פרשה: ויצא · עלייה: ראשון (חסד)

ויצא יעקב. Jacob departed. The reason that the Torah did not content itself with reporting Jacob's setting out for Padan Aram (28,5) and repeats his departure at this point is to allude to the encounters he had on the way. This, of course, raises the question why the Torah had first reported Jacob as already on the way to Padan Aram. This is especially curious in view of the encounter Jacob had on the way occurring before he even came close to Charan. Why did the Torah report events in a chronologically inverted manner? Besides, why did the Torah speak about חרנה instead of about Jacob being on the way לחרן? While it is true as we learn from Bereshit Rabbah 68,8 that any word which requires a letter ל as a prefix may instead have the letter ה as a suffix, the Torah surely does not employ these variations arbitrarily!

The Torah intended to relate all that happened to Jacob from the time he left his home. The Torah reports that initially all Jacob did was depart, i.e. ויצא. This did not involve any travelling on his part. The person who walked i.e. וילך, was someone called חרנה. This "Charanah" set out from his home to come and welcome Jacob.

It also possible that the Torah meant to convey to us that Esau's anger חרונו, departed from him the moment Jacob departed from Beer Sheva. This is expressed by the words: וילך חרנה.

According to the tradition quoted by our sages that Esau sent his son Eliphaz after Jacob, the words וילך חרנה may allude to Eliphaz hurrying after Jacob full of anger, i.e. בחרון. Perhaps the next verse in which Jacob is described as encountering a certain site, ויפגע במקום, is a hint that Jacob felt endangered and took refuge in prayer.

ויפגע במקום. He encountered the site. The plain meaning of the verse is that Jacob arrived at an inhabited place. This is why the Torah concludes the paragraph by telling us that the town where Jacob found himself spending the night had previously been named Luz. The site had been a town then, and Jacob spent the night there.

The reason the Torah mentioned that the sun had set is simply that Jacob would have continued on his way in order to get closer to his eventual destination had it not been for the fact that nightfall required him to make camp. Bereshit Rabbah 68,9 explains that the definite article under the letter ב in the word במקום is an allusion to the site being Mount Moriah, the mountain destined for prayer and the eventual site of the Holy Temple. They base this on Genesis 22,4 where Abraham is reported as having recognised that site as the place where he was to offer up his son Isaac as a total offering to G'd. This is, of course, a homiletical approach. We naturally accept the words of our sages as absolutely true insights and they do not contradict our own explanation at all. Rashi has already explained that Mount Moriah had been transplanted for the occasion so that Jacob could offer up his prayer at that holy site.

וישכב במקום ההוא. He lay down on that site. The Torah reports that Jacob dreamed and wants us to know that it is not the lying down that inspired the dream but במקום ההוא, the nature of the site.

The wording also alludes to what we are told in Chullin 91, that the earth under Jacob folded up, i.e. that Jacob lay down on that whole strip of earth from Moriah to Luz. This is what G'd referred to in verse 13.

ויחלום והנה סולם, And he dreamed that there was a ladder, etc. Inasmuch as many dreams contain matter without significance, the Torah added the word והנה to indicate that in this dream every detail appeared to Jacob as especially vivid and significant. He had total recall of everything he dreamed and referred to each detail later on. This is why the word והנה is repeated before every segment of the dream. The Torah thereby characterises the dream as a prophetic revelation.

והנה ה׳ נצב עליו. And here G'd was standing upon it. The word עליו also refers to Jacob, i.e. that he perceived G'd as standing above him. This is in line with what Bereshit Rabbah 82,6 tells us that the patriarchs were the carriers of G'd's presence. Inasmuch as Jacob was the fourth "leg" of that מרכבה [perceived here as a chair G'd is transported on, Ed.] G'd leaned more heavily on Jacob than on the other three "legs." The singular עליו is justified then.

