Ben Dama came to Rabbi Ishmael in a state of great distress. He had experienced a dream so vivid and so disturbing that he could not shake it from his mind. In the dream, he had watched the limbs of his own body fall off, one by one — first his fingers, then his hands, then his arms, until he was left with nothing.
Ben Dama was convinced this was a prophecy of his own death, or worse — a divine punishment for some unknown sin. He begged Rabbi Ishmael to interpret the dream and tell him what terrible fate awaited him.
Rabbi Ishmael studied the man's face. He could see the terror in his eyes. A lesser rabbi might have offered empty comfort, but Rabbi Ishmael was a master of dream interpretation, and he knew that the language of dreams is not the language of waking life. What seems like destruction in a dream often signifies liberation.
"Do not be afraid," Rabbi Ishmael said. "The limbs that fell from your body are not your limbs. They represent the burdens you carry — your debts, your obligations, your anxieties. God is telling you through this dream that those burdens are about to fall away. You will be freed from what weighs you down."
The Talmud records that Rabbi Ishmael's interpretation proved correct. Ben Dama's fortunes improved dramatically in the days that followed. The rabbis taught that dreams require a skilled interpreter, for the same image that terrifies one person may be a promise of blessing to another. A dream follows its interpretation — and the wise interpreter always turns the dream toward good.