Welcome to the 2022 school year! I would like to share with you my speech to our Senior School students from this week’s opening assembly.

Born from Dreams and a Vision…

Today I want to talk to you about dreams.

Our beautiful school was founded on a dream and I know that the reality that has unfolded since 1978 would make all of our founders pinch themselves to see if they were still dreaming.

Our Jewish tradition is replete with stories of dreams and their meanings – Joseph interpreting the dreams of his brothers, the prisoners and, ultimately, Pharaoh and Jacob dreaming of a ladder.

The ancient Greeks and Romans too believed that dreams had prophetic powers.

The First Nations Australians refer to their founding stories of how the land, animals and landscape were formed as “The Dreaming.”

In 1900, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, wrote his groundbreaking book, The Interpretation of Dreams. In it, Freud explained that dreams are not meaningless but actually represent our repressed unfulfilled desires.

Science has offered various explanations for dreaming. One theory explored in the Scientific American journal suggests that dreams are in fact meaningless, that “they are merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories”. Another theory called Threat Simulation Theory suggests that dreams are actually a biological mechanism that are used for the brain to practise responding to danger in a safe environment. A newer theory is that dreams are a way that our brains process emotions. The theory explains that dreams allow the brain to strip the emotion from a situation and help it to become a memory.

In 1902 Theodore Hertzl wrote his second book Altneuland which contained an epitaph, Im Tirtzu – eyn zo agada. If you will it, it is no dream. Or more accurately – if you will it, it is no fantasy.

Hertzl seemed to suggest that the chief act was not of fantasising about what the future might be, but of establishing the desire to make this future a reality.

So what should we be dreaming of at this genesis of the new school year? What are our hopes and aspirations for the year ahead and for the future?

Are you brand new to the School or the campus and dreaming of making some lifelong friends?

Are you inspired to get involved in new areas of our school life and dream of getting a lead in the Musical?

Are you dreaming of kicking the winning goal in our Senior School match against Yavneh?

Are the teachers dreaming of inspired students who are engaged with their lessons and laughing at all their jokes?

My inclination is that of all the dreaming theories I have mentioned I prefer Hertzl’s. We can make our dreams become reality through desire and dedication.

Dreaming has a place but the King David founders knew that while the School was born from dreams and a vision, it is through hard work, dedication and good values that we are blessed with this wonderful thriving school.

So to you I say, dream your dreams but then put in the hard work to realise them. You need to be the sort of wonderful friend that others want to be friends with, you have to put yourself out there and get involved in the myriad opportunities that this school offers be it the musical or the footy match or the many clubs and co-curricular opportunities. You need to work on your relationships with your teachers and listen carefully to their feedback. If you put in hard work, the results will follow.

My point is that we cannot take our school lives for granted. There are so many opportunities around you and you need to make the most of them.

There is a cliché of Hollywood films when the protagonist awakes at the conclusion and it is revealed that it was all a dream.

My wish for you is the opposite. May you wake at the end of the year and discover that your dream-like experience has actually been reality and that the friends you have made, the goals you have achieved and the learning you have established are all very real.

Shabbat Shalom,

Marc