אלוקי אברהם אביך, "the G'd of your father Abraham." The reason the Torah added the superfluous word "your father," as well as the reason why Abraham is described as Jacob's father without the addition of Isaac was intended to emphasise that Esau had no share in the heritage of Abraham. The Torah here made Jacob the sole heir of Abraham. This heritage did not come to Jacob via his father Isaac but directly from his grandfather Abraham. I have already explained in chapter 16,21 that there was never a question of Ishmael sharing in Abraham's inheritance since Ishmael was legally a slave and as such could not inherit anything from anybody. Ishmael was pointedly described as "the son of this slavewoman" not as Abraham's son (21,13). Esau was precluded from claiming any part of Abraham's inheritance.

While it is true that the fact that a son is a heretic does not disqualify him from inheriting his father's estate (Kidushin 18), in this instance the gifts and blessings bestowed upon Abraham by G'd were given him with the express understanding that they be handed down to Jacob afterwards as we know from Genesis 21,12 that his seed would be known only through Isaac (Nedarim 31). Although the expression זרע does not imply that such seed must be morally fit in order to qualify for that description and therefore for the right to inherit, the fact that all the blessings of Abraham were transferred to Jacob excludes Esau as an heir. It is true that in connection with people who offer their children to the idol Moloch we find in Sanhedrin 64 that the term זרעו is used by the Torah, and that it includes children who have not turned out properly. The fact remains that usually the word זרע refers to children who follow in the footsteps of their fathers. When the Talmud Kidushin 18 quotes Deut. 2,5 as proof that Esau did inherit, this is in connection with Esau's children receiving an inheritance from their father; it does not mean that Esau himself was qualified to inherit from his grandfather Abraham.

ונברכו בך כל משפחות האדמה, "and through you all the families of the earth will experience blessings." We find that this blessing was fulfilled when Jacob was in Aram. Bereshit Rabbah 70 records that until Jacob's arrival there the people suffered from a shortage of water. As soon as Jacob arrived those people were blessed with an abundance of water. Similarly we find that the famine stopped as soon as Jacob arrived in Egypt i.e. the Nile overflowed its banks again to irrigate the fields.

The reason the Torah added the word ובזרעך, was that Jacob's descendants too were to confer blessings on the whole of mankind. As long as the Temple stood the seventy nations of the world enjoyed G'd's blessings because the Israelites offered sacrifices on the festival of Sukkot on their behalf (Sukkah 55). Even while the Jewish people are in exile the continued existence of the other nations is due to the Jewish people as we know from Song of Songs 1,5: "when my mother's children were angry at me they appointed me keeper of the vineyards (of the idols)." [The "mother" is mother earth in this context. Ed.]

If we look for allusions we can find that the whole paragraph alludes to man as a species. Zohar 1,147 understands the words ויצא יעקב as describing the soul when it first departs from the higher world and takes up residence within a body. This body is called יעקב on account of the evil urge which constantly tags along, at our heels, so to speak.

The words מבאר שבע, from "the well of the oath," is a reference to the source the souls come from which is known as "the well of living waters." The word שבע refers to the oath G'd makes every soul swear when it departs from heaven that it will not violate Torah laws while inside a human being (compare Niddah 30).

The words וילך חרנה are an allusion to the statement of our sages in Sanhedrin 91 that the evil urge enters man from the moment he leaves his mother's womb. This is based on Genesis 4,7 that "sin crouches at the entrance"

The words ויפגע במקום are a reminder that man has to invoke G'd's help through prayer, G'd being the מקומו של עולם, the site of the universe.

When the Torah continued וילן שם כי בא השמש, this is a reminder that man has to conduct himself properly all his life until he dies, i.e. "until his sun sets." This is why our sages said in Avot 2,4: "do not be certain of your righteousness until the day you die."

The Torah continues: "He took from the stones of that site;" this is analogous to the statement by Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish in Berachot 5 that a person should constantly strive to provoke his good urge i.e. criticise himself by struggling against the evil urge. Should he fail to overcome his evil urge he should busy himself with Torah study as suggested by David in Psalms 4,5. When the Torah refers to מאבני המקום, that Jacob took from the stones of that site, this refers to the בנינו של עולם the building blocks by means of which the world is built, i.e. Torah. These words may also relate to the stones used to kill the evil urge and its representatives. This is what the Talmud means in Sotah 21 when we are told that Torah saves one from the evil urge not only when one is actively engaged in its study but even when one is temporarily not busy with Torah.

