Pt1 Selected Dream Interpretations, Especially Those Relating to Illicit Sex (Berakhot 56a-57b)

This is the first part of a two-part series. Full outline follows.

Outline

1. Irrigating olives with olive oil = had sex with mother

2. Plucking a star = kidnapped a Jew

3. Swallowed a star = sold a Jew, and spent the money

4. Eyes kissing one another = had sex with sister

5. Kissing the moon = had sex with a Jewish woman

6. Treading in the shade of a myrtle tree = had sex with a betrothed young woman

7. Shade above, tree below = bed is upside-down, had unnatural sex with betrothed woman

8. Ravens circling bed = wife cheated with many men

9. Doves circling bed = had sex with many women

10. Holding two flying doves = married two women, then dismissed them without a divorce

11. Peeling eggs = stripped dead people

12. Father left property in Cappadocia = “Kappa” - beam; “deca” - ten

Pt2

1. Sex with his mother = anticipate attaining understanding

2. Sex with a betrothed young woman = anticipate Torah

3. Sex with his sister = anticipate wisdom

4. Sex with a married woman =  assured that he is one who has a place in the World-to-Come

Pt3

1. Goose = anticipate wisdom

2. Sex with a goose = will become head of the yeshiva

Pt1

Berakhot.56b.4-6

In this passage, R' Yishmael engages in dream interpretation for a heretic, who presents him with various dreams. Each dream, as interpreted by R' Yishmael, reveals significant, morally questionable actions undertaken by the heretic, including incestuous relationships, kidnapping, adultery, and exploitation of the dead. 

Remarkably, each interpretation by R' Yishmael corresponds accurately to the heretic's deeds, confirmed by real-life events and the heretic's own admissions. The narrative culminates in R' Yishmael deciphering a dream about hidden wealth, which leads to the discovery of coins hidden in the heretic’s house.¹

Irrigating olives with olive oil = had sex with mother

אמר ליה ההוא מינא לרבי ישמעאל: ראיתי שאני משקה שמן לזיתים. 

אמר ליה: בא על אמו. 

The Gemara relates a different case of dream interpretation: A certain heretic said to R' Yishmael: I saw in my dream that I was irrigating olives with olive oil. What is the interpretation of my dream? 

He said to him: It is a sign that you had relations with your mother, as oil comes from the olive, and he is returning the oil to the olives. 

Plucking a star = kidnapped a Jew

אמר ליה: חזאי דקטיף לי כוכבא. 

אמר ליה: בר ישראל גנבת. 

That heretic said to R' Yishmael: I saw that I was plucking a star. 

He said to him: You kidnapped an Israelite man, as Israel is likened to the stars. 

Swallowed a star = sold a Jew, and spent the money

אמר ליה: חזאי דבלעתיה לכוכבא. 

אמר ליה: בר ישראל זבנתיה, ואכלת לדמיה. 

The heretic said to him: I saw that I swallowed a star. 

He said to him: You sold the Israelite man whom you kidnapped and spent the money that you received from the sale. 

Eyes kissing one another = had sex with sister

אמר ליה: חזאי עיני דנשקן אהדדי. 

אמר ליה: בא על אחותו. 

The heretic said to him: I saw my eyes kissing one another. 

He said to him: You had relations with your sister as siblings are like two eyes. 

Kissing the moon = had sex with a Jewish woman

אמר ליה: חזאי דנשקי סיהרא. 

אמר ליה: בא על אשת ישראל. 

The heretic said to him: I saw myself kissing the moon. 

He said to him: You slept with an Israelite woman, who is likened to the moon. 

Treading in the shade of a myrtle tree = had sex with a betrothed young woman

“Betrothed young woman” (נערה המאורסה) is a common technical term in the Talmud.

אמר ליה: חזאי דדריכנא בטונא דאסא. 

אמר ליה: בא על נערה המאורסה. 

He said to him: I saw that I was treading in the shade of a myrtle tree. 

He said to him: You slept with a betrothed young woman, as it was customary to make a canopy of myrtle for the betrothal. 

Shade above, tree below = bed is upside-down, had unnatural sex with betrothed woman

“Your bed is upside-down” (משכבך הפוך) means either anal sex (see my post here), or woman-on-top (see my recent post here).

אמר ליה: חזאי טונא מעילאי והוא מתתאי. 

אמר ליה: משכבך הפוך. 

He said to him: I saw that the shade was above me, and the tree was below me. 

