This weeks Torah portion contains Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching the heavens with angels ascending and descending on it. At the top of the ladder God appeared to him and assured him that He would be with him in all his journeys and that he would return to the land which God now promised to give to him as He had promised Abraham and Isaac.
Rabbi Shlomo Ben Chafni, a well known scholar in the Babylonian academy of Sura, a thousand years ago, explained that to know how to accurately interpret a dream it is critical to know the context of the dream. This includes as many pertinent details as possible. Without these facts it is nearly impossible to properly interpret a dream. Among the important factors to know is where the dreamer lives, was he sick or well at the time of the dream, what he ate the night of the dream, if there were recent deaths or traumatic events in his life, the events of the days leading up to the dream, at what point of the night he had the dream etc… Each of these factors could help explain the images and symbols in the dream (Pitron HaChalamot; pp. 75-76). Therefore, to understand Jacob’s dream, it is imperative to place it into the context of what was happening in his life at the time of the dream.
The opening verse of the incident of the dream begins: “And Jacob went out from Beer Sheva and he went towards Haran” (Genesis 28:10). The Beit HaLevi comments that usually a person when traveling does so primarily in order to either leave a previous situation or to begin a new one. In this verse, both the point of departure and the final destination are mentioned, to inform us that Jacob had two intentions; to escape the wrath of Esau for “stealing” his blessing and to travel to Haran to fulfill his parent’s requests to find a wife among his mother’s family.
Both of these reasons are crucial to understanding what was on Jacob’s mind as he lay down to sleep the night of the dream. Even though tradition teaches that Jacob actually spent fourteen years in the academy of Shem and Ever between his leaving Beer Sheva and his dream, still, the conscious and subconscious trauma of having to flee his own brother certainly took its toll and was always percolating just under the surface. We will see this idea developed further, when analyzing the symbolism of his dream and comparing his dream of the ladder with his final confrontation with Esau twenty years later.
Along with these conflicted feelings he was also going to Haran with the purpose of marrying and raising a family. Beyond the expected excitement at this prospect, Jacob’s deeper intent in marrying was to continue the heritage entrusted to him by his parents – to build the family that would be the cornerstone of the future Jewish people. To do this though entailed Jacob leaving for the first time the protected environment of his life long commitment to study and spiritual matters and to immerse himself in the more mundane world of family, earning a living and relating to a more material, worldly existence.
Therefore, as Jacob lie down that night his life was a powerful brew of mixed emotions: fear, frustration, guilt and resentment in relation to his brother and his past; hope, anticipation and challenge as he faced the future.
Rebbe Natan, the primary student of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, explains the symbolism and inner meaning of the opening verse in the following manner. Beer Sheva, means literally “the well of seven.” The number seven in Torah represents cycles of time and the concept of process and progress. Jacob leaving Beer Sheva represents his desire and attempt to go from one spiritual level to another, from one phase of life to a new beginning. The word Haran, his destination, means anger, or in Kabbalistic terminology, the “shells” or obstacles confronting one who attempts to raise his or herself to a new level of spirituality. In other words, any time we seek to leave one level of spiritual attainment in order to reach a new level, we must be prepared to confront a whole new configuration of forces that will attempt to prevent us from achieving our goal. No matter how elevated a level of spirituality we reach, it is no panacea for the obstacles we must cross to go further. This, according to Rebbe Natan, was the situation Jacob faced in his life at the time of the dream, a teaching relevant for each and every person. By knowing this spiritual law though, we are actually strengthened, as the new obstacles are a sign of spiritual progress and should not be feared, rather they should be faced with the intent of overcoming them (Torat Natan; first Torah of parshat Vayetzei).
This idea can be applied to each week of seven days in microcosm. As we leave each Shabbat with new inspiration and peace of mind, we are immediately confronted with the new challenges of the coming week. All week we strive to accomplish our work in the midst of inevitable daily obstacles and encounters. The harder we work, both physically and spiritually, the more rewarding and peaceful is the next Shabbat. In this sense the ladder in Jacob’s dream is like the week and God standing over him at the top of the ladder is comparable to Shabbat.
