Dream: I am a university student, ready to graduate, waiting in my dormitory room. In a folder, I find a $300 cheque – the last paycheque for my on-campus job. Now I will be able to pay all my fees and receive my diploma. Someone knocks at the door. A young man from the Office of Residence Life has finally come to fix all the broken things I called about at the beginning of the semester. He fixes two things, and then asks what else is broken, but I can’t think of anything else. I just want to empty out my dresser drawers, pack up and move out, but he wants to fix more broken things and won’t leave.

Reality: I wake up in a tiny box of a room in Hotel 30/30 in New York City. I empty my dresser drawers, pack up, and check out. I’m ready for breakfast at the Rabbis Without Borders meeting, day two. In a purple folder, I find the day’s agenda. But I’m not ready to move on from yesterday’s teachings; I haven’t even formulated the questions they were supposed to answer.

We had spoken of utopia and dystopia. Daniel Sieradski told us how Yom Kippur services at Occupy Wall Street came to draw thousands of Jewish seekers. He invited us to imagine a future of cyber-possibility, asking: would we want to dwell there in optimism or in protest?

We had spoken of board games as micro-social universes. Rabbi Owen Gottlieb asked how we might modify the rules of “Settlers of Catan” to express Talmudic values. Gamers, he taught, modify games endlessly to experiment with ideas and values. How do we play in our worlds?

We had stopped speaking to sing. Rabbi Andrew Hahn introduced Hebrew Kirtan and talked frankly about blending traditions. Drummer Shoshanna Jedwab offered her theology of music.

Today, we speak of tools that make cyber-possibility a cyber-reality. Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu shows us how to use social media to build community.

We speak of dreams. Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard invites us to enter Pharaoh’s nightmare of the seven haggard cows, and to imagine ourselves at Pharaoh’s precipice. Does the dream bode terror or opportunity? Pharaoh does not know. Desperately, he seeks to alleviate his anxiety with an immediate, definitive interpretation. What about us? Can we dwell in both dream and nightmare as we move into our own futures?

We put dreams and tools together. Behind Rabbi Blanchard’s head, we share our notes through a twitter feed.

The day winds down. We yearn for permission to experiment in our real-world jobs. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield asks: “What is it that creates the ‘permission’ for you to do your authentic work?”

The repairman in my dream had taught: Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 dollars. Do not cash the cheque. Do not leave the box. Do not soar.

But I woke to reality. These two days have been a space of possibility, an invitation to imagine, experiment, play and dream.

Thank you, Rabbis Without Borders.