The Torah goes on: וישם מראשותיו, "he placed these stones under his head," to allude to the statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish that when one fails to vanquish the evil urge one should resort to reciting the קריאת שמע which is recited at night, seeing David speaks of על משכבכם, on your bed, in Psalms 4,5.

The words וישכב במקום ההוא he lay down in that place, allude to the final statement on the subject by Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish that if one fails to overcome one's evil urge one should think of the day when one is going to die. This is why the Torah preferred to use the word וישכב to the word ויישן, he slept, since that word implies a lying down from which one may not get up again. Having employed all those means to try and overcome one's evil urge one may be confident of success.

After all this, the Torah shows that Jacob had become worthy of having a prophetic revelation in a dream. It is worth while to study the dreams of Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach which are recorded in the Zohar 1,139 and in the Zohar Chadash לך לך section 25.

The ladder is the mystical aspect of the human soul, something that is not entirely uprooted from the body at the time he is asleep. Part of that soul remains in the body. When the Torah speaks of the ladder being rooted in the ground with its head in the heavens, it refers to these two parts of the soul. The proof of all this is that when man sleeps he subsequently awakens by moving his sleeping body; if the entire soul had previously departed from him he would not be able to experience these motions of his body. The picture drawn for us by the Torah therefore is that of a sleeping person who is not detached from either heaven or earth but remains in contact with both. During his sleeep the evil urge is not able to act as a barrier between man and G'd seeing that part of man's soul is in direct contact with heaven.

The מלאכים עולים ויורדים, the angels described as ascending and descending in Jacob's dream are an allusion to the good deeds which man attempts to perform in this world and which enable his soul to transmit light of a supernatural dimension to the source his soul emanates from. These are called מיין נוקבים, "feminine waters" in the Zohar 1,18. Another name for these lights is מלאכי אלוקים, "angels of G'd." In Avot 4,11 Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov calls the products of each good deed פרקליט, advocate. When these advocates rise heavenwards they in turn activate "masculine waters" to descend. [The concept is that just as there is an interaction between the waters in the heavens and those beneath on earth or below, without which nature cannot function and produce vegetation, there is a parallel process of a spiritual nature. In our Midrashim this interaction is compared to the sexual intercourse between man and woman which results in conception. Ed.] The Torah refers to that impact on what descends on man's soul in the words ויורדים בו, "they descend upon him."

The Torah continues והנה ה׳ נצב עליו to tell us that after such an interchange of spiritual forces man becomes capable of prophetic insights. This means that G'd will no longer speak to such a person only in a dream but that he will experience a divine revelation. Jacob's experience during that night then made every Jew in the future a potential vehicle for prophecy, for divine revelation. This is also mentioned by Maimonides who states in chapter 5 of his Hilchot Teshuvah that in principle not a single Israelite is unable to become a vessel for prophecy.

וייקץ יעקב, Jacob awoke, etc. What did Jacob mean by the word אכן in this verse? It appears to mean that something concealed had been revealed to him. Why would he then express surprise at having been unaware of such knowledge, i.e. ואנכי לא ידעתי? Did he have to be aware of everything that is hidden?

Perhaps we may explain this by referring to Chulin 91 where the words "for the sun had set" are interpreted to mean that Jacob personally experienced an unusually early sunset on that day. This was designed to force him to spend the night at that site. What Jacob meant then was that at the time when the early sunset occurred he had not understood its meaning. He did so now only with the help of the dream he had dreamt.

