Last Updated By Bill's Bible Basics :
February 16, 2017
By Avirama Golan - Ha'aretz Correspondent
Thursday, June 28, 2001
A recent dream reported by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has sent a messianic buzz through the ultra-Orthodox community. Sources close to the rabbi said that after prayers last Saturday morning, Yosef had told his son, Moshe, and Minister Eli Yishai that he had dreamed about the Messiah the night before.
Speaking to the two at breakfast, the rabbi apparently asked them not to divulge any news of his nighttime vision.
Then, at a wedding of a grandchild on Monday, Rabbi Yosef told guests: "In a dream on Friday night, I saw the Messiah coming to the Western Wall. There were many people at the Wall plaza. The [Messiah] told them: 'I have come because there are a million pupils who study at secular schools and do not learn Torah. I want all religious scholars to mobilize...to teach them Torah. There shouldn't be a single school without Torah.'
"I heard this all in a dream, and then I woke up," the rabbi told the guests.
Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox sources said yesterday that this was the first time that Rabbi Yosef, who is viewed as a leading authority on religious law and does not usually delve into mystical matters, had spoken about dreams, the Messiah, and redemption.
Members of Shas said that in view of the strong emotions stirred by Rabbi Yosef's dream, a discussion on the matter was to be held next Sunday at a yeshiva in Jerusalem's Geula neighborhood.