Perfect balance is the source of true beauty
He was a penniless refugee, fleeing from his murderous brother. When he lay down to sleep, he protected himself with a makeshift pile of stones. Yet he dreamed a dream of eternal significance, a dream that conveyed multiple messages to him and his progeny that would reverberate until the end of days.
Among the numerous dreams in Chumash, Yaakov Avinu’s vision of the ladder is perhaps the most famous. The ladder has been variously interpreted as the pathway of the malachim who come to earth at the bidding of their Master, a timeline of world empires, and the depiction of Har Sinai at Matan Torah. But the fundamental definition of a ladder is a connector.
The sulam was mutzav artzah v’rosho magi’a hashamayimah. The legs of the ladder were planted on the ground, yet its head reached the heavens. Yaakov was on his way to build a family who would do the impossible. They would bridge the distance between heaven and earth. This would be the family of Klal Yisrael.
Yaakov’s very name is a combination of a yud, the letter of spirituality, and the letters that spell eikev, the heel — the lowest part of a person.
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