Shabbat Vayeytzey: Dreams and Fears
Jacob flees his parents’ home because he fears that Esau will kill him for taking the blessing from Isaac.
He heads towards the home of his uncle Lavan. As he leaves the Land of his father, he rests for the night and has a dream. It is of ladder rising from where he sleeps to the sky and angels move up and down on it.
One interpretation that Rashi gives is that the angels rising are those from the Holy Land of Israel returning to God as Jacob leaves his homeland. And those coming down are the angels of the Diaspora coming down to conduct him and protect him on his way to Lavan’s territory. Above the ladder, a vision of God appears and introduces Him as the God of his fathers and declares that the place where he is sleeping holy land will belong to his children. Reiterating the promise to Avraham. But that God will protect him wherever he is and guarantee that he will return. We are not told how he understood this imagery other than that he said, “This is surely the House of God and the entrance to Heaven.”
When he wakes up, he builds an altar of stones and calls it Bethel. Then he makes a vow. That if God protects him on his way supports him and enables him to return safely, he will turn this spot into a House of God, and he will give tithes to God. This does sound strange. As if he is bargaining with God. But the Hebrew language is complex and what sounds like a condition could equally sound like a promise or an assertion of faith.
This a dream of reassurance for the present and a promise for the future. We all wonder what the future will bring. God promised Abraham when he was commanded to move to Canaan that he would be protected and succeed. But it transpired that he had to face famine, possibly losing his wife, the split with Lot, a breakup of his family, war, and problems having an heir. The present and the future looked bleak. And yet he did not lose hope, and as we know, everything worked out for the best. Was this going to be repeated with Jacob? And this dream could have given him the confidence that he would succeed.
When he got to Lavan’s home, he soon realised he had entered an atmosphere of deception. Perhaps that is why his mother knew he would be OK because she had introduced him to deception as a sort of inoculation against it. There he would marry Rachel and Leah and, together with two concubines, produce twelve sons. But he was repeatedly deceived by his father-in-law, employed for over twenty years under the most unfavourable of conditions. He would have to deal with conflict in his marital life and jealousy among his sons. Rachel died, and then he faced what he feared would be death at the hands of his brother Esav. Then Joseph disappeared. His life was one long struggle. This is why he tells Pharaoh later on, that the days of his life have been few and bad.
But were they? He had love, a family, and a fortune. And he lived one hundred and thirty years. What are we to make of this? Was he just trying to be modest to Pharaoh? Or was he so ungrateful that he could not count his blessings? Possibly Pharaoh and Jacob were at cross purposes. Pharaoh was thinking in material terms and Jacob in spiritual. Or that Jacob was thinking in terms of a lost homeland. Perhaps he was thinking of the Israelites as a people rather than himself. At that moment, he saw his family in exile, divided and facing hundreds of years of slavery. He was so concerned with the future that he could not find peace of mind in the present.
These stories encourage us to take a long-term view of life. To focus on the good rather than the bad, the positive rather than the negative. And this is the challenge we all face at home and work. There will always be these problems with family, children, and life. And we should not be discouraged. But make the most of what we have, and hope and pray that things will work out. There are no guarantees. But being is the way to see beyond the immediate challenges. Easier said than done of course, which is why faith, Emunah, or Bitachon, are so useful. Whether it comes from ideas or tradition.
We cannot know the future or guarantee what will happen. We must live in the present and see the good in it.
Genesis 28:10-32:3
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
