I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share an excerpt from an article by Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein entitled ‘The Importance of Having a Vision’.
[...] Yaakov was embarking on a journey, leaving home and venturing out into a hostile world, with many dangerous challenges lying in wait. He was fleeing from the vengeful anger of his brother, Eisav (Esau), and his destination was Avraham's family, who lived in Haran - a family led by Lavan, a man known for his deceptive and unscrupulous behaviour. And so Yaakov encountered many different and difficult challenges throughout his life, but in this week's portion, he is given a gift from God - the gift of a vision that sustained him throughout his life.
One night, on his journey to Haran, he lay down and had the famous prophetic vision we call "Jacob's Ladder". The ladder rests on the ground and reaches into the heavens, and there are angels ascending and descending. God appears to Yaakov in the vision and promises to look after him on his journey ahead, and to return him back to the land of Israel, and to his heritage.
The commentators on the Chumash share different perspectives on what the ladder and the angels going up and down signify. Common to all of them, however, is the idea that the ladder is a bridge between heaven and earth. And this is the great Divine vision of the Torah and the mission statement of the Jewish people - to connect heaven and earth, to infuse the physical world with holiness and spirituality, and so elevate all of creation. [...]
So this then becomes the overarching vision that sustained Yaakov and has continued to sustain us through all of our generations - that God is with us every step of the way, and there is a way to uplift our lives and connect heaven and earth. What is so powerful is that, according to our sages, Yaakov was shown this vision after he'd already arrived in Haran. The Talmud explains that Yaakov had mistakenly passed over the holy place where Avraham had brought his son Yitzchak on the altar, and that he hadn't stopped to pray. Yaakov felt such a yearning, such a sense of lost opportunity, that a great miracle was performed, and that holy site was miraculously transported to Yaakov, whereupon he had his vision.
Rav Moshe Feinstein says the message here is that even though he had left the holiness of his parents' home and was now in a place of spiritual desolation, through maintaining a loyalty and a devotion to the vision that was given to him, he would be able to achieve that holiness and that connection. The holy place came to him - and so the message was that he could take the vision with him and implement wherever he went.
People often believe themselves to be limited by their circumstances. But what we see here is that having a vision - a great, lofty Divine vision that we dedicate ourselves to - can enable us to transcend those circumstances. It can inspire us and guide us and transform the world in which we find ourselves. [...]
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
