Question:
“I had an extremely frightening dream two months ago. It has been causing me ongoing anxiety. According to halacha today, may I completely disregard the dream, or is Hatavat Chalom recommended
Answer:
Hello,
In all probability, you can disregard the dream. The poskim say that nowadays we don’t give much credence to our dreams. AMoing the reasons is because they can come from stress, or because of a thought that the person had regarding something related to the dream, even up to 40 days prior to having the dream! This is especially true because nowadays we her a low of world news and we hear all sorts of tragedies, which can cause the person to have such dreams. Therefore, the gedolim would tell you not to be concerned with it.
What I would recommend is to hear Birkas Kohanim, and say the tefilla, Ribono Shel Olam. Or if you are in place that doesn’t have Birkas Kohanim, to say it while the chazzan says Elokeinu, velokei, and finish when the chazzan finishes birkas kohanim.If that is too short for you you can finish it when the chazzan says Hamevorech es amo… so the tzibbur will answer amen right after you finish saying the tefillah.
Best wishes
Sources:
או"ח ס' ק"ל, ומ"ב שם, ופסקי תשובות ס ר"כ אות א'.
