Shabbos Parashas Vayeitze - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Vayeitze - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

And he dreamed and behold, a ladder was set earthward and its top reached

heavenward, and behold angels of G-d were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, Hashem was standing over it, and He said, "I am Hashem, G-d of

Avraham your father and G-d of Yitzchak. The ground upon which you are lying,

to you will I give it and to your descendants. [Bereishis 28:12-13]

This dream may be one of the most puzzling events in history. The plain meaning of

the verses cannot be our primary focus. What does this dream mean?

Rav Moshe Feinstein says that "no matter where you may be on the earth, it is always

possible to reach the heavens. All that is necessary is the proper ladder. If you have a

ladder that is firmly grounded in a foundation of Torah learning and adherence to

Hashem's commandments, you will always be able to use it to ascend to higher levels."

Radak explains this in a little more detail, that the metaphor is to man's acquisition of

wisdom and knowledge of G-d.

According to Talelei Oros, "the Chafetz Chaim sees the ladder as a metaphor for life. A

person is always on the ladder of life. Either he goes up or he goes down. He never

stands in the same place."

Midrash Tanchuma explains. "'And behold the angels of G-d ascending and

descending', these are the princes of the heathen nations which G-d showed Yaakov

our father." He proceeds through each of these "heathen" princes, showing how one

had such and such level of success before falling, another had a different level. In

the end, each rose and fell for the same reasons, except Edom, which is the exile in

which we still find ourselves. Yaakov was afraid that his descendants would never be

able to recover from the Edomite exile, thus the latter part of our verse where G-d

reassures Yaakov.

Nechama Leibowitz explains that "according to the Midrash, Yaakov's dream depicts

the rise and fall of nations and their cultures on the arena of world history." This fits

well with the Midrash Tanchuma's view regarding princes, and especially the situation

with Edom and the current exile. Each major civilization in world history arose with

great promise, supposedly having understood the failures of their predecessors.

Each believed they would reach the level of the Divine. Each imploded and fell, due

to their own folly. Each followed the lead of the generation of the Tower of Babel, and

believed that all was in their hands, rather than all being in the hands of G-d.

Edom is Rome, which evolved into Europe, then into the USA. Europe has already

collapsed, morally, financially, and now politically. The USA is doing exactly the same

things, and is well along on the decline. In each civilization's fall, the first to suffer were

the Jews. In each fall, it was the Jews who needed to escape. Those who didn't are no

longer around. The lessons are pretty obvious.