Genesis 28
1And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and he commanded
him and said to him, ‘You shall not take a wife of the daughters of
Canaan.
2Arise, go to
Padan aram , to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take
yourself from there a wife of the daughters of Laban, your mother's
brother.
3And may the Almighty God bless you and make you fruitful
and multiply you, and you shall become an assembly of peoples.
4And may He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and
to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land of your
sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.’
5And Isaac sent Jacob, and he went to Padan aram, to
Laban the son of Bethuel the
Aramean , the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him
away to Padan aram, to take himself a wife from there, and that when
he blessed him, he commanded him, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife
of the daughters of Canaan.’
7And Jacob listened to his father and his mother, and he
went to Padan aram.
8And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were
displeasing to his father Isaac.
9So
Esau went to Ishmael , and he took Mahalath, the daughter of
Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, in addition to
his other wives as a wife.
10And Jacob left Beer sheba, and he went to Haran.
11And he arrived at the place and lodged there because
the sun had set, and he took some of the stones of the place and
placed [them] at his head, and he lay down in that place.
12And he
dreamed, and behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to
heaven; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon
it.
13And 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.
14And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and
you shall gain strength westward and eastward and northward and
southward; and through you shall be blessed all the families of the
earth and through your seed.
15And 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 until I have done what I have spoken concerning you.’
16And Jacob awakened from his sleep, and he said,
‘Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know [it].’
17And he was frightened, and he said, ‘How awesome is
this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is
the gate of heaven.’
18And 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.
19And he named the place
Beth El, but Luz
was originally the name of the city.
20And Jacob uttered a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with
me, and He will guard me on this way, upon which I am going, and He
will give me bread to eat and a garment to wear;
21And if I return in peace to my father's house, and the
Lord will be my God;
22Then this stone, which I have placed as a monument,
shall be a house of God, and everything that You give me, I will
surely tithe to You.
Jacob’s Ladder
There are numerous interpretations on the
meaning of ‘Jacob’s Dream’ or ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ covered in genesis
28: 11-22. In one interpretation is the place at which Jacob stopped
for the night was in reality Mount Moriah, the future home of the
Temple in Jerusalem, which was considered to be the ‘bridge’ between
Heaven and Earth. The ladder therefore signifies the ‘bridge’
between Heaven and Earth. In this interpretation, it is also
significant that the Hebrew word for ladder, sulam (סלם) and the
name for the mountain on which the Torah was given, Sinai (סיני)
have the same gematria (numerical value of the letters). In Islam,
Jacob is revered as a prophet and patriarch. Many see Jacob's Ladder
as representing the essence of Islam, which emphasizes following the
‘straight path’. The twentieth-century scholar Martin Lings
perspective: The ladder of the created Universe is the ladder which
appeared in a dream to Jacob, who saw it stretching from Heaven to
earth, with Angels going up and down upon it; and it is also the
‘straight path’, for indeed the way of religion is none other than
the way of creation itself retraced from its end back to its
Beginning.
Age of Jacob when he leaves home for Padan
aram? The missing 14 years…
Rashi uses a logic taken verbatim below that
suggests Jacob was 63 when he left Beer sheba. For me it was
difficult to follow but perhaps this will make things clearer:
1) Genesis 16:16 states Abraham was 86 when he
had Ishmael
2) Genesis 21:5 states Abraham is 100
when he has Isaac so Ishmael is 14 years older than Isaac
3) Genesis 25:17 states clearly Ishmael dies
at age 137 however no
related events are provided to relate his age at death to other
events
4) Genesis 28 relates that Jacob leaves for
Haran to flee Essau. This chapter also has a verse ‘9So Esau went to Ishmael, and he took Mahalath, the
daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, in
addition to his other wives as a wife.’ From this one statement
Rashi interprets that Ishmael dies ‘at this time’.
5) If we take Rashi that Ishmael did die ‘at
this time’ when Jacob left and we know he died at age 137 (#3 above)
and we know Isaac was 14 years younger (#2 above) then Isaac must be
(now) 137-14= 123 years old. Jacob’s age is now easy as Isaac had
Jacob (and essau) at age 60 so Jacob must be 123-60= 63 years old.
I ‘think’ this is logic Rashi describes below.
6) If we assume Jacob was 63 when he left and
130 years old when he went into Egypt the math ensds up 14 years
short- as explained all below which Rashi explains that he did not
immediately go to his Uncle’s house in Haran rather stayed in the
house of Eber for 14 years studying Torah before he then went and
spent the 14 years with his Uncle in Haran.
Rashi’s on Genesis 28:9 [9So
Esau went to Ishmael, and he took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael,
the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, in addition to his other
wives as a wife]. ‘…the sister of Nebaioth: Since it says, ‘the
daughter of Ishmael,’ do I not know that she was the sister of
Nebaioth? But this teaches us that Ishmael died after he had
betrothed her to Esau, before her marriage, and her brother Nebaioth
gave her hand in marriage. This also teaches us that Jacob was
sixty-three years old at that time, for Ishmael was seventy-four
years old when Jacob was born. Ishmael was fourteen years older than
Isaac, and Isaac was sixty years old when they were born, hence
[Ishmael was] seventy-four. He lived one hundred and thirty seven
years, as it is stated (above 25:17): ‘and these are the years of
the life of Ishmael,’ etc. Consequently, Jacob was sixty-three at
Ishmael’s death. We learn from here that he hid for fourteen years
in the house of Eber and afterwards went to Haran. [This can be
deduced from the fact that] he stayed in Laban’s house before
Joseph’s birth only fourteen years, as it is said (below 31:41): ‘I
worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years
for your sheep,’ and the payment for the sheep took place after
Joseph was born, as it is said (below 30:25): ‘And it came to pass
when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, etc.,’ and Joseph was thirty
years old when he became ruler, and from then until Jacob descended
to Egypt were nine years: seven of plenty and two of famine. And
Jacob said to Pharaoh (below 47:9): ‘The days of the years of my
sojournings are one hundred and thirty years.’ Go forth and figure
14 years before Joseph was born, plus the 30 years of Joseph’s age,
plus the 9 years from the time he became ruler until Jacob came. The
total is 53. And when he [Jacob] left his father, he was 63,
totaling 116. Yet he said [to Pharaoh, ‘I am] one hundred and thirty
years old.’ Hence, there are fourteen years missing. Thus, you learn
that after he had received the blessings, he hid in the house of
Eber for fourteen years. [From Meg. 17:a.] (However, he was not
punished [for these fourteen years] because of the merit [of having
studied] Torah, for Joseph was separated from his father only
twenty-two years, i.e., from age seventeen until age thirty-nine,
corresponding to the twenty-two years that Jacob was separated from
his father [when] he did not honor him. These are the twenty years
in Laban’s house, plus the two years that he spent traveling [home],
as it is written (below 33:17): ‘And he built himself a house, and
for his cattle he made booths.’ Our Rabbis of Blessed Memory
inferred from this verse that he spent eighteen months on the road,
for the house was for the rainy season, and the booths were for the
summer. And, according to the calculation of the verses, which we
calculated above, from the time he left his father until he went
down to Egypt, at the age of one hundred and thirty, we find an
additional fourteen years, therefore, it is certain that he hid in
the house of Eber to learn Torah while on his way to the house of
Laban. And because of the merit of the Torah, he was not punished
for them [those fourteen years], and Joseph was separated from him
for only twenty-two years-measure for measure. The above is from an
old Rashi text).
 |
 |