[Avodah] Vayeitze: "Are You Sleeping or Are You Dreaming?"

[Micha Berger]

Cantor Wolberg writes:
: So in the first instance it says Jacob awoke "from his sleep" which is
: redundant and the second example it says he lay down and dreamt. There
: is should have included (he lay down) AND HE SLEPT and dreamt. You
: might say that the fact that he dreamt indicated that of course he
: slept....

Not really. His "dream" was an altered state of awareness called
nevu'ah. I have no idea if non-Moshe nevi'im necessarily slept to get
their nevu'ah. According to everyone but the Rambam (and his maqor),
certainly not -- Avraham chats with the A-lmighty while waiting for
guests and he sees them arrive without them coming to wake him.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha