November 24, 2012

Vayeitzei, Genesis 28:10–32:3 

Jacob’s Vertical and Horizontal Encounters

Bruce Kadden

As Parashat Vayeitzei begins Jacob is fleeing from his home in Beersheba. He’s afraid his brother, Esau, will make good on his threat to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41), because Jacob (with Rebecca’s guidance) tricked their father, Isaac into giving the blessing for the firstborn to Jacob. As the sun sets, he stops for the evening and lies down to sleep.

He dreams of a ladder with its base on the ground, its top in heaven, and angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. And, for the first time in Jacob’s life, God appears to him, and says, “I, the Eternal, am the God of your father Abraham and God of Isaac: the land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your descendants” (Genesis 28:13). God then promises Jacob that he will have numerous descendants who will spread in all directions and through whom “all the families of the earth shall find blessing.” God continues, “And here I am, with you: I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this soil. I will not let go of you as long as I have yet to do what I have promised you” Genesis (28:14–15).

The Rabbis note that the unusual Hebrew word sulam, “ladder,” has the same numerical value in gematria (where each Hebrew letter represents a number) as Sinai (B’reishit Rabbah 68:12). This was Jacob’s Sinai moment, encountering God as Moses would do later at Mount Sinai.

Awakening from this amazing dream, Jacob exclaims: “Truly, the Eternal is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16). Jacob sets up a monument and names the place Beth El before continuing on his journey.

Why does God choose this moment to speak with Jacob? Why is it that Jacob encounters God while lying down? Isn’t it ironic that only in a horizontal position can he experience the vertical dimension of the Divine?

We can understand that God would want to assure Jacob of God's protection as he sets out on his journey to Haran, and that the covenant made with Abraham and passed on to Isaac will continue with him as well. But why wait until Jacob is asleep?

Examining the entire scope of the Jacob narrative, Bernard Och has observed that “Structurally ... it moves along two distinct, dramatic lines: a horizontal one of human-profane activity and a vertical one of Divine-human encounter. In contrast to the Abraham cycle, where the profane and sacred are so closely intertwined as to be inseparable, there, with Jacob, they are experienced as two separate dimensions” (“Jacob at Bethel and Penuel: The Polarity of Divine Encounter,” in Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, 42, no. 2, 1993).

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