1.
The ladder is a symbol (in Hebrew, Sullam and Semel have the same words), in fact the symbol, containing our historical calling. Jacob, fleeing from his red-haired brother, finds himself in mid-life unprotected in a foreign environment. He fears entering the Canaanite cities, so he sleeps along the way. Like his descendants, who generations later will also be exiled from their land, danger hovers over his existence. Many questions trouble him. He arranges stones around himself for protection and tries to fall asleep.
But exile is not only a punishment, it is a correction. His mother Rebecca sends her younger son to her brother Laban so that he might learn in the school of life how to contend with God and with human beings and prevail. She believes in him. But does he believe in himself?
2.
This is the purpose of the dream, emerging from the depths of the self and the depths of reality, to answer his fears and guide him: "and he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and its top reached the heavens, and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it" (Genesis 28:12). You and your descendants have a mission in the world: to serve as a ladder connecting heaven and earth, spirit and matter, morality and interests, prophecy and kingdom.
What does the Master of the Ladder promise him? A homeland: "the land on which you are lying, I will give to you and to your offspring". A great nation: "your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth". And a purpose: "all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you and through your offspring" (Genesis 28:13-14). A people, a land, and a Torah.
And one more crucial promise that Jacob and his descendants would carry with them wherever they wandered: "behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not abandon you" (ibid 28:15). Even if you are exiled and scattered to the four corners of the earth, the Master of the Ladder promises, I will not abandon you, and through a long historical process I will bring you home.
And we have spoken often about how Genesis, the foundational book of our nation, teaches us to read our historical journey correctly. We have seen it with our own eyes.
3.
Jacob spent twenty years in Laban's exile, wrestling with God and with human beings. Despite his loyalty and devotion to increasing Laban's wealth, he is deceived at every turn. Yet in the twists of life he manages to build a large family and increase his possessions, only to confront a phenomenon familiar to us: antisemitism.
Laban's sons are unimpressed by his devoted labor and focus instead on what he gained: "Jacob has taken all that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth" (ibid 31:1). Public sentiment influences leaders, and they change their attitude toward Israel: "and Jacob saw that the face of Laban was not toward him as in earlier days" (31:2).
And when life in foreign lands becomes dangerous, when Jews are no longer secure in life or property, especially when hatred is hurled at them by figures once considered to be on their side, the time has come to return home: "and the Lord said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers and to your birthplace, and I will be with you'" (31:3).
The move of our brothers and sisters from around the world back to the Land of Israel comes with economic, employment, cultural, and even language difficulties. It discourages many. Therefore, comes the promise: "and I will be with you" (31:3). No fear. Come home, as Jews have done for centuries, and because of them their descendants were born here. "Arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth" (31:13). Thus, Jacob was commanded.
Years later, his descendants in the Babylonian exile were commanded by the prophet Isaiah: "Depart from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans... proclaim this... to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 48:20), even across the Atlantic Ocean. Do we hear the eternal call?
4.
As in many moments in history, Jacob does not depart in an orderly manner but flees in haste, moments before disaster, a warning sign for his descendants: "in haste we went out of Egypt" (Exodus 12:39). Every generation and its own Egypt.
When Laban hears "that Jacob had fled," he is enraged: "and he pursued him for seven days and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead" (Genesis 31:23). On our way home, and even when we arrive, the pursuit will continue. It is almost a law of nature. Therefore, the question is not why they chase us or hate our existence, but how we confront this eternal phenomenon that Nahum Sokolow called in 1882: "Eternal hatred for an eternal People," as the of his book was.
One thing is clear: we must not remain indifferent to the current abandonment of the battlefield of publicopinion and world consciousness.
5.
Jacob flees and Laban pursues. When they meet, the father-in-law mutters: "it is in my power to do you harm" (Genesis 31:29). He accuses Jacob of stealing his gods and searches the tents thoroughly, in vain.
At that moment, all the anger Jacob had stored for twenty years erupts. He rebukes Laban for his deceit, his schemes, and his treachery: "what is my transgression, what is my sin, that you have pursued me?... for you have rummaged through all my belongings, what have you found?... set it here before my kinsmen and yours and let them decide between us! For twenty years I have been with you... I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times... were it not for the God of my father... you would have sent me away empty handed..." (Genesis 31:36–42).
But Laban is unmoved: "the daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. and for my daughters, what can I do... or for the children they have borne?" (Genesis 31:43).
The broken dialogue between Jacob and Laban echoes a truth, thousands of years old. This same conversation was heard in the exiles of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Spain, Europe, and the Arab countries. In all the places where Jews lived and enriched their surroundings, contributed to culture, science, the economy, and security, gave their lives for kingdoms that never called them by name, and increased their wealth, prosperity, and safety.
Look at the list of Nobel Prize laureates, in which the proportion of Jews is vastly greater than their proportion in the world population.
And as the Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin) wrote in the nineteenth century in his introduction to Genesis : "This was the praise of the patriarchs, that besides being righteous, devout, and lovers of God... they were also upright, meaning they behaved toward the nations of the world with love and concern for their welfare, for such concern sustains creation."
6.
In the final accounting, we were almost always answered with Laban's words: "all that you see is mine" (Genesis 31:43), and we were told to be grateful for escaping with our lives.
Even today, facing the transformation of Europe and the threat to the West, including the US, by Islamists from the school of the Muslim Brotherhood, antisemitic forces remain unconfused. True, Jews no longer live among them as before; millions were exterminated and now they live in their own state. In contrast, Muslims are reshaping the character of the West. Still, the ancient hatred of Jews is stronger than the real threat. And so, they join forces with Israel's enemies and fight the Jewish state, even as it fights for them against the enemies of civilization and humanity.
Jacob, returning to his ancient homeland, is no longer the same man. He now contains within himself qualities of Esau that he acquired in exile, together with a deeper spiritual world and a mature relationship with the Master of the Ladder. He is no longer merely a simple man dwelling in tents. This time, when he must confront Esau, the reckoning will end in his favor. He has no option but victory. We need patience. And faith.
