I took Rabbi Moskowitz's class about things that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel had written on prayer. One of the things that really touched me is in the following paragraph from Heschel's book Man's Quest for G-d:
"At the beginning of all action is an inner vision in which things to be are experienced as real. Prayer, too, is frequently an inner vision, an intense dreaming for G-d -- the reflection of the Divine intentions in the soul of humankind. We dream of a time 'when the world will be perfected under the Sovereignty of G-d, and all the children of flesh will call upon Your name, when You will turn unto Yourself all the wicked of the earth.' We anticipate the fulfillment of the hope shared by both G-d and humankind. To pray is to dream in league with G-d, to envision G-d's holy visions."
I really like the last sentence. I also like to think of it as flipped and saying that to dream in league with G-d is a form of prayer. What are the things that we dream of? Are our waking dreams something that G-d would want a part of? Do we listen to the dreams of our sleep to see what clues could put us on the right path?
Another thing to think about is from what part of us do our dreams come? Do we say we dream of world peace because that is the noble thing, when, in reality, we are itching for a zombie apocalypse? [Wow, I just used zombies and Rabbi Heschel in the same piece.] I think that maybe it's okay to be honest about our dreams. Fooling ourselves about our desires doesn't translate into fooling G-d. If we aren't busy keeping up our politically correct facade, if we let ourselves be open about what we want, I think there is a much better chance that we can evolve into the person we would truly like to be.
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