Vayetze | Mixed Messages

     Last week's parasha described the changing of the guard.  Jacob cleverly manages to appropriate his brother's birthright and blessing, thus securing his place as the third patriarch of the nation of Israel.  In parashat VaYetze his story begins in earnest and we are not surprised to read, early in his tale, a reiteration of the Lord's promises.  What is new, however, is the accompanying image brought to Jacob in his nighttime vision.

 

"Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Charan.  He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set.  Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.  He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.  And the Lord was standing beside him and He said, 'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac: the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring.  Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.  All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants.  Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you'"  (Genesis 28:10-15).

 

The report of this prophecy contains two firsts: it is the first time that God appears to a patriarch in a dream (the Bible's first recorded dream belongs to Avimelekh in Genesis 20:3) and it is the Bible's first prophecy to include a picture.  Nearly all the characters in the Torah who are fortunate to merit communication from God receive what seems to be direct speech.  Starting from Adam and proceeding with Noah, Abraham and Isaac, God's messages to mortals are preceded with simple verbs such as VA-YETZAV - God commands Adam in Genesis 2:16; VA-YOMER - God speaks to Noah in 6:13 and to Abraham in 12:1; and by the slightly more complex action of VA-YERA - God appears to Abraham in 17:1 and to Isaac in 20:2.

 

There are instances where God appears at night, suggesting the possibility of sleep, but there is only one other reference to unconsciousness accompanying a divine statement to a patriarch.  In the middle of the BRIT BEIN HA-BETARIM - the covenantal experience in Genesis 15, "a deep sleep fell upon Abram and a dark dread descended upon him" (verse 12) just before God predicts the slavery of Abraham's descendants.

 

There are therefore several details that make Jacob's dream seem a little odd.  Firstly, this is the first time God has spoken to Jacob.  Without reading the rest of Genesis, we know from the content of this communication that Jacob has been chosen to receive the same divine favors given his father and grandfather.  Why doesn't he deserve the same direct introduction that those personalities enjoyed?  Secondly, since Avimelekh, a relatively insignificant character, was the only other person so far to whom God has spoken in a dream, we might assume that a dream is in fact a low level of prophecy.  Other encounters with God, during which the human is conscious, sometimes afford the opportunity for dialogue - as with Adam, Abraham and of course, Moses.  Why isn't Jacob allowed that same chance?

 

And thirdly, the image of the ladder demands some explanation.  No such representation has been seen before, forcing us to ask why God appears to Jacob this way.  Indeed, this type of message seems to fit neatly into the style of prophecy that made Jacob's son Joseph famous.  Is there a connection between the pictures shown to the two personalities?  If we do find a link here between father and son, we must nevertheless point out one disturbing difference between Jacob's and Joseph's dreams.  Joseph's images are all explained and it is his wisdom in interpreting dreams which determines his fortunes and misfortunes.  On the other hand, Jacob's ladder is left to stand like an unresolved simile.

 

Before attempting to explain our parasha I must confess, with some relief, that the limitations of this forum prevent me from presenting a treatise on the phenomenon of prophecy in the Bible.  Exploring the complexities of divine communication in all its dimensions, taking into account the many and diverse personalities who receive the word of God, is far beyond the scope of this essay.  I will, however, make one suggestion about the distinction that the Torah makes between Moses' prophecy and that of everybody else.  In Numbers chapter 12, God admonishes Aaron and Miriam for comments they had made about their brother, Moses:

 

"The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, stopped at the entrance of the Tent, and called out, 'Aaron and Miriam!'  The two of them came forward; and He said 'Hear these my words: When a prophet of the Lord arises among you, I make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream.  Not so with My servant Moses; he is trusted throughout My household.  With him I speak mouth to mouth, plainly and not in riddles, and he beholds the likeness of the Lord.  How then did you not shrink from speaking against My servant Moses!'" (12:5-9).

 

God's statement here teaches us an important lesson about prophecy - all speeches to man other than Moses are indirect communications.  How exactly prophets receive their messages is unclear - there seem to be several different channels available: visions, dreams, riddles are only three options.  Furthermore, the Bible might not always indicate the method God is using to speak to people.  Does it make sense, for example, that in the passage just quoted, God would explain that Moses is special in a direct communication to Aaron and Miriam?  Wouldn't that negate the whole force of God's speech?  And yet, the Torah does not say that God came to them in a dream or presented them with some parable.  (God does descend in a "pillar of cloud" but it is unclear if that represented a conduit for the speech.)

 

There is no reason to assume that the patriarchs are excluded from this general statement about prophets.  And so we are left with a rather vague picture of what the Torah really means when it says, for example, that God speaks or appears to Abraham.  Were the patriarchs asleep or conscious when God spoke to them?  Were the initial messages stated in language as clear as they appear in the Torah?  I feel unable to state unequivocally that all statements to the patriarchs preceding Jacob's dream were delivered as direct speech; that characteristic of prophecy was reserved for God's relationship with Moses.  In this vein, I might add that it is impossible for us to understand this sentence: "God said 'Let there be light' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).  Clearly, the Torah's use of the verb VA-YOMER - said, provides little information about the power of God's speech.

