Zelig Golden | 8 Kislev 5769 | December 5, 2008
In Parsha Va-Yetse, Jacob goes out into the world in a way that neither Avram nor Yitzakh could. He is the first person we see in Torah who actually works for a living, and it is in his struggle to balance the needs of him and his family in the material world with his spiritual endeavor of uncovering G-d consciousness, that Jacob fully comes into his power.
The parsha opens with Jacob leaving for Beersheva to fulfill his fathers’ wish that he finds a wife back in his mother Rebecca’s home of Haran. Like Isaac’s prayer in the fields that opened him to his love for Rebecca, Jacob discovers the key to striking his balance while alone in the desert, before he encounters true love with Rachel.
On the way to Haran, Jacob lies down in a circle of stones, and dreams of a ladder set upon the earth with its top touching heaven. Angels are ascending and descending before him as G-d appears to Jacob and promises that the land upon which he sleeps will be for him and his offspring. Rambam teaches that Jacob’s dream is one of ultimate security – G-d promises: “I am with you, and will guard you wherever you go.” Yet Jacob is afraid. As the Midrash teaches, G-d asks Jacob “Why don’t you go up the ladder?” The Midrash explains that Jacob feared that if he ascended, he would also have to descend. However, G-d promises Jacob that if he climbs the ladder to heaven, he will not have to descend, yet he still refuses to climb. Why?
When Jacob returns from his dream, he proclaims “Surely G-d is in this place, and I did not know it!”“How awesome is this place! This is none other that the home of G-d, and that is the gateway to heaven.” Jacob understands from his dream that the holiness of G-d in heaven is found equally on earth – that earth is equally the home of G-d. Indeed, the Hebrew word Makom, or “place,” is one of the many names for G-d.
Jacob’s encounter with the ladder, connecting heaven and earth, is Jacob’s ultimate teacher on how to balance his life in the material and spiritual worlds. The ladder teaches him that the holiness found in heaven is equally found here on earth. Thus Jacob occupies the seat of balance in our tradition by living in direct communication with G-d as he lives, works, and loves right here on Earth.
