This Shabbat we read about the first dream, Jacob’s dream, Jacob’s ladder.
And Jacob’s entire life is falling out from under him. Everything is falling apart. He has to leave Israel, leave his parents, leave the yeshiva and try to find his soulmate on his own without the emotional support of his family.
And at the same time Jacob starts at the Temple Mount. And there God reveals to him, a very special dream. There is the image of a ladder.
And on that ladder the angels are ascending and descending the ladder. The top of the ladder reaches heaven but the bottom of the ladder is firmly planted down on the ground.
And here we all understand the deeper message of the dream. God is telling Jacob that in life, anything you want to accomplish in life, anything you’re day dreaming of anything you’re aspiring for, you have to know it’s not going to be just uphill. It’s not going to be just going higher and higher. There’s going to be setbacks, there’s going to be obstacles, other distractions in life that don’t allow us to follow our dreams and reach the destination.
But one cannot give up. One cannot despair. Just like when I’m teaching a child to walk, I understand part of the walking processes is to fall and only when the baby falls is the baby able to get right back up and continue to walk even better the next time.
The dreams and the image of the angels are both ascending and descending to teach us in following our national dreams, you have to remember there are going to be setbacks. There will be hardships. But you also have to remember in the dream of Jacob, that the ladder is firmly planted in the ground with the top of the ladder reaching heaven.
You can’t just be in space and be dreaming. You also have the ways and means to accomplish your dreams.
Thank God here in Hebron we’ve been dreaming to come back to return. To once again reestablished a Jewish community in Hebron. Of course, there have been setbacks. There’s been obstacles. But like in Jacob’s ladder, we don’t despair, we don’t give up, and we hang on to that ladder.
And we know every setback is just an opportunity to go even higher next time.
We should be able to see the great national dream that King David describes in the Book of Psalms. When all of Israel would come back, Hayinu Kecholmim, we were like dreamers. And God willing, this Shabbat, all our dreams, personally and nationally shall all be fulfilled.
Shabbat Shalom.
