Commento su Genesi 28:12

עלים וירדים ASCENDING AND DESCENDING — It states first ascending and afterwards descending! Those angels who accompanied him in the land of Israel were not permitted to leave the Land: they ascended to Heaven and angels which were to minister outside the Land descended to accompany him (Genesis Rabbah 68:12).

AND BEHOLD A LADDER SET UP ON THE EARTH AND THE TOP OF IT REACHED TO HEAVEN; AND BEHOLD THE ANGELS OF G-D ASCENDING AND DESCENDING ON IT. In a prophetic dream, He showed Jacob that whatever is done on earth is effected by means of the angels, and everything is by decree given to them by the Supreme One. The angels of G-d, whom the Eternal hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth,¹Zechariah 1:10. would not do anything minor or major until they return to present themselves before the Master of the whole earth, saying before Him, “We have traversed the earth,²See ibid., Verse 11. and behold it dwells in peace, or is steeped in war and blood,” and He commands them to return, to descend to the earth and fulfill His charge. And He further showed him [Jacob] that He, blessed be He, stands above the ladder, and promises Jacob with supreme assurance to inform him that he will not be under the power of the angels, but he will be G-d’s portion,³Deuteronomy 32:9. and that He will be with him always, as He said, And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee wherever thou goest⁴Verse 15 here. for his [Jacob’s] excellence is superior to that of the other righteous ones of whom it is said, For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.⁵Psalms 91:11.
And in the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer the Great⁶Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, 35. this vision was akin to the one seen by Abram at the time of the covenant “between the parts”⁷Above, 15:9-18. for He also showed Jacob the dominion of the Four Kingdoms,⁸See Ramban above, 14:1 and 15:12. The Four Kingdoms represent the great world powers seen in a vision by Daniel (Chapter 7), who in succession will subject Israel until such time when Israel’s final and complete deliverance will be effected by the Messiah. The power of the fourth kingdom, that of Rome, is still in sway. See Ramban further at the beginning of Seder Vayechi. Jacob, like Abraham, was thus shown the events that will happen to his descendants during all the generations of their exiles. their ascent and descent. This is the meaning of angels of G-d (mentioned here), just as it is said in the visions of Daniel: the prince of the kingdom of Greece,⁹Daniel 10:20. and the prince of the kingdom of Persia.¹⁰Ibid., Verse 13. Similarly, the angels mentioned in the verse before us are to be understood as the representatives of the various nations. And He promised him that He, exalted be He, will be with him wherever he will go among the nations, and He will guard him and rescue him from them. Thus the Rabbis have said:⁶Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, 35. “The Holy One, blessed be He, showed him the Four Kingdoms, their dominion and their destruction. He showed him the prince of the kingdom of Babylon ascending seventy rungs¹¹Symbolic of the seventy years of the Babylonian exile. and then descending the ladder. Then He showed him the prince of the kingdom of Media ascending one hundred and eighty rungs¹²See my Hebrew commentary, (p. 158, n.12), which asserts that the correct reading is: “He showed him the prince of the kingdom of Media going up fifty-two rungs and then descending. And He showed him the prince of the kingdom of Greece going up one hundred-eighty rungs and then descending.” The number of rungs represent the amount of years that these kingdoms held sway over Israel. and then descending. And then He showed him the prince of the kingdom of Edom ascending and not coming down. Jacob then said to the prince of Edom, Yet thou shalt be brought down to the nether-world.¹³Isaiah 14:15. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to [the prince of Edom], Though thou make thy nest as high as the eagle, etc.”¹⁴Obadiah 1:4. And though thou set it among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Eternal.

מוצב, which had been erected by others. When the Torah later speaks about ה' נצב in verse 13, the meaning is that He supported Himself, had not been placed there, [although the letter נ at the beginning of that word suggested a passive mode. Ed.] We encounter similar formulations with the words מוקטר offered as incense by others, or מוגש, presented by others in Maleachi 1,11 whereas the words נגש אל הערפל in Exodus 20,21 mean that Moses approached the cloud under his own initiative. Also the expression אשר אתה מראה בהר (with the vowel kametz under the letter א) is also referring to someone else showing Moses the image. (Exodus 25,40) On the other hand, the expression נראה in Genesis 12,7 refers to a vision generated by G’d Himself.

ויחלום והנה סולם, And he dreamed that there was a ladder, etc. Inasmuch as many dreams contain matter without significance, the Torah added the word והנה to indicate that in this dream every detail appeared to Jacob as especially vivid and significant. He had total recall of everything he dreamed and referred to each detail later on. This is why the word והנה is repeated before every segment of the dream. The Torah thereby characterises the dream as a prophetic revelation.

