Climb the Ladder

 Vayetze

Gen. 28:10-33:3

 

Précis: As Jacob travels towards the household of his uncle Laban, he dreams of a ladder (some translate it as a ramp) to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. He vows to build a great House for God on the spot. Jacob meets and falls in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel. Laban agrees to the match, provided that Jacob works for him for seven years. Laban switches the older daughter, Leah, for Rachel; Jacob works an additional seven years for Rachel’s hand. Jacob then works for Laban another six years, and acquires great wealth and flocks through shrewd husbandry. During the stay with Laban, most of the children of Jacob are born. At the conclusion of the parasha, after tense negotiations with Laban, Jacob leaves with his possessions and family.

 

Gen. 28:10 “And Jacob left.” 

 

Bill Shackman remarks in Torah Sparks (11/17/18) that this reading begins with Jacob fleeing family violence, having a brother who wants to kill him and a father who cannot protect him. He will need to rely on the kindness of strangers. Sleeping with a rock pillow, he dreams of a ladder, and upon awakening, realizes that we are all moving along the rungs of the ladder. Behind is fear and division. Up ahead are hope, empathy, and understanding.

            Here, states Shackman, the Torah imprints on our national psyche the trauma of being a refugee. Since being banished from the Garden of Eden, our ancestors were continually strangers. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and then the entire people in Egypt. This was followed by the Exodus through a desert, and thousands of years of moving from place to place, sometimes welcome, often not. This underlies the Torah’s repeated support for the weak among us: for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan.

            Jacob himself is exploited by his uncle. But his redemption after more than 20 years of servitude shows that hope is always the next rung up the ladder, and despite our history as a persecuted people, we can dream of our own redemption as a people and as individuals as well.