Dreams 

חלומות

There are several opinions found among the Sages when it comes to dreams. Do dreams have meaning? Are they a portent of future events? Or do they have no meaning at all?  

A dream is one-sixtieth prophecy.<footnote data-num="120"/>

Rav Hisda said: Let a person have a dream any time, but not during a fast.<footnote data-num="121"/>

And Rav Hisda said: A dream that was not interpreted is like a message that was not read.<footnote data-num="122"/> And Rav Hisda said: Neither is a good dream entirely fulfilled, nor is a bad dream entirely fulfilled. And Rav Hisda said: A bad dream is preferable to a good dream.<footnote data-num="123"/>

And Rav Hisda said: A bad dream, its sadness is enough for him; a good dream, its joy is enough for him….<footnote data-num="124"/>

And Rav Hisda said: A bad dream is worse than lashes…. 

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai: Just as it is impossible for grain to grow without straw, so too, it is impossible to dream without some element of insignificant matters. Rabbi Berekhya said: Even if part of a dream is fulfilled, its entirety is not fulfilled…. 

Shmuel, when he would have a bad dream, would say: “And the dreams speak falsehood” (Zechariah 10:2). When he would have a good dream, he would say: Do dreams speak falsehood? Isn’t it written: “In a dream, I will speak to him” (Numbers 12:6)?<footnote data-num="125"/>

Rabbi Yohanan said that three dreams are fulfilled: a dream in the morning, a dream that another person dreamed about him, and a dream that is interpreted within a dream. And some say a recurring dream as well….  

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: A person is shown in a dream only from the thoughts of his heart [when he was awake]…Know that this is so, as one is shown in a dream neither a golden palm tree nor an elephant passing through the eye of a needle…. 

There were twenty-four interpreters of dreams in Jerusalem. One time, I dreamed<footnote data-num="126"/> a dream and went to each of them for an interpretation. What one interpreted for me the other did not interpret for me, yet all of their interpretations were realized in me, to fulfill what is stated: All dreams follow the word of the interpreter.

Matters appearing in dreams have no effect. 

Dreams during twilight on the eve of Shabbat have no substantive meaning. <source>(Berakhot 57b, 55a; Gittin 52a; Yoma 83b) </source>