GENESIS XXVIII:10-XXXII:3
A STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Esav (Esau) wants revenge because Yaakov (Jacob), his twin brother, snatched his father’s blessing from him. To avoid a tragedy, urged by his mother, Yaakov decides to leave his father’s home and go into exile. But Yaakov would not only move away from his parents’ house: he would leave the Promised Land, a fate for which his grandfather Avraham (Abraham) had renounced his father’s house, Terah (Terah).
A new situation is imposed that requires a different nomenclature: the Diaspora. Yaakov would remain outside his father’s environment for twenty years and would be infected by the cunning of his uncle Lavan, who gave him shelter and offered him his two daughters in marriage. Yaakov was the originator of the concept of the Diaspora, because he would spend the last years of his life in Egypt, in the land of Goshenthat was ceded by Pharaoh to the Hebrews. A very fertile land but, at the same time, it was a kind of golden ghetto, because it was the only place where the Hebrews could reside.
Yaakov‘s dreams would now be different from the famous dream described in our chapters, in which he had a vision of a ladder linking heaven and earth and by which the angels of God ascended and descended. A dream that has been much commented on and explained, because the image of the staircase alludes to a connection between the heavenly and the earthly, which are not exclusive or opposite spaces. According to the dream, a bridge can be built that unites them, a “ladder” by which the person can rise spiritually from the earth on which his feet tread and even reach heaven itself.
Why did the angels go up and down the ladder? A suggestive explanation is that they wanted to compare the heavenly Yaakov with the earthly Yaakov. Apparently, each person has a double, a figure that represents the potential of the person in heaven and the angels wished to verify whether Yaakov had reached his potential. The moral is that each person has a greater potential, a horizon, an ideal to achieve. An alternative explanation might be that the heavenly reality is different from the earthly one, because human knowledge is limited when compared to the infinite intellect of God that is at the head of the ladder in Yaakov’s vision.
Human reasoning cannot explain certain phenomena and understand the ultimate purpose of some events. But, on the other hand, it is perfectible: reflection and continuous study can deepen understanding in order to bring closer and closer certainty and absolute truth, represented by the heavenly understanding. The nature of the ladder, which is composed of rungs, implies that spiritual perfection is progressive: one can spiritually “climb” one “step by step.”
Even the angels of God come down, as a reflection of the human condition, which has ups and downs. Since celestial beings respond to human behavior, man has to become aware of the transcendence of his behavior, because it has an echo beyond his person. One cannot help but think that this idea is permeated by a narcissistic thought that places man at the center of the universe, as if his behavior could alter the Divine plan of creation.
Reading some of the arguments found in the Book of Iyov (Job)directly challenges this idea, which presupposes that an insignificant creature like man can determine God’s purpose in the act of creation. The ladder that rested on the earth and reached the heavens also teaches that man must have his feet firmly placed on the earth. Earthly events cannot be ignored, and it is a mistake to minimize the value of everyday facts and manifestations of physical matter for exclusive spiritual dedication.
On the one hand, man was made from the dust of the earth, while from another point of view, God invited Avraham to raise his gaze to the stars in the firmament. Man is a synthesis of matter and spirit, a fact that implies a duality and a basic conflict whose progressive resolution allows evolution and development, both in the physical field and in the emotional and spiritual fields.
