"The Way of G-d"

Part 3: "The Soul, Inspiration, Prophecy, and the Supernatural"
Chapter 1: "The Soul and its Influence"

Paragraph 6

Let's now delve into just how the Heavens communicate with us with all the above in mind.

As everyone knows, it's at night that friends share secrets, couples make plans, and families come together. For the day is too full for intimacy, and too noisy a time to unpack one's heart and commune. The same holds true when it comes to communicating with the Heavens as well. For that happens at night, when we receive out-and-out messages or images from Heaven, mere dreams, or near-prophecies.

To be sure, a lot of those images are simply offshoots of the day and no more, others of them are byproducts of physiological processes, while others yet are affected by foods we'd eaten. And those would be dreams or nightmares rather than messages from Heaven per se. But there are times in the course of the "flights" that the G-dly component of our soul takes to other realms that it roams about and interacts with angels and other spiritual entities (depending upon its level).

The soul then gets to "sense" certain things which it's allowed to transmit back to us. And it does that step by step, grade by grade, until what's to be communicated nestles somewhere in our being where it projects itself onto the mind as an image.

Now, not all such images are true (or wholly so). Some of them are combined with mere dream-stuff, while others of them are purer communications. And some of them, thanks to agents that G-d allows to commune with us, may actually allow for glimpses into the future. In any event, true communications come from a Heavenly source which then passes it on to the soul, from where it then enters the creative mind (rather than the rational mind, which isn't part of this process, and inoperative in sleep). The creative mind then displays it upon what we'd term the "mind's eye".

If the Heavenly source is angelic, the communication is legitimate and rooted in holiness, whereas if the source is demonic, it's not. (The trick, of course, is to know the source of one's images; many a failure has resulted from just such misreadings.)

There's an entirely different order of communication, though, that touches on actual prophecy. But we'll discuss that later on. For now, though, know that prophecy is far beyond the sort of messages we noted above, and far deeper than dreams or inspiring insights.

This series is dedicated to the memory of Yitzchak Hehrsh ben Daniel, and Sarah Rivka bas Yaakov Dovid.

Subscribe to Ramchal and receive the class via e-mail.