Safe House II - The Pardes Parable

כ״ג באייר תשע"א
Mab 25

Early last week I dreamt of the beginnings of a flood and my escape to my safe house. Last night, I had another flood dream:

I was at home with my family. It was raining heavily outside. From inside the house, I heard the sound of something like a dam breaking outside. Suddenly, oceans of water came flooding the land outside from the south. Our entire house was engulfed underwater like being at the bottom of an ocean. But miraculously, no water came into the house and the house stood firm upon its foundations, not moving or buckling at all as it was completely covered over by the rushing waters. We rode out the deluge in peace, safely tucked away inside our home.

When the waters subsided, we went outside. Everything around us looked like the area of Joplin Missouri where a recent monster tornado destroyed neighborhoods for as far as the eye could see. Everything around our house had been similarly destroyed - everything that is but our yard and our house. Ours alone came out as it had entered.

As soon as I wrote the last line above describing my dream, it struck me that this is exactly how it is described in the story about the four who entered the mystical Pardes, where Rabbi Akiva exited as he had entered - in peace. Interestingly, water, like in my flood dreams, is an important element in the Pardes parable as well.