 

We are led then, to restate our earlier questions: given the possibility (or likelihood) that God has previously communicated to man via methods more complex than presented by the Torah, what can we learn from the way in which the Torah describes God's first revelation to Jacob?  We must assume that the Torah intends a message to its readers parallel to the one Jacob received.  What is the meaning of the dream, and why was it given and recorded as an image?

 

Our investigation will follow two tracks: we will first discuss the function of a parable before moving on to the content of the dream.  Allegories are a common feature of biblical and rabbinic literature, and their usage provides several advantages not found in simple narrative.  A story is more quickly accepted and more easily remembered than, say, a direct rebuke.  When a prophet wants to reproach the people he might find his audience less hostile if he couches his message in the dialogue of animal characters in a fable.  It is often easier to teach a lesson using examples or illustrations than it is to speak in abstract terms.  As well, the speaker may have to keep in mind not to offend or upset his listeners, emotions which can be avoided if the information is given indirectly.  One of the best examples of this is the parable of the sheep Nathan tells David instead of accusing him straight out of sinning with Bathsheba (see I Samuel chapters 11 and 12).  The prophet allowed David to draw his own moral from the story, and then dramatically showed him that the lesson fits the king himself.  Similarly, perhaps Joseph's dreams would have caused an even greater catastrophe had they showed the actual men bowing down to him instead of the representative wheat and stars.

 

It seems to me that the function of every parable is to conceal something - a fact, an emotion, a motive - for a time, anyway.  It may turn out that all is revealed when or if the allegory is explained, but symbolism is used to begin with because the author does not wish his ideas to be completely understood.  In the Joseph narrative, the very act of interpreting was the plot device that served to propel the story.  Had the dreams of the baker, the wine steward and Pharaoh precisely stated the dreamers' futures, Joseph would have had to have found some other way out of prison.  Jacob's ladder dream, too, must be concealing something that God does not want to state explicitly.  What is the message and why does God hide it?

 

The Rabbis offer many interpretations for the image of the ladder and the angels, some of which I will present here.  R. Elazar in the name of R. Yosi ben Zimra explains that the foot of the ladder stood in Beer-sheba and its top reached to the Beit HaMikdash - the Temple in Jerusalem, or rather to the point in the sky above the Temple (Bereishit Rabba 69:5).  This explains Jacob's reaction upon waking: "How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven" (Genesis 28:17).  Jacob realizes that he has stumbled upon a holy place where the angels are able to enter heaven, and that such a place is surely conducive to prayer.  Bar Kappra explains (ibid. 68:16) that the ladder represents a sheep, "set on the ground" represents an altar, "its top reached the sky" signifies the aroma of the sacrifices which waft upwards, the angels of God are the priests performing the sacrifice, and God stands watching, above it all.

 

Other Rabbis (ibid.) suggest that the ladder represents Mount Sinai, the angels are Moses and Aaron climbing up to receive the Torah and descending it to deliver it to the people.  This midrash also notes that the words SULAM (ladder) and SINAI have the same numerical value - 130.  Still another midrash sees the angels as representing the protectors of various nations which will subjugate Israel.  The angel of Babylon went up 70 rungs representing the 70 years that that nation ruled over the Jews; the angel of the Medes climbed only 52 rungs followed by the Greek representative who managed 180 rungs before descending.  Lastly, the Roman (Edomite) angel took his turn but kept on climbing (symbolizing the enduring current exile) until God declared that He would bring down this power too (Pirkei deR. Eliezer 35 and Leviticus Rabba 29:2).  Genesis Rabba(50:13) links our angels with those sent to destroy Sodom in Genesis 19.  Those angels were punished for apparently taking credit for the destruction of Sodom, and were not sent on any new missions until this point.

 

These are some of the traditional interpretations used in explaining our story.  The questions we must pose on these ideas are firstly, why does God feel the need to divulge information about their themes, and secondly, why is the message cloaked?  We could, I suppose, suggest that while God has some reason for revealing the future to man, He prefers to keep the details obscure.  We may as well ask why God tells Abraham in Genesis 15 that his descendants will suffer in a foreign land.  Why worry the old man about the fate of his grand-children?  God's motive is unclear.  But note that God only reveals a shadowy outline of the future - Abraham does not know that the venue will be Egypt or that Moses and Aaron will lead the people out; the plagues and the splitting of the sea are all secondary features in the overall message of a future event.

