A Few Comments on Dreams in Late Medieval Jewish Byzantine Thought

Abstract

Various views of the dream were discussed in medieval Jewish thought in Byzantium, parts of which were already covered in Spanish, Provençal, and Italian thought and others of which were unique. Debates arose concerning two issues: the first is the very appearance of imagination in Mosaic prophecy, and the second is the very existence of an essential differentiation between dream and prophecy. Jewish Byzantine scholars criticized pretenders who claimed to be prophets and to dream in accordance. The dream motif expressed the multicultural basis of medieval Jewish Byzantine thought.