Another allusion connecting the opening verse with his dream relates to the place he is leaving being called “the well of seven.” A well is dug deep into the earth in order to find and draw forth water. The Talmud relates that any mention of water in the Bible is an allusion to Torah (Baba Kama 17a).A ladder on the other hand reaches upward towards heaven. In spiritual terms there is a correlation between these two symbols of the well and the ladder. The deeper one delves within the living waters of the Torah, the higher one climbs in his or her goal to be close to God; the higher the soul reaches towards union with God, the deeper one is able to integrate the Torah he or she learns. The deeper one probes for the spark of God within, the more one ascends in understanding God above; the higher one ascends in holiness and purity, the deeper one’s sense of humility becomes.
Jacob’s leaving Beer Sheva is in order to strike out on his own. Both Abraham and Isaac dug wells before him and now it was his turn. These wells symbolize their digging their roots deeply into the land of Israel and revealing new waters of revelation in the world. Therefore, it is significant that the first place Jacob goes after his dream, he comes upon a well that was covered with a large stone. The shepherds told him they could not remove the stone till everyone came, as the stone was too heavy. Jacob, upon seeing Rachel for the first time, proceeds to remove the stone by himself. This represents the beginning of Jacob coming into his own, ready now with the inspiration of his dream and his arousal of love for Rachel to assume his role as the next Patriarch (Genesis 29: 1-12).
Following the opening verse there is only one more verse before the actual dream itself: “And he came upon the place and slept there for the sun had set; he took from the stones of the place and placed them around his head, and he laid down in that place” (Genesis 28:11). The word “he came upon” is interpreted by the sages to mean “he prayed,” due to its usage in other places meaning prayer. It follows from this interpretation in the Talmud that it was this very prayer which serves as the precedent for the evening prayer. Abraham is attributed with establishing the morning prayer and Isaac the afternoon prayer.
In light of the above explanation regarding the inevitable obstacles in the way of all spiritual advancement, we see that prayer is of crucial assistance in the process. The fact that Jacob prayed at night represents his turning to God even within the midst of darkness and uncertainty. It is paradoxical that the very times we need most to reach out to God for help is when it is the hardest, due to feelings of depression, sadness or futility. That Jacob had the presence of mind to turn to God at night when things got tough, serves as a precedent for Jews in every time and place.
“The place” Jacob came upon was the future sight of the Temple, the same place Abraham bound Isaac to the alter. Rashi explains that we know this from when God commanded Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah “to one of the mountains I will tell you.” As Abraham approached, it is written: “On the third day he lifted up his eyes and he saw the place from afar” (Genesis 22:4). The Zohar explains that the third day referred to in this verse is actually Jacob, the third of the Patriarchs. For three days Abraham was walking with the burden of contradiction upon him. The same God who had fulfilled his promise to give him a son, and of whom he was told would inherit the land and continue the spiritual path he had blazed, was the same God who had just requested of him to offer his son as a sacrifice. Then, Abraham saw the place from afar, and in glimpsing Jacob, the future descendent of Isaac, he must have been heartened that in the end all would be resolved. Abraham, who later “came into days,” already was envisioning the future in the present.
“Because the sun had set” is interpreted in the Midrash to mean it set before its time; God arranged that he would sleep there as this was the place where he was destined to have his dream. Another explanation of the sun setting relates to the matter of trials and tests in a person’s life. When God tests an individual, his previous spiritual level and clarified intellect are diminished in order that he be tested, that is, challenged to rise to the occasion and in so doing attain an even higher level of consciousness. The Slonimer Rebbe explains that if this temporary diminishment would not occur, what test would it be? This prerequisite for a test is alluded to in the sun setting before it’s time, forcing Jacob to begin digging deeper inside for the faith and fortitude he would need in his new stage of life.
The setting of the sun as a metaphor for the diminishment of consciousness also relates to dreams. When we sleep or slip into daydreams, our normative intellect fades into the background as the subconscious powers of the soul become more prominent. Although the intellect is still active in dream states, (as is the subconscious active in wake states) still, the dream state can be compared to the setting of the intellect, a diminishment of intelligence and consciousness.
