Hashem gives Yakov a promise at the beginning of this week’s פרשה that has been the running theme throughout ספר בראשית. Land and children. But it is phrased differently this time and the גמרא picks up on this discrepancy. הארץ אשר אתה שוכב עליה לך אתננה ולזרעך. The land that you are lying down on I will give to you and your children. Asks the גמרא, what is the big deal about that? When Yakov is lying down he only occupies a space roughly 6 feet by 3 feet, this obviously can’t be meant literally? So, the גמרא learns it to mean that Hashem folded up the whole of Eretz Yisrael under Yakov while he was sleeping and then said the land that you are lying on I will give to you and to your children as a hint to the fact that it would be easy for the Jewish nation to conquer Eretz Yisrael. Rashi adds to this that it would be as easy to capture as the four אמות that is considered the personal space of every person.
A few questions emerge, 1- why does Hashem need to use this language and necessitate folding up Eretz Yisrael to have all the land be included? 2- what does folding land even mean? 3- why was the promise to Avraham and Yitzchak not phrased this way? 4- (more of an observation than a question) the promise has always been two-fold; land and children. Is it per coincidence that the land gets folded up to take up less space in the world, and the second half of the promise is phrased ופרצת ימה וקדמה וצפונה ונגבה, where the children expand limitlessly and take up space in every direction.
I think the beginning of an explanation can be as follows. We all know that this is where Yakov established the tefilla of maariv, and how חז”ל say that he realized that he had passed הר המוריה, that sacred place from which Adam was formed, where הבל and קין brought their קרבנות, where Noach made a מזבח after the מבול, and most recently where his grandfather had carried up his father to slaughter him. This had been the place of תפילה since the beginning of time. Yakov makes up his mind to go back to the mountain to daven and immediately as he turns he is taken through space at an impossible speed and immediately is back at the mountain. This entire section of text is all about תפילה. Whether or not all of these midrashim are meant to be taken literally I don’t know but the lessons are clear.
- So many times, we are headed on the journey of our lives and we get the inspiration to daven. If we are able to turn around and truly face the מקום המקדש we can have the power to have the land fold for us. After all, our Father in heaven who is waiting for us to daven is the one who is the מקומו של עולם, so for Him to fold the space that He houses is no problem.
- To really be able to tap into this type of prayer, we need to be able to “lie down” before Hashem. We need to put down our worries, “go to sleep” and know that He will take care of us. That He is watching us and cares about us more than we can possibly fathom and that He will never let us fall.
- Yakov was the one who would need to raise 12 children, and I think it’s for this reason that he needed to hear the contrast of land getting folded and of children unfolding and spreading. The way to give our children the ability to spread their wings and fly is to know that there are many different directions to get to Hashem. If we can truly place our trust in Hashem and really internalize that He is the מקומו של עולם then we will be able to watch both ourselves and our children on their respective paths and as long as we are headed toward Hashem the exact medium and direction we use to get there becomes less important.
It’s not my first time to pay a visit this site, i am browsing this web page dailly and obtain fastidious data from here everyday.
Superb blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you advise starting with a free platform
like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m
completely overwhelmed .. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is
a really well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post.
I’ll certainly return.
Its like you read my thoughts! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the ebook in it or something.
I feel that you could do with a few % to force the message home a
bit, but other than that, this is excellent blog. A great
read. I will definitely be back.
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this blog. It’s simple, yet effective.
A lot of times it’s very hard to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and appearance.
I must say you’ve done a superb job with this. Also, the blog loads extremely fast for me
on Firefox. Excellent Blog!
Thank you for every other great post. Where else may
anybody get that type of information in such an ideal manner of writing?
I have a presentation next week, and I’m on the search for such info.
Have you ever considered creating an ebook
or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog based on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have
you share some stories/information. I know my viewers would value your work.
If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an email.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d
most certainly donate to this excellent blog!
I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking
and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my
Facebook group. Chat soon!
I’d like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing
this website. I am hoping to view the same high-grade blog
posts from you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own, personal website
now 😉
No matter if some one searches for his necessary thing, so he/she wishes to be available that
in detail, therefore that thing is maintained over here.
I am truly happy to read this webpage posts which consists of plenty of valuable data, thanks for providing these kinds of information.
It’s difficult to find experienced people for this topic,
but you sound like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks
Appreciate the recommendation. Will try it out.
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before
but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
bookmarked!!, I love your website!