Dreams

What does it mean when i dream about a aligater biting my middle finger in my leg and having my mom touch ot and sya it's bad spirits and it's in the morning?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question!

We don’t know if dreams are forms of prophecy or figments of our imagination, and even if they are real, there is no book that tells us how to interpret every possible thing that one might have seen in a dream.

Already in the book of Genesis we see dreams playing a prominent role in various capacities. Dreams also play a major role in the Torah’s development of Yosef, who dreams of ruling over his brothers. While his dream indeed came to pass, with Yosef becoming ruler over Egypt, it must be noted, however, that parts of Yosef’s dream were indeed inaccurate, as the dream depicted his deceased mother bowing down to him, as well! From here, we see that dreams will always contain components of irrelevance.

The commentators also note that not all dreams that the biblical figures ever envisioned were actually recorded, and that is simply because the vast majority of them never came true! So how seriously should we be taking the dreams that we have?

At first glance, the dominant view amongst scholars seems to be that dreams essentially have no validity – at least from the perspective of prophecy. In fact, the Talmud explicitly declares dreams to merely be a reflection of what one has thought about or experienced during the day. Talmudic commentators further caution not to take dreams too seriously, and to always remember that anything one has dreamt has no halachic significance whatsoever. Rabbi Menachem Meiri tells us that dreams are primarily nonsense.

Nevertheless, Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel, basing himself on the Talmud, declares that a dream is comparable to any other form of prophecy. There is also a Midrash that defines dreams as “undeveloped prophecy.” Even the Rambam approaches the subject of dreams in relationship to that of prophecy. The Talmud devotes many pages to dream interpretation.

There exist a number of rituals and prayers that one can perform in order to cope with a bad dream; these are known as hatavat chalom (amelioration of a dream) and are printed in prayerbooks. These dream rituals are even cited and codified in the Shulchan Aruch .

Regardless of what you believe or which authorities you accept on this issue, all agree that one should not spend too much time delving into such matters, but rather to be sure to focus on Torah and mitzvot above all else.

Berachot 55; Chizkuni, Bereishit 37; Chiddushei Haran, Sanhedrin 30a; Meiri, Sanhedrin 30a.; Bereishit Rabba 17:7; Moreh Nevuchim 2:36; OC 220.