ויחלום, והנה סלם, there are many different opinions among our sages how best to explain this dream, as well as among other readers of the Bible. Some say that this was a preview of the revelation at Mount Sinai and that the numerical value of the letters in the word סלם equals that of the word סיני (130)

והנה מלאכי אלוקים עולים ויורדים..והנה ה' נצב עליו, this foreshadowed the future when the “angels of G’d” the superpowers who had become very powerful in our world would begin their decline and end up at the bottom of the rungs of the ladder. The Lord G’d Who stood above the ladder is the symbol of the promise that G’d will never abandon the Jewish people, as we know from Jeremiah 46,28 כי אעשה כלה בכל הגויים ואותך לא אעשה כלה, “even when I utterly destroy all the gentile nations, I will not destroy you.”

ויחלום, והנה סולם מוצב ארצה, “he dreamt, and here in his dream there was a ladder which had been placed on earth, etc.” There are numerous allegorical explanations which our sages have offered in explaining the purpose of this phenomenon in Yaakov’s dream. Some say that the ladder represents Mount Sinai, and that the angels ascending and descending on it symbolise Moses and Aaron. Others believe that the ladder represents an altar and that the angels represent the priests, who in real life, ascend and descend from the altar. I believe that the correct explanation is that G’d showed Yaakov by means of a dream, that whatever occurs on earth is engineered by angels carrying out G’d’s will, and though G’d had known long in advance whatever would come pass, He showed Yaakov an image purporting the angels telling G’d that they had now carried out His will. Moreover, He wanted Yaakov to know that although the angels are His messengers, carrying out His will, this did not mean that G’d personally, left the earth and the angels to their own devices, but that He took an ongoing interest in the affairs unraveling on earth, and was ever ready to intervene when the need would arise. Thus He assured Yaakov of His ongoing protection on the journey fraught with danger that he had undertaken. In Bereshit Rabbah 68,13 we are also told that the angels ascending and descending represented the ascent and subsequent descent of the 4 super powers which ruled over the Jewish people in their respective exiles.

It states עולים first and יורדים afterwards... Rashi is answering the question: Why does it not say “descending” first, since the angels dwell in heaven?

סלם von סלל und ם als Bildungsbuchstabe, wie שָׂפָם ,חנם ,ריקם (von סלל (שפה: ihinaufsteigen. Es wird ihm also סלם, eine Leiter gezeigt, also, dass überhaupt eine Verbindung von der Erde aufwärts sei; — und sie ist: מֻצב, sie ist gestellt, sie ist nicht von selbst und nicht zufällig da, sie ist durch eine höhere Macht gestellt, und zwar אַרצָה zur Erde, also die Macht und der Wille, die sie gestellt, befinden sich nicht auf Erden, sondern in der Höhe, sie ist aus der Höhe hinab bis auf die Erde gestellt; — וראשו מגיע השמימה, ihre Bestimmung ist gleichwohl nicht zunächst nur vom Himmel zur Erde, sondern: von der Erde aufwärts zum Himmel zu steigen; — dies ist die eine Gedankenreihe, die ihm gezeigt wird! Also zuerst überhaupt, dass das irdische Gesamtleben, somit auch das des Menschen, somit auch das seine, sein Ziel nicht in der Ebene, — nicht von Beer Scheba nach Charan, — sondern in der Höhe und aus der Höhe habe; dass alles Irdische von oben geladen sei, sich zu einem himmlischen Höheziel emporzuarbeiten; dass dieses Ziel und dieses Aufwärtsstreben zu ihm kein von Menschen erfundenes Märchen, kein auf Erden entstandener Wahn sei, sondern die wesenhafteste, vom Himmel selbst gestellte Realität habe und unmittelbar auf Erden anzustreben sei. (Vergl. die Sätze 13סולם זה סיני — ,סולם זה כבש מוצב ארצה זה מזבח :ב"ר und חולין ‎91 b. רחבו של סולם שמנה אלפים פרסאות , also weit über die irdische Welt hin reicht die Leiter und überall ist ihre unterste Sprosse zu ersteigen.)

