Sleep, Dreams and Free Will

The Gaon held that what is truly valuable is what a person attains in this world through his own effort. Hashem has the most nachas from a person who uses his free will to choose good over evil and exerts himself in Torah. Revelations that the soul receives in sleep come without toil and without that choice, and so he did not count them as of great use. He taught that sleep was created so that a person can attain what he cannot while awake. Awake, the soul is bound to the body, and even after immense struggle the body remains a barrier. In sleep, when the soul detaches somewhat from the material, we become receptive to spiritual revelation, and we can don a supernal garment called the chaluka d’rabbanan, the robe of the rabbis. Rav Chaim of Volozhin wrote that he was sure the Gaon experienced aliyas neshamah, the soul’s ascent to the Heavenly Academies, every night from the day he came of age, and that one of his talmidim heard the Gaon say that from a certain point in his mature life it became a nightly experience.