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When Esau said, “Behold, I am going to die, so what use is this £The Ladder as a Metaphor £The Ladder as a Metaphor The Ladder as a Metaphor
birthright to me” (Genesis 25:32), he did not mean that he was literally £
about to die of hunger. He meant that an abstract spiritual birthright For PrayerFor PrayerFor Prayer
was of no use to him in a physical world of material pleasure and
desire. The important thing for him was how much he could enjoy
himself in this world, for according to his line of thought there is no The Zohar teaches that the ladder in Jacob’s dream is a metaphor for
pleasure after death. Jacob of course had a completely different view prayer (Tikkunei Zohar 43). This is not a surprising interpretation
of this world and the World to Come. He had probably debated this given the context of the dream and its symbols. As noted above,
point with Esau many times and on this particular day he challenged Jacob prayed when “coming upon the place.” His prayer, recited
Esau to put his money where his mouth was, saying: if you do not at the beginning of night, became the paradigm for the Evening
want the birthright, let me have it as I know and appreciate its worth. Prayer. In a sense, the dream was a continuation and super-conscious
Esau, seemingly without a moment’s thought, proved his disdain for transformation of the contents of his prayers.
the spiritual side of reality by spurning the birthright.
The numerical value of the Hebrew word for ladder (sulam) equals
Justifying Jacob’s “stealing” the blessing is more difficult as Jacob 136, the same as the Hebrew word for voice (kol). Man, who is firmly
did intentionally fool his father into thinking he was Esau. However, entrenched in the physical world, raises his voice in prayer, which
one could convincingly argue that Jacob had implicitly bought the rises like a ladder, until it reaches the heavens and God, who stands
blessing along with the birthright. Esau’s disavowal and sale of the there, at the top of Jacob’s ladder. In the act of prayer, a human
birthright, gave Jacob the right to the blessing, even if Isaac was being’s consciousness ascends from rung to rung, and even though he
unaware of the sale, and even if Esau had not realized the full extent or she remains standing on earth, his or her spiritual awareness truly
of the sale (Genesis 27:36). rises to the heavens.
Alternatively, some have argued that Jacob was just following When Jacob stood before his father disguised as his brother Esau,
his mother’s orders. While a close reading of the text supports this Isaac remarked: “the voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands,
notion, and Jacob, himself, went to some pains to avoid explicitly the hands of Esau” (Genesis 27:22). Esau represents the physical,
lying to his father (see Rashi on Genesis 27:19 for how Jacob subtly material world, while Jacob represents the spiritual one. Jacob’s
avoids actually lying), this still fails to justify Jacob’s complicity. dream was sent to him to teach him how to cope with this dichotomy 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 4 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Magenta
Furthermore, we are left no closer to resolving our original question: and perform his mission in this world: his role was to combine both #24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 4 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 4 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Black 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 4 - B | 1
why was Jacob placed in this position in the first place? Indeed, worlds while staying within the holy framework of the ladder itself.
strengthening the question, we should ask why of all people Jacob, As discussed above, this was actually why Rebecca insisted on Jacob
who the tradition associates with truth, was forced into this receiving Isaac’s blessing. Jacob had to receive both the spiritual
situation.
birthright and the physical blessing so that he could toil in both
The answer to this question demands a paradigm shift concerning worlds, ultimately bringing them into harmony and balance.
how we normally view the relationship between the Torah and the Based on the teachings of the Arizal, the Ba’al Shem Tov emphasized
world. The Zohar (2:161b) states that “God looked into the Torah the unique opportunity prayer offered humanity to connect directly
and created the world,” meaning that in an extremely profound way to God. By re-introducing song and meditation as integral elements
the world reflects the Torah and not vice versa. One might expect of prayer, he reformulated the prayer experience for the masses into
the Torah to be a flowery exposition of abstract spiritual ideas and
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