והנה סלם, “and here there was a ladder;” the numerical value of the letters in the word סלם=130, the same numerical value as the letters in the word סיני, “Sinai;” This was a hint that the Jewish people would receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. (B’reshit Rabbah, 68,12)

עולים ויורדים בו, “ascending and descending on it.” They first ascended and then descended; afterwards they remained at the bottom. They behaved like a human being who climbs the ladder in his house to get to the loft, and then descends on it again. This is what led Yaakov to understand that this location was intended to become G-ds house on earth. He surmised that for the time being this was the residence of the angels he had seen. Angels, servants of the Lord, must have their residence in G-d’s house. If G-d was to establish a residence on earth also, they would have to ascend to heaven first in order to accompany their Lord to His alternate residence. If these angels were meant to only briefly remain on earth, the Torah should have described their movements as יורדים ועולים, “descending and then ascending, “(back to their residence) The Jerusalem Targum understands the function of these angels as having been to accompany Yaakov from here on in wherever he went. The reason that they ascended was to relay their messages to other angels in the celestial spheres that they had been assigned to descend to earth. They were to show them that there was a human being of the stature of Yaakov on earth. They would recognise him at once as a likeness of his features had long been engraved at the base of G-d’s throne.

עולים ויורדים, according to the plain meaning of the text there is no need to read any special message into the word עולים, “climbing,” appearing before the word יורדים, “descending.”

מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, at the revelation of Mount Sinai the angels and the Jewish people were of the same spiritual level, even though Moses and Aaron are described as ascending towards heaven, whereas the angels were descending towards earth. [the thought that Aaron too was ascending toward heaven is quoted in Shemot Rabbah 19,3. Ed.]

והנה eine zweite Gedankenreihe: er sieht מלאכי אלקי׳, sieht Engel Gottes, Boten Gottes, Wesen auf Erden, die auf Gottes Geheiß Wirkungen im irdischen Leben hervorrufen, sieht sie hinaufsteigen und herabsteigen, sieht sie sich oben die Weisung für ihr Wirken hier unten holen, und sieht sie: בו wider ihn herabkommen (— wie es nach einer Auffassung bedeutet, die uns durch das Folgende gerechtfertigt scheint —). Er sieht, dass sich das Geschick des Menschen nicht auf Erden durch die sinnliche Welt vollzieht, sieht Boten Gottes und gewahrt, dass diese Gottesboten hinaufsteigen und schauen dort das Bild, das Ideal des Menschen, wie er sein sollte, und steigen hinab und vergleichen damit das Bild dessen, was und wie er ist, um nach diesem Maßstabe ihm — freundlicher — feindlicher — zu begegnen. Und so waren sie auch — um mit den Worten der Weisen zu sprechen — עולין ומסתכלין בדיוקנו של מעלה ויורדין ומסתכלין בדיוקנו שלמטה בעו לסכיניה (Chulin 91 b.) hinaufgestiegen und hatten das Bild von ihm in der Höhe betrachtet, und waren hinabgestiegen und betrachteten sein Bild nun hier unten, wie dies in ב"ר weiter ausgeführt ist: ישראל אשר בך אתפאר את הוא שאיקוניך חקוק למעלה עולין למעלה ומוצאין איקונין שלו ויורדין למטה ומוצאין אותו ישן, "sie fanden oben das Bild von ihm als Gott verherrlichender Israel und stiegen hinab und fanden ihn schlafend" — schlafend an der Stätte, die ihm den Gedanken an diese Bestimmung und ihn mit diesem Gedanken hätte wachrufen und wach halten müssen — "sie wollten ihn darum gefährden", מיד והנה ד׳ נצב עליו, sofort:

והנה סולם מוצב ארצה , “and (in his dream) he saw a ladder planted on the earth;” at the burning bush, where Moses had his first communication from G–d, the fire from that bush rose to the heart of the heavens. At that time Moses was told specifically that the Israelites, Yaakov’s descendants shall worship G–d there.

והנה מלאכי אלוקים, “and lo, prophets of G–d,” i.e. Moses and Aaron, would climb up and down there.

והנה ה' נצב עליו, and lo, the Lord was standing on top of it. This is what is meant when in Exodus 19,20, the Torah writes that the Lord descended to Mount Sinai.

'ויאמר אני ה, “He said: I am the Lord, etc.;” this parallels what Hashem said at the beginning of the Decalogue in Exodus, 20,2. An alternate interpretation; the word סולם is to be understood literally, as “ladder;” the words: והנה מלאכי אלוקים, describe G–d as showing Yaakov the spiritual representative of Egypt in the celestial spheres, (as also stated in the commentary by Nachmanides) and how that empire after first rising to great heights was brought down completely. A third interpretation: these angels were the angels that had come to Sodom to rescue Lot, and had been demoted by G–d after describing themselves to Lot as initiating the destruction of Sodom, by telling Lot that they had come to destroy Sodom, as if they had the power to do this instead of simply carrying out G–d’s command. (Genesis 19,14,) They had also revealed some of G–d’s secrets without having permission to do so. According to tradition, their punishment had been to be banned from the celestial regions. Now, 138 years later, they had been allowed to return to their places in the celestial regions.