And he dreamed, and behold!

a ladder set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven;

and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.

(Bereishit 28:12)

 

"The Omnipresent has many ladders"

Ascending and descending upon it: R. Hiyya and R. Yanai [disagreed]. One said, "ascending and descending upon the ladder," and one said, "ascending and descending upon Jacob."

Bar Kapra taught: No dream lacks an interpretation. And behold a ladder - that is the ramp [of the altar]; set up on the earth - that is the altar [for it is written] make for Me an altar of earth (Shemot 20); and its top reached to heaven - those are the sacrifices whose odor rises up to heaven; and behold, angels of God - those are the High Priests; were ascending and descending upon it - for they ascend and descend upon the ramp; and the Lord stood upon it - [as it is written:] I saw the Lord standing by the altar (Amos 9).

The Rabbis interpret it as referring to Sinai. And he dreamed, and behold!

a ladder - that was Sinai; set up on the earth - [as it is written:] and they stood at the foot of the mountain; and its top reached to heaven - [as it is written:] and the mountain burnt with fire unto the heart of heaven (Devarim 4).

R. Yehoshua ben Levi interpreted the verse as referring to the exile...  And he dreamed, and behold! a ladder - that is Nebuchadnezzar's dream; and behold! a ladder - that is Nebuchadnezzar's idol, which was a semel [symbol], which is a sulam [ladder].

(Bereishit Rabbah 68)

 

Whenever this term is applied to God it must be understood in the latter sense, as, And, behold, the Lord stood (nitzav) upon it (Bereishit 28:13), i.e., appeared as eternal and everlasting upon it, namely, upon the ladder, the upper end of which reached to heaven, while the lower end touched the earth. This ladder all may climb up who wish to do so, and they must ultimately attain to a knowledge of Him who is above the summit of the ladder, because He remains upon it permanently. It must be well understood that the term upon it is employed by me in harmony with this metaphor. Angels of God who were going up represent the prophets. That the term angel was applied to prophets may clearly be seen in the following passages: He sent an angel (Bamidbar 20:16); And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim (Judges 2:1). How suggestive, too, is the expression ascending and descending on it! The ascent is mentioned before the descent, inasmuch as the ascending and arriving at a certain height of the ladder precedes the descending, i.e., the application of the knowledge acquired in the ascent for the training and instruction of mankind. This application is termed "descent," in accordance with our explanation of the term yarad (chapter x.).

To return to our subject. The phrase stood upon it indicates the permanence and constancy of God, and does not imply the idea of physical position.

(Guide for the Perplexed 1:15, Friedländer translation)

 

Like Rachel and like Leah,

which two did build the house of Israel (Ruth 4:11)

Dalia Marx

Whether they be Bialik's Tzili and Gili, Luise and Lottie from Erich Kästner's Das doppelte Lottchen, or the tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, pairs of sisters have always invited attention. Their differences and similarities, their intimacy and jealousy, have fired the imagination. Leah and Rachel - the earliest pair of sisters in our literature - tell a story (lean of words yet rich with significance) which began long ago yet remains unfinished unto this day.

The combination of two women, one fecund and practical, the other barren but beloved, is not unique in our sources. When the Midrash turns to describing the sins of the Generation of the Flood, it tells us:

Such is the Generation of the Flood: A man would take two wives, one for reproduction and the other for sexual pleasure. The one taken for reproduction spent her life like a widow, while he would give the one for sexual pleasure a cup of sterilizing potion to keep her from bearing children, and she would sit on his lap, decorated like a whore, as it is written: And Lemech took for himself two wives, the first named Ada [since she adorned herself with adayim - "ornaments"] and the second named Tzila (Genesis 4:19), for she would sit in his shadow [Heb. tzilo]. (Yalkut Shimoni Job 910)

The midrash disapprovingly describes a male fantasy in which a man has one wife whose function is to produce offspring and create the next generation, and another wife who keeps herself well put-together, slim, and free of stretch marks. Her role is to keep him sexually satisfied. Whose fate is preferable - that of the woman who embraces her own children but is estranged from her husband, or that of the woman who is embraced by her husband while he keeps her from bearing children? And don't these women entertain any ambitions beyond romance and motherhood? The women of the Generation of the Flood were treated as objects by their husbands, and even though the story of our father Jacob is very different and much more complicated than that of the midrashic Lemech, perhaps we can identify an underlying critique of Jacob in his story as well, a voice which reproves him for remaining insensitive to his wives' complicated predicament (and we have yet to mention the two maidservants!).

