AND

JACOB SAID WHEN HE SAW THEM, "THIS IS THE CAMP OF GOD," AND HE NAMED

THE PLACE MAHANAIM.

(Bereishit 32:3)

Mahanaim Two camps, [one of the angels] outside

the land, who came with him up to here, and [one of the angels] of Israel, who came to

greet him (from Tanchuma Vayishlach 3).

(Rashi on Bereishit 32:3, Judaica Press translation)

Angels of God met him – To aid him on his way, and he alone saw the camp of

angels surrounding his camp. That is why he called the place Mahanaim [two camps]; one of them his, the

other of the angels.

(Ibn Ezra ad loc)

And the name of the place

was called Mahanaim in the plural, for such is

the way of Scripture with names. It may be that Mahanaim

refers to His camp and the camp of the higher beings, that is to say that His

camp on earth is as the camp of the angels, all of them being camps of God,

blessing Him and confessing His unity, may His name be blessed forever.

(RaMBaN ad loc)

We have explained that

wherever it is mentioned that an angel was seen or had spoken, this had

happened only in a vision of prophecy or in a dream whether this is explicitly

stated or not, as has been said before… I say likewise also of the story

about Jacob in regard to its saying, And there wrestled a man with him (Bereishit

32:24), that it is in conformity with the

form of prophetic revelation, inasmuch as it is finally made clear that he who

was there was an angel. This is quite similar to the

story concerning Abraham, in which it at first informs us in a general way, And

the Lord appeared unto him, and so on, and then begins to explain in what

way this happened. It is similar with regard to Jacob. At first it says: And

the angels of God met him (verse

1). Then it begins to explain what

happened before they met him, and says that he sent messengers and acted and

did this and that. Then Jacob was left alone [and there wrestled a man with

him until daybreak] (verse

24). And these are the angels of God of

whom it had been said at first: And the angels of God met him. All the

wrestling and the conversation in question happened in a vision of prophecy.

(RaMBaM: Guide of the Perplexed

2:42, Pines translation pg. 389)

And he dreamed, 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…

Oshrat Shoham

The parasha opens with the dreamy and wonderful story of Jacob's

encounter with the angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder. Jacob's

encounter with the angel of God who wrestled with him upon his return to the

land at Ma'avar Yabok can

teach us about the personal significance of Jacob's meetings with angels as a

window into his inner world, his struggles and doubts from his. The midrash sees in the angel an

allusion to Jacob's fierce inner struggle at the eve of his return to the land,

a struggle born of his years of separation from the land and from his brother

and family. The doubts, inner suffering and perhaps even pangs of conscience

that accompanied Jacob's departure from the land can be found in the dream of

the ladder and the angels ascending and descending upon it. Pangs of conscience

regarding his deeds, qualms and fears of the past and future – I would call the

dream "First Night without Mom;" the desire, perhaps, to return home

to the protection of Rebecca's kitchen and apron strings, to warmth and

fraternity; perhaps to apologize to Esau and to Father, to return the blessing

and birthright, to go back in time and reverse the wheels of history – and on

the other hand the desire to continue in his path out of recognition of the

purpose, election, and mission placed upon him.

Angels of God

ascend and descend within him.

And the story

opens a window to Jacob's stormy conflicted inner world.

And he dreamed, and behold! a

of God were ascending and descending upon it…

The description of a physical object bridging heaven and

earth, and the expression and its top reached to heaven occurs in one

other place in Scripture – in the story of the Tower of Babel-

And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and

a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name…".

Both stories begin with similar timing – the beginning of a

journey – And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, and in

the case of Jacob's story – And Jacob left Beersheba, and he went

to Haran and afterwards

the story Now Jacob lifted his feet and went

to the land of the people of the East.

The people of the Shinar Valley, traveling

from the east, make bricks for themselves and build a tower with its top in the

heavens, just as Jacob dreamt upon the stone set by his head, and in the dream

the ladder was set up on the ground with its top reaching the heavens.

In both stories, God is found at the end point. In the story

of Babel – And the Lord descended to

see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built, and in the story

of Jacob's ladder – And behold, the Lord was standing over him.

In both stories, the response to the link between heaven and

earth is "spreading out": in the case of Babel – and from

there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth; in Jacob's

case – and you shall spread out westward and eastward and northward and

southward.

