Weekly D'var Torah

Jacob set out from Be’er Sheva on his way to Haran.

He lit upon a certain place in the wilderness and slept there, for the sun was setting.

Taking of the stones of the place for a headrest, he dreamt.

Behold- a ladder stretched up to heaven from the earth.  Angels ascending and descending! 

G-d promises Jacob to watch over him, preserve him and through him, to begin to fulfill the Covenant of land and nationhood.

Jacob awoke in great fear and cried: Adonai is in this place and I knew it not!  This is the Gateway to Heaven-  In the morning, Jacob took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it up as an altar-pillar swearing: If G-d fulfills the Covenant and brings me home again, I will make this place a sanctuary…

And that is the story of the first encounter of the Patriarchs with the spot that is to become the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem.

Rashi, the great 11th century Torah commentator notices something strange and has a very unusual explanation. Here’s a paraphrase:

RASHI: Notice that it says that Jacob took “of the stones” for his headrest but in the morning, there is only a single stone that he sets up as an altar-pillar.  The Midrash says that in the night, all of the 12 stones that Jacob had taken to sleep on began to quarrel: let this righteous man rest his head on me!  No, on me!  In the end, to preserve peace, G-d caused the stones to fuse into a single stone.

Talking stones arguing about which of them gets to be Jacob’s pillow?  How are we supposed to understand this?

The twelve quarrelsome stones can only be the twelve fractious Tribes of Israel vying with each other.  But they somehow fuse into a single pillar and only then do they become the foundation stone of the Divine Presence.

Let’s go a little deeper into the symbolism of this midrash.  What force could possibly fuse rocks together?  Only tremendous heat.  What is the source of this refiner’s fire that melts the rocks into one?  The Prophet Ovadya says, “the House of Jacob is a flame.” 

The flame that melts the stony hearts of our separateness is the flame of holiness, the holiness that is the essence of every Jewish heart.

Many years ago, at a Shabbaton at the Hillel House at the University of Minnesota,  Rabbi Zalman Schachter told us that when the “smallest Yiddle (Jew) moves the Kippah from one side of their head to the other, the Seven Heavens and the very Divine Throne move along with it.”

We are tempted to think of holiness being a quality that belongs to the realm of long ago and far away.  The midrash says that it is not so.  When we let the spiritual fire within our hearts burst forth, then all of the egoism and divisiveness melts away and we can become the channel by which G-d’s presence flows down in love, compassion and justice to heal the world.

The month of Kislev that just began is called Yarcha D’Chalomota- the month of dreams.  Let us dream of that ladder and, rather than standing by it, let us dare to do what Jacob did not: ascend it to greater heights of passion for action, compassion, Torah values and love.

At the end of the month, the flames of the Menorah are kindled by that dream-

Happy Chodesh Kislev and Shabbat Shalom!