"The land upon which you are lying to you I will give it and to your seed," our sages state: "If you lie on it, it is yours; if not – it does not belong to you." This is a statement that has historical implications: the right to the Land will be given to whoever commits to stay connected to it.
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1.
Despite pressing current affairs, we are reading the weekly portions of the book of Bereshit (Genesis), and this is an opportunity to delve deeply into the fundamental ideas that molded our nation, accompanied them throughout history, and are the basis for current debates in Israel.
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The weekly portion of Va'yetze opens with Jacob running away from Esau. Jacob is tired and wants to sleep – "And he took some of the stones of the place and placed [them] at his head, and he lay down in that place" (Genesis 28:11). Since leaving his home in haste, Jacob had no bed and no place of safety, only doubts, and depressing thoughts, and a bed of stones to lay his head on. Now, in the middle of life, he has to start all over again. What was he thinking about? Was he regretting his actions? How had his life taken such a sharp turn and what difficulties were he facing … as quoted in the Midrash [rabbinical literature]: "As God saw that he was in trouble, He appeared to him in a dream and promised him all those promises." The dream was meant to console Jacob: "And behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it" (Ibid 28:12). And he hears the promise of the Land and the nation: "The land upon which you are lying, to you I will give it and to your seed. And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth … and through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth and through your seed" (28:13-14). Jacob receives another important promise: I will be with you in the Exile as well and I will protect you, and at the end of it all: "I will restore you to this Land, for I will not forsake you ..." (28:15) – like in previous encounters with our forefather, the Promise includes the return home after the Exile. For Sure!
2.
Jacob's dream opens a series of dreams. The Book of Genesis teaches the Jewish People to read current affairs and history not only on an event-related basis – to see events as having a causal effect – one event leading to another – but also on the level of Divine management of history. We should not be saying "this happened," but "This is what should have happened." On a superficial level humanity creates events and influences reality; while at the same time, Divine intervention leads the world in different directions. This deeper level is depicted in the biblical narrative through the dream, which is not a private dream. In biblical terms, Jacob is not dreaming alone – the entire world is dreaming together with him.
According to Freud's well-known approach, dreams are an expression of forbidden acts, repressed desires, and unsolved traumas. But psychoanalytic Young speaks about dreams as an expression of our deepest ego, the authentic core of our self, before the masks and the pretensions, before outside influences. The dream is the voice of our "inner guide," and includes elements of humanity's general treasury: myths, pictures, and symbols that are found in what Young calls the "collective unconscious."
The Book of Genesis, therefore, tells several stories: both revealed and concealed, which most people do not connect to each other. The biblical dream, therefore, is the voice of God speaking to the world and humanity through chosen persons.
3.
Jacob's Ladder is not just another symbol; it is the super-symbol. The central symbol in the Book of Genesis. In many cultures, the ladder represents a rising, an ascension in the rungs, and a connection between diverse vertical levels. This, for example, is expressed in the Egyptian hieroglyphic system. Oceanic myths describe how the hero reaches the Garden of Eden through a massive chain of arrows. In other ancient cultures, the ladder is comprised of the ancient ancestors, upon whom man climbs in order to benefit from the good that God has to give. Holy structures have steps, not only to reach the physical peak of the altar – man climbing these steps is rising on the cosmic ladder to the spiritual level of life. Religion historian Mircea Eliade stated that steps (or ladders) are a living expression of "striving for the beyond" stages of human existence.
Our sages have explained the dream in various ways. Rabbi Elazar Hakappar, a second-century resident of the Golan Heights, envisioned the Temple in the ladder, "The House of God" (Ibid 28:17), as Jacob says. There were sages who regarded the ladder as an allegory to Mount Sinai event (the receiving of the Torah), or a picture of the nations rising and descending, and disappearing, from the stage of world history.
4.
The word "ladder" in Hebrew is "sulam," whose letters are the same as the word "semel" = symbol, and its root [the letters S.L.L.] means to pave. d. This is the paved route, leading from land to heaven, from physics to metaphysics, from material to spiritual; from man to his God.
A multi-tiered structure, whose head is in the clouds, reminds us of the Tower of Babel that was destroyed, because its purpose was not spiritual but to "make a name" (Ibid. 11:4) which in time immemorial was termed "hybris." Man climbed the Tower of Babel only to meet himself at the top of the rungs.
Jacob's dream comes to rectify the building of the Tower of Babel: The ladder is a clear symbol of the "Axis Mundi," the pillar on which the world stands, the living connection between the upper and the lower, between the material and the spiritual, between humans and God. Jacob (which in Hebrew means also "he that will follow") learns how to "follow," how to pave the road that connects the heavens and the earth. This is the mighty manifest that the Jewish People gave to the world, depicted in one simple image.
5.
The ladder was "set up on the ground," by the One who stands at the top of this ladder – God. Man himself cannot build a tower that reaches to the sky, he cannot redeem himself from his troubles. Our sages have taught us that an imprisoned man cannot release himself from prison, he needs a ladder to rise from the depths of his life. And who needs this more than Jacob, who in the middle of his life has to start it all over from the beginning? As a rule, where does one find strength to stand up to a difficult fate? From where does one find the strength to reconstruct the fractured shards of their life? Here the "Builder of the ladder" says to Jacob: Now it's your turn. I placed the ladder, but you have to climb the rungs. Climbing the rungs of life, while coping with its vicissitudes – this is your responsibility.
6.
The Gerre Rebbe (Poland, 19th century) wrote in his book "Sefat Emet," that ultimately man has to place the ladder while "repairing its complete height." Man "himself is the ladder, his body is below, and his soul reaches to the sky, and God's angels are going up and down, because his body is lower than them, and the source of his soul is higher than them." Thus, the ladder represents Jacob; he is the ladder. The thing that is dreamed of represents the dreamer.
7.
"The land upon which you are lying to you I will give it and to your seed" (28:13) – our sages state: "If you lie on it, it is yours; if not – it does not belong to you." This is a statement that has historical implications: the right to the Land will be given to whoever commits to stay connected to it physically.
8.
Jacob does not go back to sleep: "And he was frightened, and he said, 'How awesome is this place!'" (28:17). This was not fear, but religious reverence, or as claimed by Rudolf Otto in his book "Das Heilige" – mysterium tremendum: the immense sense of mystery that is filled with reverence and awe, the secret that awakens fear and trepidation … from the secret that rises above the entire creation and is coated in unexplainable mystery." "How awesome is this place," says an amazed Jacob. "Awesome," in terms of "fear of the holy," awakening the sense of creation in man. "Awesome," also in terms of "fear of the Divine," as explained by several of our sages. "Awesome," also in terms of amazing and special, different than anything else. Whoever experienced the awesome mystery of the dream of the ladder, whoever heard God call to him from the top of the ladder, is no more the same person; he knows that wherever he goes in the footsteps of his forefathers, God will be with him. Now he can continue on his journey. And from Jacob to his descendants: "I will not forsake you until I have done what I have spoken concerning you." We were like dreamers.
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The ladder – just like the ladder in Jacob's dream – was placed on the ground, but climbing the rungs of the ladder, rising on the steps of life, while coping with all challenges; this each one is responsible to do for himself.
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