Parshas Vayeitzei begins as Yaakov is fleeing from Be’er Sheva to Charan, running away from his murderous brother, Eisav. He then has his famous dream, known as “Sulam Yaakov,” the Ladder of Yaakov.

Yaakov continues on and journeys to the land of the easterners, back to his mother’s family, where he spends fourteen years working for Lavan for the right to marry his wives, Leah and Rachel. He works six more years for his flocks. During these twenty years, twelve of his children are born - eleven sons and one daughter, Dina - and he amasses much wealth and many flocks. After a confrontation with Lavan, the parsha ends as Yaakov and his family are on their way back to Canaan.

In the beginning of the parsha, Yaakov lays down to go to sleep and he has a majestic vision. “Behold! There is a ladder standing on the ground, whose top reaches the heavens. And angels of G-d were going up and down the ladder, and behold! Hashem was standing upon him.” Hashem speaks to Yaakov for the first time, and promises him a threefold blessing: Land, children and Divine protection. 

וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתוֹ֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ ה’ בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי - and Yaakov awoke from his sleep, and he said: Indeed, Hashem is in this place, and I, I did not know! וַיִּירָא֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר מַה־נּוֹרָ֖א הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה אֵ֣ין זֶ֗ה כִּ֚י אִם־בֵּ֣ית אֱלֹקֹים וְזֶ֖ה שַׁ֥עַר הַשָּׁמָֽיִם, and he was afraid and he said: how awesome is this place, it is none other than the house of G-d, and this is the gateway to heaven (Bereishis 28:10-17).

According to the Sages, Yaakov was sleeping - and dreaming - on Har HaMoriah, Makom Ha’Mikdash. According to this interpretation, it is no surprise that upon waking he perceives that he is at the gateway to Heaven. 

However, according to the pshat (simple reading of the text) he is not on Mt. Moriah. He is, rather, at a place called Luz, on his way out of Canaan. In this case, what Yaakov understands, in the words of Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, is that, “I had no idea… G-d is everywhere! If the L-rd can appear to me in a vision of such grandeur at this unimportant spot, outside the city of Luz, then every place upon which I stand is potentially the house of G-d and any location on earth can be the gateway to heaven.” Rabbi Goldin notes that the power of this observation is heightened when we consider that Yaakov is about to leave Canaan for the first time. “Common religious belief in the patriarchal era dictates that specific gods were tied to specific lands. Yaakov could well have been concerned, therefore, at this frightening moment of his life, that his G-d might offer only limited or no protection outside the land of Canaan” (Unlocking the Torah Text, Bereishit, p.153-154).

It is this idea - that Hashem’s holiness, Presence, and Divine protection - can be found anywhere, that speaks loudly to us.

Yaakov - who lived to be one hundred and forty seven years old - sojourned for twenty years in the home of Lavan, and lived the last seventeen years of his life in Egypt. Aside from these thirty-seven years, he lived the rest of his life in Canaan. While his exiles were long and certainly, difficult, for most of his life, he was home.

And yet, we recall the sage words of Chazal: kol mah she’irah la’Avos, siman la’banim - all that happened to our forefathers is a foreshadowing for their children, the future generations of Am Yisrael (see Ramban to Bereishis 12:6).

If Yaakov was in exile, then this is a foreshadowing for his future children. And if Yaakov eventually returned home to Canaan - after working for Lavan, and then much later, for burial - his return to the Land is positive and hopeful foreshadowing for his children. And if recognized that Hashem was with him in every place - even in the small backwater town of Luz, on his way out of Canaan - then this is a foreshadowing and strengthening for us. 

It is almost 2,000 years since Churban BHM”K and our millennia-long sojourn in the lands of our exile. Yaakov faced the wrath and cunning of Lavan and the murderous intentions of Eisav, and we, his children, face enemy after enemy who long to destroy us. 

Parshas Vayeitzei, the story of Yaakov in exile, must strengthen and uplift us. Though the night is dark - “and he encountered the place, for the sun had set” (28:11) - and travails abound, like Yaakov, we have the Divine promise that our nation will be abundant and never falter, the Promised Land is a Divine gift to Am Yisrael, and Hashem will always be with us to protect and watch over us. 

Rabbi Goldin relates that some years ago, he and his congregants traveled to Eastern Europe. One of their experiences was a visit to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. At a certain place in the camp, the tour guide “took us behind a bakery and down some steps to a hidden underground room. Suddenly we found ourselves, to our astonishment, in a small synagogue which had been built by a group of Danish Jews, secretly, under the very eyes of their Nazi tormentors. We were speechless, struck by the courage and devotion of these individuals who, at the risk of their lives, had continued to worship their Creator, even at a time when G-d’s very face was hidden from them. 

“As we walked around that small Shul, we noticed that passages from the Torah had been painted on the walls in a fashion common to European synagogues of that time… As I continued to read … on the wall before me appeared the following passage, painted through who knows how many tears: ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of G-d and this is the gate to heaven!’ I was astounded… Here in Theresienstadt, in the depths of hell, the ‘gate to heaven, the house of G-d’? … I felt a fleeting sense of the sanctity which had existed in that room decades earlier. A sanctity created by a courageous group of nameless Jews who understood that even in the darkness of hell, even in the presence of their tormentors, even in the depths of pain and sorrow, holiness could somehow be achieved and G-d could somehow be found” (Unlocking… Bereishit, p.155-156).

Wherever life takes us, wherever we find ourselves, from whatever place we reach out - from the depths of our hearts and the recesses of our minds - to speak with Hashem, we must always know: How awesome is this place, it is none other than the house of G-d and the gateway to heaven.

בברכת בשורות טובות ושבת שלום