Where the Torah is laconic, Jewish tradition lets the two sisters speak. Rachel's voice is heard throughout the land when Jeremiah transforms her into the nation's suffering mother and apologist: Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not (Jeremiah 31:14). And she wins a divine promise: Thus says the Lord: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord; and they shall return from the land of the enemy (verses 15-16). Her sister Leah is Judah's mother, Judah the progenitor of King David, from whose seed, according to tradition, the Messiah will eventually arise; Leah is the mother of the Jewish People. But here too a division of labor is maintained between the two sisters, the one earthly, from whom springs a lasting dynasty, the other grieved and tragic.

This division of labor also finds expression in the Tikkun Hatzot , a special prayer service developed by the Kabbalists of Safed that is recited after midnight. Of course, the notion of night being a time when deep fears and hidden hopes rise to the surface predates those Kabbalists by many centuries.¹ According to a Talmudic tradition attributed to Rabbi Eliezer, at night God Himself mourns the destruction of His Temple: "The night has three watches, and during each watch the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and roars like a lion, for it is said: The Lord roars from on high, and His voice utters from His holy habitation; He roars mightily because of His fold (Jeremiah 25:30)" (B. Berakhot 3a). From here we learn that the night - when the signs of human activity recede and the stillness allows for meditation and new insights - is a time for expression of the mind's deepest thoughts.

Tikkun Hatzot is divided into two sections. The first is called Tikkun Rachel, and it consists of lamentation for the destruction and exile, while the second part, Tikkun Leah, mainly expresses hope for redemption. Tikkun Rachel is recited first, while the worshipper sits on the ground. Some place ashes on their head before its recitation. Afterwards, the worshipper stands to recite Tikkun Leah. First they delve into the depths of despair and only afterwards come consolation and hope.

In his book Pri Etz Hayyim, Rabbi Hayyim Vital, the disciple of R. Isaac Luria, provides an extended account of how the female entities called "Rachel" and "Leah" grow and contract during the night. He writes: "For is not the secret of the coupling of midnight that of Jacob with Leah, while Rachel is called the barren one of the house [akeret habayit] and has no coupling. And every midnight she cries out and roars to the blessed Lord about the destruction of the Temple... therefore it is proper for one to join with her, to act as she does. Therefore one must make much of it and weep and cry every night about the exile of the Divine Presence, which is Rachel" (Sha'ar Tikkun Hatzot, 1).

On some days only one of the Tikkunim is said; Tikkun Rachel is not read on days of joy or mourning, neither is it read during Sefirat Ha'Omer or the Ten Days of Repentance. However, on the night of the 9^th of Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year, only Tikkun Rachel is recited. On that day we allow ourselves to experience Rachel's absolute mourning and lack of consolation - for she is the tragic figure who waited for her beloved, who asked to die because she was childless, and who finally died when her request for a child was answered. Rachel refuses to be comforted. We ourselves remain in that condition for a short time but on the morrow - the day of 9^th of Av itself - we slowly begin to breathe the spirit of healing and redemption.

Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav notes that the Tikkun is concerned with the present rather than the past. It does not only speak of the people's exile and redemption, but also of "that which is happeni­­­­ng to the person. And when he utters it at midnight in this way, he can find the entire contents of his heart in the midnight recitation." (Likkutei MOHaRaN, part II, 101). The kabbalistic tradition, which denotes the two parts of Tikkun Hatzot with the names of the sisters, grants the two women a place in the yearnings of the individual and of the community throughout the generations. It also preserved the standard attitudes towards them.

Returning to the biblical story of Leah and Rachel, (and I take pains to switch the “normal” order of the names, as Leah was the elder and her name alphabetically precedes that of Rachel) we discover that the differences between them are not as absolute as we tend to think. Each of their personalities encompasses contradictions and the relationship between the two women is ambivalent. Weak-eyed and unloved Leah becomes the mother of many children and the derivations of her children’s names allude to the constructive process she undergoes through the years. Finally, she cries out upon Judah's birth, This time I shall thank the Lord (Genesis 29:35), an exclamation that alludes to completion. And that is, by the way, the first expression of thanksgiving to God in human history.² The desirable and beloved Rachel winds up unfulfilled in life and separated from her beloved in death (she alone of the Matriarchs was not buried in the cave of Machpela). Even the name she gave her son just before her death does not survive intact. But she also becomes Israel's vindicator and she is the one who is granted a divine promise of redemption.

Together as one, the sisters encompass the plurality and complexity of the People Israel. The elders and townspeople were right to bless Ruth with the wish that she be like Rachel and Leah, who both built the House of Israel (Ruth 4:11).

Leah and Rachel teach all who read their story (including their husband) that it is impossible to squeeze them - or for that matter, anyone else - into simple templates. The sisters call upon us to apply their lesson in our dealings and contacts with others, they teach us to be aware of the "Rachelness" of the Leahs and "Leahness" of the Rachels whom we encounter in our lives. But even that is insufficient, for every individual is an entire world.

