Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Rock, Jacob and Me

Torah text:
Verses 10-11. Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. And he arrived at the Place [Makom].

How could he have arrived at the place, i.e. Haran? He was not even close to it. Haran was a long journey from Canaan. Jacob had just begun his journey! Much later, Jacob finally arrived there. So where was Jacob that the Torah insists that he had arrived? Where had he arrived if he was not yet there?
Jacob had set out for Haran, his mother's home of origin, but found that there was a far more important destination than the one that was on his itinerary. Something profoundly important was intended for Jacob on the road to Haran. A voice was calling. He stopped. What did Jacob see when he arrived at the appointed "place?" What did he hear that made him stop?
Makom is one of the seventy names of God. Jacob witnessed the pulsating strength of Makom (the Place) from afar. He saw the Ineffable. Jacob was drawn to the Holy of Holies. Hundreds of years later when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses, God said, the “Makom is with Me." (Exodus 33:21)
What if Jacob passed by the Makom of God without seeing it? What if Jacob was so preoccupied with his life-crisis that he missed the Presence of the One? We would certainly understand. Jacob had reason to be distracted: his brother threatened to kill him; his family life was in ruins; he had abandoned his aging parents.
What if Jacob was looking in the other direction and sullenly plodded all the way to Haran? He would have seen nothing but he eddies of dust rising from his footfalls on the trail.
What if the Messiah sits on the corner holding a cardboard sign saying: I am hungry and homeless? And we pass by? What if in our daily rush we derail the next budding scientist on their way to discovering a cure for Alzheimers by telling them they are worthless? What if we miss a child's outstretched hand? What if we miss the point of life?

Torah text:
Verse 11. And he arrived at the Place and lodged there because the sun had set.
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: Our forefathers instituted the daily cycle of three prayers. Abraham was the first to create the morning, Shacharit, prayer. As Genesis 19:27 explains, "Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before God." Isaac instituted the Mincha, afternoon prayer. "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening." Gen. 24:63 Jacob initiated the evening prayer, as it says above, "And he arrived at the Place... because the sun had set." Midrash Rabbah

Torah text:
Verse 12. A ladder stood on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven…

The holy Zohar reveals the meaning of this passage: this is prayer. Deep contemplative prayer reveals itself as a cosmic roadway to God. Words spoken from the soul break through any physical or psychic barrier and unveil the ladder which we climb to meet the Holy One.

Torah text:
Verse 12. …and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.

Two Angels descended and two ascended at one time. What happened when they met in the middle? The breadth of a single Angel’s wings spread beyond the eyesight. When their paths intersected at the center of the great ladder, the span of the four Angels stretched outward to six thousand parsangs.
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Why were some Angels going up and others coming down?
They were curious. The Angels wanted to peer at the sleeping figure of Jacob. As he lay resting on the stones of Mt Moriah, the Angels were intrigued. They gazed and then gaped at Jacob. In heaven they had seen his double! The Angels were anxious and vexed to see the heavenly correlate of Jacob on earth. They flowed down the ladder in pairs to stare at the Jacob below and then compare him the figure of Jacob above. Two Jacobs existed; one in heaven the other on earth. Hullin 91b
All things in the universe have their counterpart, their twin. God constructed a dividing line in the initial stages of the creation of the cosmos called the firmament. The firmament divides these twin likenesses. What happens below is reflected on high. That which happens above also happens below. This idea is crystallized by the Hebrew prayer, May He Who makes peace in the upper world cause peace to flow downward into our universe. Each side of the firmament is not just a mirror image of the other; actions in one sphere have an immediate impact in the other.
No action is inconsequential. No word uttered in meaningless. A single act could alter the cosmos. Our lives are critical to the universe. We count. We matter.

Torah text:
Verses 13-15. Behold, the Lord was standing over him, and He said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land upon which you are lying to you I will give it and to your seed. And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread your strength westward and eastward and northward and southward. Through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth and through your seed. Behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and I will restore you to this land, for I will not forsake you...
A long time ago in ancient Alexandria, Egypt, there lived a very old man. Rabbi Eleazar once met him as he was traveling through Alexandria nearly two thousand years ago. The old man peered at Rabbi Eleazar in the dusty marketplace. Rabbi Eleazar felt the gaze of the wizened one upon him. He turned. Shalom Alecha, “May you know peace,” Eleazar greeted him.
"Come," was the only word the old man uttered as he turned into a hovel. Time stopped on the street. All sounds ceased. Eleazar followed him into the darkened room.
The old man told him, "I have a great tradition, a secret,” he began. "You know the ancient tale: The great Lord God told Jacob that he would be blessed. He told Jacob that he would never be alone and that his children would inherit the riches of the land.”
The old man, turning to Rabbi Eleazar, asked, "And did Jacob question him? Did Jacob balk, eve for a moment? Did he think he was delusional? Did the patriarch ask for proof?
"No. This is the true greatness of the man Jacob. He was a man of faith."
Excerpted from Sanhedrin 111a

Torah text:
Verses 17-18 …He said, "How awesome is this place! …. Jacob arose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had placed at his head, and he set it up as a monument, and he poured oil on top of it.
A dedicated rock? A monument to God on a mountain-top? Jacob consecrated a rock because he had a fantastic dream at that place?
The rabbis of the Talmud gave that rock a name. They called it Even Shteyia or "The Foundation Stone." The Even Shteyia was not just a rock; is was the navel of the world. Like all births, the world had a seed, a starting point.
At the start of Creation, God placed this rock in the midst of the boundless swirling waters. From this one rock grew tentacles, great arms of earth that moved and spread across the globe until whole continents rose out of the depths.
The Even Shetyia remains the center of the world. It is the foundation which began and continues to hold up our universe. Just as all eyes focus on Israel, holiness emanates from Jerusalem from the midst of the land. In Jerusalem, we focus our gaze on Mount Moriah where the Holy Temple once stood. When at the Temple, the soul turns towards the Even Shetiyia.
From this stone pulsed the Power that Jacob saw as he lay his head down. Where Jacob placed his head keyed into the sustaining power of the universe.
The soul knows and years to be connected with the One. While our physical senses are often distracted, our soul always searches for and recognizes the truth. The breath of life continues to search fro its source. The greatest, most sublime joy happens when we bend of physical will to our purest soulful voice. When we listen to our soul we are most alive.

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