Israel at War 5785: Vayeitzei – G-d Is in This Place

What can a dream about angels on a ladder teach us? What did it teach Jacob?

Jacob had many teaching moments. In Vayeitzei we read how he went from one crisis to another. He fled to Haran to escape his brother’s wrath, fell in love with his cousin Rachel, and was tricked into marrying her sister Leah. He worked many years tending his uncle’s flocks to acquire both wives, increasing Laban’s wealth while accumulating nothing for himself.

While his wives used every available means—mandrakes, surrogates—in their competition to bear the most children, Jacob turned to poplar rods and genetics to expand his own flocks instead of Laban’s. Leah and Rachel accumulated sons; Jacob accumulated goats and sheep. Finally, he took his family and flocks and fled Laban. But in returning to Esau’s turf, was he going from the frying pan into the fire?

Through many disappointments and challenges, our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac leaned on their faith. Abraham was in frequent conversation with Hashem. Isaac prayed over his wife’s barrenness and made passing on Hashem’s blessings to his son a priority. But Jacob, despite hardship after hardship, only called on G-d twice: at the beginning of his flight from Esau, and again when, returning home, he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men.

While fleeing to Haran, he had a strange dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder and G-d standing over him. This left him frightened—but also provoked a spiritual turning point. For the first time, we read of Jacob recognizing the presence of G-d. “Surely Hashem is in this place, and I, I did not know.” (Genesis 28:16) Moved, he marks the place with a stone and vows to make Hashem his G-d if He protects Jacob.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks noted that Jacob encountered G-d when he was in crisis. It is counterintuitive that people would respond to a crisis not by losing faith, but by gaining it. Yet in a Pew Research study, people reported their faith grew stronger during COVID. Another study showed faith increasing after natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Since October 7th, many Israelis report that their faith in G-d has strengthened. Many have turned, or turned back to, religion and taken on mitzvot—lighting Shabbat candles, taking challah, wearing tzitzit and tefillin. This is astonishing. After the disaster of October 7th, Israelis lost faith in their leaders, and for a while, in their military. They felt abandoned by their government, and as time wore on, by NGOs, the UN, and people and countries around the world. The feeling of security in their homeland was shredded. Faith in every source previously relied on for protection decreased—except for one.

Imprisoned deep in the Gaza tunnels, Sapir Cohen found strength and meaning in caring for a younger hostage. In daily prayer, she actually thanked G-d for sending her there to help this terrified, 16-year-old girl. “From the depths I called to you, Hashem.” (Psalm 130:1)

In unbearable trauma, abandoned by those who were trusted to protect them, the only one left to turn to for so many Israelis was Hashem. “Though my mother and father have forsaken me, Hashem will gather me in.” (Psalm 27:10)

Jacob, far from home and parents, evidently felt likewise. And like Jacob, many Israelis learned that G-d is, indeed, in this place.

Even, perhaps especially, in a place of desolation and terror, in pain, despair, and hopelessness, is where we find Him.