Parashat Va-Yetzei 5768

At the beginning of this week's parashah, this week's Torah Portion, Va-Yetzei, our patriarch, Jacob, leaves Beer Sheva and sets out for Haran. Along his journey, Jacob comes upon "the certain place" and stops for the night. He takes a stone from the ground and puts it beneath his head. He falls asleep. As he sleeps, Jacob dreams of angels. The angels he sees are ascending and descending a ladder that leads up to the sky.

In the dream, God promises Jacob many descendents and says to Jacob, "Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land" (Genesis 28:14).

Jacob awakens from his dream and declares: "Why, Adonai is in this place, and I, I did not know it!" (Genesis 28:16).

What is remarkable about this story is its ordinariness. Jacob's actions are wholly mundane. He stops for the night. He prepares for bed. He sleeps. And yet, in a moment of deep consciousness, Jacob realizes that God is in "the certain place" with him.

I notice that the Torah gives no name to "the certain place" when Jacob arrives there (it is only later we learn that Jacob changes its name from Luz to "Beit El," "the House of God"). I wonder if "the place," in a physical sense, matters at all. If Jacob would have traveled on another mile or stopped a few minutes earlier, would God not have appeared to him? No, I believe the physical space matters little. It is Jacob's "place" that matters. It is Jacob who, finally, after fleeing his parents' home and confronting himself, becomes ready to notice God. "The place" is not the land on which Jacob lies, but the emotional/spiritual space at which Jacob arrives.

We are taught that God is present in every place. But, we often fail to notice the Presence. On this Shabbat, let us attempt to open ourselves to the Divine that is around us and in us. Let us be like Jacob who dreams of angels and who has insights of holiness.