When Jacob said: יש השם במקום הזה, that G'd is in this place, he meant that G'd is present at this site all the time, in contrast to other sites. This is why G'd wanted him to spend the night there in order to communicate with him there. Jacob apologised for not having prepared himself for a divine revelation; had he been aware of the significance of that site he would surely have done so. Prophecy requires the recipient to first prepare himself mentally. Perhaps if Jacob had prepared himself to become the recipient of a message from G'd he might have prophesied while awake instead of while dreaming. This may have been what he bemoaned in this verse. Rashi explains simply that Jacob meant that if he had known the holy nature of that site he would not have allowed himself to go to sleep there. If that were the only meaning of Jacob's words we could say to him (Rashi) that Jacob then would not have experienced all the promises G'd made to him during his dream. We therefore need to include what I have just written in order to explain the verse satisfactorily.

"Shaken, he said..." He felt that his heart was moved to fear on its own, and gave a reason for this when he said "this is none other than the abode of God." He was careful to use the Divine name Elohim, because this is the source of fear, as it is written "...and God (Elohim) made it so that they fear Him." (Kohelet 3:14) It is known that the name Elohim strikes fear in the heart of man.

When Yaakov said "this is the gate..." he meant that the place aligned with it above is the gate of heaven. This is why he used the word 'this' (zeh) twice.

He also intended to explain the lofty status of the place by saying that this is the House of God, a physical place preceded by the knowledge that God had chosen a place to cause His name to dwell. He said 'this is that place!' He proved further that this was the chosen place when he said 'this is the gate of heaven.' Yaakov said this because he saw angels rising and descending, and he already knew that the sacred place below was aligned with the gate of heaven:

וידור יעקב נדר לאמור. Jacob made a vow saying. The word לאמר is to remind us that unless a vow has been verbalised it is not valid. Mere good intentions do not rate as a vow.

אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי, "If the Lord will be with me, etc." The word אם in this case is not to be understood as something conditional but is similar to the אם כפר יושת עליו in Exodus 21,30, or the אם in Exodus 22,24: אם כסף תלוה את עמי. In both those instances the meaning is "when," i.e. something that will definitely occur (compare Baba Kama 4,5 and Mechilta on Parshat Yitro)

Jacob also included the attribute of Justice in his vow. So far G'd had spoken to him only in His capacity as Hashem, the attribute of Mercy. He undertook to tithe his acquisitions provided that also the attribute of Justice would prove to be with him. This is why he chose the expression אלוקים and not השם when formulating his vow.

והיה ה׳ לי לאלוקים. "Then Hashem will be my Lord." This sounds, G'd forbid, as if until now Hashem had not been Jacob's G'd. Rashi explains that Jacob meant that G'd would not find any of his children as morally unfit. I do not know where such a thought is alluded to in Jacob's words. [actually Rashi quotes a Sifri in Parshat Va-Etchanan section 31. Ed.] Besides such a promise, i.e. that his children would be morally fit, is at best a conditional promise [seeing that the matter lies within the will-power of the children, Ed.]. When would the stone then be able to serve as a monument for this encounter Jacob experienced during his dream? The proper explanation of what Jacob said is that he was prepared to conduct himself in such a way that G'd would consent to associate His name with him even during his lifetime. He had previously done this with Abraham after the latter's death and with Isaac only after he had become blind and therefore beyond the reach of the evil urge (compare verse 13). The words לי לאלוקים are clear evidence of Jacob's intention. This was a tremendous undertaking by Jacob. You will find in Genesis 33,20 that G'd reminded him of that undertaking and that Jacob then fulfilled this vow by erecting a monument in G'd's honour.

והאבן הזאת, and concerning this stone, etc. According to Zohar 1,72 the stone in question is the אבן שתיה, the stone G'd used as the foundation of the Holy Temple and which He had buried in the interval in the depths of the abyss at the "navel" of the earth. According to Tanchuma Parshat Terumah, Jacob prepared the shittim wood for the Tabernacle in the desert at this time. Perhaps this is what G'd referred to in Exodus 25,8 when He said: "They shall make for Me a Sanctuary;" G'd referred to this wood from which the Israelites were to construct this Sanctuary. When the Torah there continued: "and I shall dwell amongst them," G'd may have referred to preparations made by Jacob for both the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple.