Dream question

A dream question (Hebrew: She'elat Halom) is a practice of <a href="/facts/Divination/b8gLkFfv">divination</a> whereby a person attains a <a href="/facts/Prophecy/uR8eaHXj">prophetic</a> state while dreaming, receiving a divine answer to a question meditated on before sleep. According to <a href="/facts/Kabbalah/sqfKq2wu">Kabbalah</a>, when the conscious mind is subdued, the subconscious mind emerges. Thus, in dreams, the soul is being rejuvenated while consciousness slips away.
The early medieval master <a href="/facts/Hai_Gaon/9TDCboIN">Hai Gaon</a> notes a method for attaining a dream question involving fasting, purification, and meditation on a text. Based on comments by <a href="/facts/Abraham_ibn_Ezra/pLMcvQQ7">Abraham ibn Ezra</a> and others, scholar <a href="/facts/Moshe_Idel/HN6BeMgU">Moshe Idel</a> has identified this text with Exodus 14:19-21, each verse of which contains 72 consonants alluding to a mystical <a href="/facts/Gematria/9AGu2Q9x">series of Hebrew letters</a> said to represent the true name of God.
<a href="/facts/Moshe_Idel/HN6BeMgU">Moshe Idel</a>, Romanian-Israeli historian and philosopher of Jewish mysticism, has explored the concept of Se’elat Halom in his research of Kabbalah. In his work "On "She’elat Halom" in “Hasidei Askenaz: Sources and Influences", Idel points to Chagigah 5b in the <a href="/facts/Talmud/8416nnBV">Babylonian Talmud</a> where God made a promise to the people of Israel, that despite being hidden from view, he will speak to them in dreams.

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Dream question