The parallelism of structure and phrasing of the two stories

does not seem accidental; it is interesting to contemplate the function and

significance of this parallelism.

The ancient Babylonian culture of the age of the Patriarchs

constructed many ziggurats – stepped pyramids whose foundations are set

up upon the earth and whose tops are in the heavens. Sometimes the ritual

involved an ascent from earth to heaven.

Even Babylonia's name

(despite traditional interpretations) means bab eylon: "Gate

of the gods."

Seen from this viewpoint, we have two polemical stories

which come to deal with Babylon's idolatrous

culture. The story of the Tower of Babel describes man's

failed attempts to reach God and open the gates of heaven; it even offers an

alternative explanation of the name Bavel. The

story of Jacob's ladder does not only clarify who it is who is capable of

establishing a real connection with God; it also gives the location of the

genuine gate of heaven, as Scripture states: And Jacob awakened from his

heaven."

Later, the place is emphasized over and over again – Bet

El [House of God] – which also alludes to the "Tabernacle of

God" and its gate.

According to this approach, which I learned from Avigdor Shenan and Yair Zakovitz, Scripture is establishing

an alternative to Babel, to bab eylon,

to the idolatrous gate of heaven. There is no better time for making this point

than at the eve of Jacob's departure from the Land of Israel eastward,

towards the land between the rivers with its idols and temples.

Scripture announces and emphasizes that if the chosen son is

traveling eastward, to the Land of the Sons of the East,

the gate of heaven is in Bet El, both in the physical dimension of the Land of Israel and in the

spiritual dimension.

I think that by comparing the two cases we can come to see

the connection between God and humans on the model of reflection in a mirror.

In Babel, the gate of

heaven, the connection to God – or to the gods – is achieved through material

means. The people of the Shinar Valley join together

to make bricks and to use mortar. They build an impressive tower whose broad

foundations rest upon the earth and whose narrow top is in the heavens. It is

built of man-made materials; its ascent is spacious and easy. It is almost

impossible to fall to earth while climbing the ritual tower's convenient steps;

everything is expected. The tower is stable and intelligible, made of materials

created by humans. Man stands at the center of the rite – its motivation is let

earth. Both in conception and physical construction, its critical mass is

human communality and name, i.e., human memory and heritage.

In contrast, the story of Jacob's ladder is almost

ephemeral, floating, and spiritual. It speaks of a very isolated individual who

dreams a dream which is personal, concealed, and spiritual. A ladder is usually

constructed from two parallel or nearly parallel lines with rungs set between

them. It is not massive, but fragile, made of little material. In ancient days

it was usually made of natural materials, while in the dream it was not made of

any concrete materials at all. It is set up upon the earth, and the dream is

realized in an actual, natural, stone; a stone from amongst the stones of that

place, upon which rested the dreamer's head – with his head in the heavens. The

ladder is portable. It may be carried from place to place, from situation to

situation, and from time to time, always setting it up afresh upon one of the

stones of the place to reestablish the connection between earth and heaven,

between man and his God.

Human and earthly nature connects with the God of heaven by

means of a personal spiritual dream. The dream is not massive; it is fragile. It

allows one to climb but also easily to fall. Climbing the ladder is not

self-evident; there is no climbing without possibility of slipping, of

stopping, or even of descent. As long as the climber climbs, he will always see

both heaven and earth. The dream itself makes clear that both ascent and

descent are possible – after all, that is what the angels are doing. This

stands in contrast to the Tower of Babel which leaves

the angels in heaven, where God consults with them before descending to inspect

the tower and to decide its builders' fate.

Jacob's oath expresses the dream's ultimate motivation: and

the Lord shall be God for me.

Gradual, spiritual, inner, personal drawing near to God is

the essence of Jacob's ladder. The inner angels of God ascend and descend

within man, while he carries the ladder with him, setting it up wherever he

goes, restoring it, gradually trying to ascend, rung after rung, always looking

at the stone below on which his personal ladder rests, and also looking

heavenwards, towards God in heaven, thirsting for connection and for the

knowledge that, Indeed, the Lord is in this place.

I shall conclude with part of a poem by Yehudah

Amichai:

Our father Jacob, on the beaten track,

Carries a ladder on his back

Like a window washer to the VIPs.

He does God's windows if you please.

Only the ladder remains of his dreams;

The angels finally ran out of steam.

He carries the ladder again ever night

Back into his dream and out of sight.

