Komentarz do Rodzaju 28:16

ואנכי לא ידעתי AND I KNEW IT NOT — for had I known it I would not have slept in such a holy place as this.

אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, contrary to what I thought when I lay down here that this is a totally secular place, devoid of sanctity. Every time the expression אכן occurs in Scripture it means that the person exclaiming it had to revise an opinion previously held. A well-known example is Exodus 2,14אכן נודע הדבר, when Moses made the devastating discovery that his having slain the Egyptian had not remained a secret.

אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, there can be no question that this is a location from where the gift of prophetic insights is dispensed, seeing that I have been granted such an insight without even having expected it or prepared myself for it spiritually. It is a fact that the characteristics of a person undergo changes in the land of Israel just as the climate and very air in this country are different, contribute to one’s mental and spiritual progress. Our sages have phrased this (Baba Batra 158) as “the very air of the Land of Israel makes one wiser.”

וייקץ יעקב, Jacob awoke, etc. What did Jacob mean by the word אכן in this verse? It appears to mean that something concealed had been revealed to him. Why would he then express surprise at having been unaware of such knowledge, i.e. ואנכי לא ידעתי? Did he have to be aware of everything that is hidden?

'וייקץ..אכן יש ה, he concluded that this site was a site chosen for revelations, seeing that he had become the recipient of such great and wonderful visions in his dream with the ladder.

For had I known I would not have slept... Rashi is answering the question: What difference does it make that he did not know?

יקץ ,ויקץ und קוץ heißen beide: erwachen, letzteres im הפעיל. Grundbedeutung von קוץ: Überdruss, Ekel bekommen an dem, woran man bis dahin mit Begierde hing. Wie der Sommer קיץ als diejenige Zeit heißt, in welcher die Früchte die bis dahin mit Begierde getrunkenen Säfte des Bodens verschmähen und die vollendete Selbständigkeit erlangt haben, so wird auch mit קוץ und יקץ der Moment bezeichnet, in welchem der Mensch sich schlafend "vollgesogen", hat an dem Busen der ihn regenierenden. Natur und, sich von ihr "losreißend", zum selbständigen Dasein wieder ersteht. —

ואנכי לא ידעתי, if I had realised the special distinction of this site I would have prepared myself mentally for receiving these Divine insights.

ואנכי לא ידעתי, if I had known that this was a holy site I would not have chosen this site to sleep on. It is possible that this dream represented the beginning of Yaakov’s prophetic visions. This is why he had not been aware of the sanctity of the site until after his dream, seeing that this was the first time G’d had revealed Himself to him in any manner.

Perhaps we may explain this by referring to Chulin 91 where the words "for the sun had set" are interpreted to mean that Jacob personally experienced an unusually early sunset on that day. This was designed to force him to spend the night at that site. What Jacob meant then was that at the time when the early sunset occurred he had not understood its meaning. He did so now only with the help of the dream he had dreamt.

ויאמֶר ist nicht so getrennt, wie später וירא ויאמר, dass die Rede eine neue Tätigkeit beginne, es ist vielmehr das, was er im Erwachen sprach, somit der erste Eindruck, den das im Schlaf Erlebte auf ihn machte: Hier also ist Gott! Er bezieht bescheiden die Gottesnähe nicht auf sich, sondern auf den Ort. Also nicht im Himmel ist Gott zu suchen, sondern wo ein schuldloser Mensch sein Haupt niederlegt, da ist Gott! Dies sein erster Gedanke. Und sein zweiter: Und ich habe bis jetzt dies nicht gewusst! Nicht gewusst, dass Gottes Herrlichkeit ihre Stätte hienieden bei dem Menschen suche!

When Jacob said: יש השם במקום הזה, that G'd is in this place, he meant that G'd is present at this site all the time, in contrast to other sites. This is why G'd wanted him to spend the night there in order to communicate with him there. Jacob apologised for not having prepared himself for a divine revelation; had he been aware of the significance of that site he would surely have done so. Prophecy requires the recipient to first prepare himself mentally. Perhaps if Jacob had prepared himself to become the recipient of a message from G'd he might have prophesied while awake instead of while dreaming. This may have been what he bemoaned in this verse. Rashi explains simply that Jacob meant that if he had known the holy nature of that site he would not have allowed himself to go to sleep there. If that were the only meaning of Jacob's words we could say to him (Rashi) that Jacob then would not have experienced all the promises G'd made to him during his dream. We therefore need to include what I have just written in order to explain the verse satisfactorily.