1. Already in Psalms we find the verse: At midnight I will rise to give thanks [Hebrew: hodot] unto You because of Your righteous ordinances (119:62). Actually, the verse seems to be about avowal [hoda'a] rather than thanksgiving [hoda'ya], since the dimension of judgment is alluded to in the second half of the verse.

2. In the Talmud (B. Berakhot 7b) we read: "From the day the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world, no human thanked the Holy One, blessed be He until you came, Leah, and thanked Him."

Dr. Dalia Marx teaches liturgy and midrash at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Her book, Be'eit Ishan Ve'a'ira - al Hatfeillot shebein Yom uvein Layla [At the Time of My Sleeping and Awaking - On the Prayers Between Day and Night] was recently published by Yediyot Sefarim.

 

And the Stone was Great on the Mouth of the Well

Generally the cover of a well designed for general public use is made to be removed as easily as possible to facilitate its use for everybody. But here - this introduces us to the character of the Arameans - no one trusted the other and nobody meant anybody else to have the slightest advantage. One person might take a drink more than the other. Hence they made the cover so heavy that no person alone but only by their combined effort could the well be used.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 29:2, Levy translation)

 

Fairness in Labor Relations is Required Equally of Both Employer as well as Employee

In the same way that the home owner is warned not to rob the poor-man's wage or delay its payment, so too the poor-man is warned not to rob the employer of work by repeatedly taking breaks from work so that he spends the day dishonestly. Rather he is required to be strict with his own time. See how they said he should not recite the fourth blessing of the grace after meals [so that he would get back to work quickly], and so he is required to work with all his strength, for the saintly Jacob said, I have served your father with all my might. That is why he took his reward even in this world, for it says, so the man became exceedingly prosperous.

(RaMBaM Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Sekhirut 13: 7)

 

God Cares for the Weak

And the Lord saw that Leah was unloved. (Bereishit 29:31)

As Scripture says: The Lord supports all who stumble (Psalms 145:14) - The qualities of the Holy One Blessed be He are unlike those of humans. When a human has a wealthy friend he cleaves to him and submits to him, and when he sees that he has faltered and become impoverished, he no longer values him, but rather places a stone on him. But when the Holy One Blessed be He sees someone who has been subdued and faltered, he lends him a hand and stands him upright, as it says, The Lord supports all who stumble and makes all who are bent stand straight.

(Aggadat Bereishit, 49)

 

And the first-born is the son of the unloved one - Scripture states this with certainty, in the same manner as it states, and the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, for the Lord sees the broken-hearted so as to support them.

(Or HaHayyim on Devarim 21:15)

 

And Jacob worked seven years for Leah, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

(Bereishit 29:20)

 

But a few days: On the Relativity of Time and Difficulty.

And they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. - Because of his great love for her, seven years' work for her was but a small price; were Laban to have set a higher price, Jacob would have worked longer.

An alternative explanation: After he had worked, they seemed but a few days, but during the work, they seemed like many days, because of his great love for her.

(Hizkuni Bereishit 29;20)

 

In the many days after that the king of Egypt died - in periods of distress they are called many and in times of joy, they are called few, as is written, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. This means: After it had passed, the period of enslavement seemed short.

(Hizkuni Shemot 2:23)

 

Rabbi Yehuda expounded: In the future, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, will bring the yetzer hara - the evil inclination - and will slaughter it before the righteous and the wicked. For the righteous, it will seem like a high mountain, and to the wicked it will seem like a thin hair; these will weep and these will weep. The righteous will weep, saying: "How could we have conquered so high a mountain?"

And the wicked will weep, saying: "How could we not have overcome this thin hair?"

So The Holy One, Blessed Be He, will wonder along with them, as is written, (Zecharia 8): Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Though it will seem wondrous to the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also seem wondrous to Me?

(Sukka 52b).

 

Midrashei Tzafon

From the Pen of our member, Ronen Ahituv

And Jacob saw Laban's face... And the Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your forefathers"(31:2-3)

Was it that the Holy One, blessed be He, told him? Laban was sour-faced to him!

But was it Laban? It was his mother who told him, And I will send [a message] and take you from there (27:45)!

Rather, Jacob saw a portrait of his mother in Laban's face, for they were siblings. He said: "Why is he sour-faced to me? It is my mother who is sour-faced, I shall go see her before she dies."

He saw his mother's portrait in Laban's face and said: "If he looks like her and he is her relative, am I not related to my brother Esau? That is what is written: until your brother's anger subsides towards you. The Holy One, blessed be He, came to him in the form of his father Isaac and told him: "The time of your redemption is here." That is why it is written, return to the land of your forefathers.

 

 

 

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