פּירוש אויף בראשית 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.

“Indeed, the Lord is in this place, etc.” The text mentions the word “place” [makom] three times, corresponding to the three Temples. Regarding the First Temple, where the Divine Presence dwelt, yet they did not know God because their hearts followed after their idols, it says here Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I did not know. Regarding the Second Temple, it states How awesome is this place; this is none other than the house of God, for it is known that during the Second Temple period, there was awe of the Temple among all nations. Even Alexander the Great was afraid to raise his hand against it and would stand up in the presence of Simon the Righteous. This was despite lacking five fundamental elements: the Divine Presence, prophecy, the Ark, the Urim and Thummim, and the heavenly fire. All that remained was its designation as the “house of God,” which is why it states here this is none other than the house of God. For in the First Temple, God appeared to them eye to eye, to the extent that they could point to His glory saying This is my God and I will glorify Him, This is our God, but in the Second Temple, this direct revelation was absent and only the name remained — that it was the house of God. Regarding the Third Temple, it states And he called the name of that place Beth El, but Luz was the city’s name originally. It’s as if the name Luz was not completely uprooted even after its destruction following its construction. However, in the future, its construction will be eternal, for the naming indicates eternal existence, and this will be its name forever, as it is said and the name of the city from that day shall be ‘God is there’ (Ezekiel 48:35). Radak explained that this means God’s name will never depart from within it.