Yaakov lies down on the road to Charan and wakes saying, “This is the house of God.”
The story
Yaakov leaves Be’er Sheva and sets out towards Charan. He comes upon the place and stays the night there, because the sun has set. The Torah does not yet say which place it is. He takes some of the stones of the place, sets them by his head and lies down to sleep.
That night Yaakov dreams. A ladder is set on the ground, its top reaching the heavens, and angels of God are going up and coming down on it. Then God stands there and speaks to him.
God tells Yaakov He is the God of Avraham and Yitzchak, and promises him and his descendants the land he lies on. His descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and he will spread out in every direction. God adds: “I am with you. I will guard you wherever you go and bring you back to this land.”
Yaakov wakes from his sleep and says that God is in this place, and he did not know. Then he is afraid, and says: “How awe-inspiring this place is. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
וַיִּירָא וַיֹּאמַר מַה־נּוֹרָא הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה
Bereshit 28:17
Next morning Yaakov makes the stone by his head a pillar, pours oil on it and names the place Beit El. He vows: if God is with him, guards him on the way, gives him bread and clothing, and he returns home in peace, the stone will be a house of God, and he will tithe all God gives him.
Yaakov woke from his sleep and said, “Surely God is in this place, and I did not know.”
Words from the verse
מִשְּׁנָתוֹfrom his sleep
יֵשׁis present
What it teaches: Awe of Heaven
Always remembering before Whom we stand, and so keeping away from wrong.
The Torah teaches that awe of Heaven is born of knowing: first Yaakov realises that God is in the place where he slept, and only afterwards are we told that he was afraid. Knowing before Whom we stand changes how we see a place: in the morning, Yaakov names it Beit El.
A question to sit with
Has there been a moment when you realised, only looking back, that God had been with you?
Questions about the story
What does God promise Yaakov about the road ahead?
That angels will escort him the whole way
That He will guard him wherever he goes
That He will give him bread and clothing
Answer
b. That He will guard him wherever he goes
God tells Yaakov that He is with him, will guard him wherever he goes and will bring him back to this land. Angels appear in the dream, but the promise is that God Himself is with him.
Which part of God’s promise appears again in Yaakov’s vow?
That God will be with him and guard him
That his descendants will be like the earth’s dust
That the land he lay on will be his
Answer
a. That God will be with him and guard him
God said, “I am with you, I will guard you,” and Yaakov vowed, “If God is with me and guards me.” The descendants and the gift of the land are part of the promise, not of the vow.
The lesson
Awe of Heaven awakens when we discover God was here even when we did not know.
For this week
This week, you might pick one everyday place (the kitchen, the office, the bus stop) and pause there for a moment to tell yourself: God is here too.
From the sources
Rashi explains what Yaakov meant when he said he did not know: “For had I known, I would not have slept in so holy a place.” In Rashi’s reading, had Yaakov known the place was holy, he would have acted differently there.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