He said to him: Your bed is upside-down, your relations with the betrothed woman were unnatural. 

Ravens circling bed = wife cheated with many men

אמר ליה: חזאי עורבי דהדרי לפורייה. 

אמר ליה: אשתך זנתה מאנשים הרבה. 

He said to him: I saw ravens circling my bed. 

He said to him: Your wife committed adultery with many men. 

Doves circling bed = had sex with many women

אמר ליה: חזאי יוני דהדרי לפורייה. 

אמר ליה: נשים הרבה טמאת. 

He said to him: I saw doves circling around my bed. 

He said to him: You defiled many women. 

Holding two flying doves = married two women, then dismissed them without a divorce

אמר ליה: חזאי דנקיטנא תרי יוני ופרחן. 

אמר ליה: תרתי נשי נסבת, ופטרתינון בלא גט.

He said to him: I saw that I was holding two doves and they were flying. 

He said to him: You married two women and dismissed them from your house without a divorce.

Peeling eggs = stripped dead people

אמר ליה: חזאי דקליפנא ביעי. 

אמר ליה: שכבי קא משלחת. 

אמר ליה: כולהו איתנהו בי, בר מהא דליתיה. 

אדהכי והכי, אתיא האי איתתא, ואמרה ליה: האי גלימא דמכסת — דגברא פלוני הוא, דמית ואשלחתיה.

He said to him: I saw myself peeling eggs. 

He said to him: You stripped dead people, because an egg is eaten at the meal of comfort after burying the dead. 

The same heretic said to him: Everything you have interpreted is true, with the exception of this one, the last interpretation, which is not true. 

Thereupon,² this woman came and said to him: This cloak that you are wearing belongs to such-and-such a man, who died and whom you stripped of his clothing.

Father left property in Cappadocia = “Kappa” - beam; “deca” - ten

אמר ליה: חזאי דאמרי לי: שבק לך אבוך נכסי בקפודקיא. 

אמר ליה: אית לך נכסי בקפודקיא? 

אמר ליה: לאו. 

אזל אבוך לקפודקיא? 

אמר ליה: לאו. 

אם כן: קפא כשורא, דיקא עשרה. זיל חזי קפא דריש עשרה שהיא מלאה זוזי. 

אזל, אשכח שהיא מלאה זוזי.

[...]

He said to R' Yishmael: I saw that they said to me in a dream: Your father left you property in Cappadocia.³

R' Yishmael said to him: Do you have property in Cappadocia? 

The heretic said to him: No. 

Did your father ever go to Cappadocia? 

The heretic said to him: No. 

R' Yishmael said to him: If so, it must be understood as follows: Kappa in Greek means beam;⁴ deka means ten.⁵ Go look at the tenth beam in your house and you will find that it is full of coins. 

He went and found that it was full of coins.

[...]

1. Some parts of this passage are paralleled in the Talmud Yerushalmi, Jerusalem_Talmud_Maaser_Sheni.4.6.7-14: "I was watering an olive tree with oil”; the Cappadocia part; “my eye kissed its companion”. I plan to discuss that sugya in Talmud Yerushalmi as well.

The stories there are told about R' Yose ben Ḥalaphta, traditionally identified with the major tanna referred to simply as R’ Yose, with no patronym, or about his son, R’ Yishmael ben R’ Yosei.

Here, the stories are told about R’ Yishmael, traditionally understood to be R’ Yishmael ben Elisha.

2. Steinzaltz translates adahachi vehachi (אדהכי והכי): “Meanwhile”. On my preference to translate this common term as “thereupon”, see my piece here, f. 4.

3. For an example of another mention of the region of Cappadocia (a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia; modern central-eastern Turkey) in the Talmud, see my previous piece here.

4. The Yerushalmi and Midrash has this part differently. Quoted in Jastrow: “Kappa in Greek is twenty“.

See Wikipedia, “Kappa“:

In the system of Greek numerals, Kʹ has a value of 20. It was derived from the Phoenician letter kaph .

Greek numerals are analagous to Hebrew gematria, where letter kaf also has a value of 20.

See discussion, in Hebrew, here:

קפודקיא = עשר/ים קורה/קורות. בירור ועיון במקורות

5. See Wikipedia, “Deca-”:

“Deca- (and dec-), sometimes deka-, is a common English-language numeral prefix derived from the Late Latin decas ("(set of) ten"), from Ancient Greek δέκας (dékas), from δέκα (déka, "ten").”