpreter of dreams, I am not the Biblical Joseph, whether these are Divine messages or my personal anxiety, I do not know, but the message is clear: Train more, seek better solutions, never be content.
and now I wish everyone a peaceful Sabbath, (today is Friday)
Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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