… … ..

He will climb that ladder, if he ever dies,

Right out of this world and into the skies

Until the world vanishes into

thin air.

For all that we know, he is still

climbing there.

(Chana Bloch's translation from Open, Closed, Open

pp. 22-23))

Oshrat Shoham is an attorney in the Jerusalem district attorney's office.

Matzeiva and Mizbeiyah:

Nature and Man

Matzeiva (memorial-stone)

consists of a single stone, mizbeiyah (altar)

is an elevation built up by many stones; matzeiva

is presented by nature, mizbeiyah is made by

man. Before the Torah was given, God's rule was manifest primarily only in the

ways of nature and in Man's fate, accordingly in what Man gets from the Hand of

God. A matzeiva corresponds to that, a stone

taken from God's creation as a memorial for something which He has done. But

with the giving of the Torah, God wishes to be revealed, not so much in what

Man receives from Him, as in what Man does with what he gets from Him; not with

God's gifts but with Man's deeds is God to be glorified. That indeed is the

purpose of the Lawgiving, since then the matzeiva

is rejected.

(Rabbi

S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 28:18, Levy translation)

And the Stone was

Great on the Mouth of the Well

Generally the cover of a

well designed for general public use, is made to be removed as easily as

possible to facilitate its use for everybody. But here – this introduces us to

the character of the Arameans – no one trusted the

other and nobody meant anybody else to have the slightest advantage. One person

might take a drink more than the other. Hence they made the cover so heavy that

no person alone but only by their combined effort could the well be used.

(Rabbi

S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 29:2, Levy translation)

He Rolled the Stone

From The Mouth of the Well: Revelation

through the Struggle for Justice

"It is still broad

daylight": The righteous man despises injustice,

even that which is inflicted upon others, as is written, "The

unjust man is an abomination to the righteous".

(Seforno,

Bereishit 29:7)

To inform you that

contemplation, isolation, and avoidance of the bustle of life and the masses

are not the identifying features of one who seeks God's nearness and divine

revelation; it is rather the carrying of His banner among the people, action –

even dealing with daily routine (often trifling) matters, involvement

and integration into daily activity in order to impose justice. This is the

reason why the Torah tells of such trivial and unimportant matters such as Jacob

and the shepherd.

(Professor Nechama Leibowitz, Studies on the Book of Bereishit,

p.219)

Fairness in Labor Relations is Required Equally of Both

Employer as well as Employee

In the same way that the home owner is warned not to rob

the poor-man's wage or delay its payment, so too the poor-man is warned not to

rob the employer of work by repeatedly taking breaks from work so that he

spends the day dishonestly. Rather he is required to be strict with his own

time. See how they said he should not recite the fourth blessing of the grace

after meals [so that he would get back to work quickly], and so he is required

to work with all his strength, for the saintly Jacob said I have served your

father with all my might. That is why he took his reward even in this world,

for it says so the man became exceedingly prosperous.

(RaMBaM Mishneh

Torah, Hilkhot Sekhirut

13: 7)

How does a Shifha Differ from an Amah? How did

Sarah Differ from Rachel?

And I shall also be built

up by her – What force has [the word]

also? She said to him, "Your grandfather, Abraham, had children

from Hagar [and yet] he girded up his loins [actively interceded] for Sarah

grandmother brought an associate wife into her house." She retorted,

"If that is what prevents me [being blessed with children] – here is my

handmaid, etc.- And I shall also be built up by her – [through her] as

Sarah [was built up through her handmaid].

(Rashi on Bereishit 30:3, Silberman translation)

She said, "Here is

she may bear on my knees" (Bereishit

30:3) – Unlike Sarah, who said, Consort

with my shifhah [maid] (16:2).

Rachel had freed her, so that she was called an amah, as in the

expression amah ivriyah [a Hebrew

maid], while afterwards she is still called a shifhah,

because they continued to serve her as they did previously. [Sarah said], perhaps

I will be built-up through her (Bereishit 16:2), while Rachel said that she may bear on my knees

and that through her I too shall be built up. The meaning here is

that she will raise the child, making it as if it had been born to her, while

Sarah did not want to raise her maid's child. That is why she [Sarah] said perhaps

I will be built-up, that she might have some kind of merit and goodly

commemoration through that child.

(Ha-Amek Davar Bereishit 30:3)

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