 

Here too, God may be telling Jacob that his descendants will offer sacrifices or experience revelation or be subjected to four exiles, but God does not explain why Jacob needs to know any of this; nor is He prepared to give all of His secrets away.  It is left to the Rabbis to flesh out the picture and fill in the details.  If we accept this theory that God used a parable to keep His communication fuzzy, we must nevertheless assume that Jacob himself must have understood what the image meant.  What would be the point of showing him a picture and leaving him without any idea of its meaning?  This takes us to our final interpretation of the dream.

 

Rashi (R. Shlomo ben Yitzchak 11th century) made famous an idea first appearing in Genesis Rabba 68:18.  The angels that Jacob sees going up and down the ladder are in fact his own protectors.  As Jacob leaves the Land of Israel, the angels that have accompanied him until that point in his life go up the ladder - returning to heaven, and new angels who are to accompany him in exile come down the ladder to join him in his journey.  Rashi explains that the Israel angels can't leave the country, requiring the services of a new host.  (It is also important to Rashi to explain the sequence of the verbs in the dream - we might have expected angels coming from heaven to descend the ladder first before going back up.)  Professor Nechama Leibowitz, in her book Limud Parshanei HaTorah U-derakhim LeHora'atam points out that upon his return to Israel Jacob again encounters angels (Genesis 32:2-3).  Perhaps these latter ones were sent to relieve the Diaspora angels.

 

The meaning of the image is therefore simple - God is showing Jacob that He is providing protection for this chosen son.  This information had to be conveyed in a dream, presumably because angels can't be seen by the naked or awake eye.  What is more significant is that this interpretation is the only one mentioned so far which actually appears in the Torah.  After God shows Jacob the ladder image he addresses the patriarch directly assuring him "I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

 

But why does God illustrate his promise with a picture?  Wouldn't Jacob have gotten the point with the direct speech?  To answer this question let us briefly return to the dreams of Jacob's son, Joseph.  The images that he receives are sheaves of hay and later the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him.  The meaning of these dreams is immediately grasped not only by Joseph but by his father and his enraged brothers who stammer, "'Do you mean to reign over us?  Do you mean to rule over us?'  And they hated him even more for his talk about his dreams" (Genesis 37:8).  Nothing really seems to be gained by the prediction of Joseph's premiership being portrayed in pictures.  If God intended Joseph to receive an idea about his future, why not tell him directly?

 

I believe the answer to this question is tied to the fact that God never speaks to Joseph directly.  And it is in fact odd that God never figures explicitly in a story where so many of the events seem to be guided by His hand.  Joseph himself attributes his fortunes and his interpretive skills to God and tells his brothers at the end of the tale "it was not you who sent me here, but God" (45:8).  Joseph understands that God acted behind the scenes throughout his career, for the purpose of bringing the family down to Egypt where they will become a nation.  My theory is that God relates His message to Joseph in images of wheat and stars to symbolize the fact that His relationship with Joseph is a hidden one.

 

Now let us return to Jacob.  The message that he receives from God is that He will take care of Jacob - a significant concern for a man who feels threatened by his brother, his father-in-law, an entire town whom Jacob's sons provoke, and then the leader of the known world.  (Professor Leibowitz also points out that the troubles, problems, trials and dangers facing a person or a community or a nation are far greater when faced in exile than in the comfort of home.)  God delivers His promise twice, cloaked the first time and revealed the second time.  This is because God's relationship with Jacob is sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit.  Jacob is sometimes aware of divine protection and sometimes he is not.

 

The Torah allows a twenty-year gap to pass after the initial communication from God before God speaks to Jacob again.  In Genesis 31:3 God speaks to Jacob saying, "Return to the land of your fathers where you were born, and I will be with you" - an open promise.  When Jacob flees Laban's household with his family and possessions, God appears to the pursuing father-in-law in a dream warning "Beware of attempting with Jacob, good or bad" (31:24) - from Jacob's perspective, hidden protection.

 

Preparing to meet Esau after all these years, Jacob prays to God for deliverance.  Later, Jacob wrestles with an angel who, while renaming him, tells Jacob "you have striven with beings divine and human and have prevailed" (32:29).  Is this assurance that his upcoming encounter with Esau will be successful, that God is standing by?  Lastly, years down the road, God appears to Jacob to confirm that it is safe for him to go to Egypt to be reunited with Joseph: "God called to Israel in a vision by night: 'Jacob! Jacob!' He answered, 'Here I am.'  And He said, 'I am God, the God of your father.  Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation.  I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back; and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes" (46:2-4).

 

God was with Jacob through all the travails of his hard life, promising him at the start of his journey that He will protect him (the dream), reassuring Jacob in the middle of his ordeals (upon leaving Laban's house), and confirming that He has not forgotten Jacob at the end of the patriarch's life.  And yet these assurances did not diminish Jacob's anxiety over his family's crises, perhaps because God's hand was sometimes hard to see.  God begins His first appearance to Jacob with a symbol of providence telling him that God's protection will be hidden most of time, punctuated occasionally by moments of revealed closeness.