An Iranian officer operating in Syria had a dream that Gen. Soleimani, killed months ago in a US drone strike, warned him that he would be joining him. His wife took the vision to heart and while she was packing his possessions two days later, Colonel Abolfazl Sarlak joined his beloved general in the after-world.

The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported on Thursday that Colonel Abolfazl Sarlak, a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in Syria last Sunday. There were conflicting reports describing the manner of his death with Mehr reporting that Sarlak was killed by an explosive trap set by the Islamic State (ISIS) in eastern Aleppo. Al Fars news agency said he was killed during clashes with “terrorists” in the town of Khanaser in Aleppo.

Sarlak was quite close with Gen. Qasem Soleimani, described as the second most powerful man in Iran, who was killed last January in a US drone strike at Baghdad’s international airport and the two fought alongside each other.

Abolfazl Sarlak, a commander of #Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been killed in Syria, Iranian state media reported.#VoiceOfHaq #VOH pic.twitter.com/Ay1MwKCWFc

— Haq Ghazhحق غږ (@haqghazh1) May 15, 2020

According to Sarlak’s comrades, “two days before his martyrdom, he told one of his friends that he had a dream in which Hajj Qasem himself had followed him in a car and was telling him to get ready to come meet him.”

Sarlak had been living in Aleppo with his wife and two children, the official IRIB news agency said., noting his wife’s sanguine response to her husband’s violent demise.

“I was not at all surprised to hear about the martyrdom because I was collecting his things!” she told Iranian media.

Though some Believers in the God of Israel may be skeptical about the report of such an evil man being granted prescience, Chaya Lester, a Jerusalem-based psychotherapist who works with their dreams, in preparation for the return of prophecy, noted that Balaam, an idolator was described in the Bible as being given accurate prophetic visions. 

“It is not uncommon for a person to dream of their impending death,” Lester said. “All types of people: good, not so good, great, and small. Prescient messages and precognition do come through the dream state. In the dream state, we become the bridge between the lower world and the upper world.”

“The Talmud shares that dreams are 1/60th of prophecy,” Lester notes in her course on what she calls Dream Technology. “The Zohar aptly tells us that at night, all things return to their original root and source. In 1800, the Gaon of Vilna said clearly that sleep exists for the sole purpose of conveying the mysteries of the cosmos through the vehicle of dreams. “

“These seemingly miraculous and supernatural experiences are very hard to access in the daylight hours. But in our dream consciousness we have unprecedented opportunities to access our highest self and uncommon powers. Our dreams are a playground of exploration, personal growth, healing and ultimately highest service.” 

Lester noted a famous story of Abraham Lincoln in which three days before his assissination, he related to his friends that he had a dream of attending his own funeral. She suggested that such precognitive dreams may become more common in the coming days.

“The Rambam teaches that dreams are, ‘the buds of prophecy’ because they contain all of the ingredients for the full flowering of the prophetic experience,” she noted.

The unfolding of dream work in a Torah context parallels the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. 

“When the Jewish people left the Land of Israel, the Shechina [the feminine presence of God) left the Land of Israel. Our exile meant a certain exile of consciousness, a loss of Divine connection. Before prophecy can exist in the Land of Israel, it must be settled and inhabited by the majority of Jews in the world…It is through the concentrated spiritual energy of the entire Jewish people that prophecy exists .”Those who are interested in learning more about Torah dreamwork and how it connects to prophecy should contact her through her website.

‘