“He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. And the Lord was standing beside him [or ‘upon it’] (Gen. 28:12-13).  The vision of the ladder with angels ascending and descending it has been discussed at length by commentators in an attempt to understand its significance. Among the questions asked are: What was the purpose of the dream? To whom does “angels of God” refer? What does “going up and down” signify? Was “the Lord standing beside Jacob, or upon the ladder? A well-known interpretation is that of the Tanhumah (Va-Yetze, 2), which views the ladder as signifying the history of mankind, its rungs representing the kingdoms that ruled the earth, one succeeding another.

Another interpretation is found in Genesis Rabbah (68,12 [Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, II, p.627] ) and cited by Rashi, namely, that the ladder stood on the boundary between the Land of Israel and the Diaspora: “The angels who escorted him in the Land of Israel do not leave the Land but ascend to Heaven, and angels whose domain is outside of Israel descend to accompany him [further].”

According to Maimonides (Guide of the Perplexed, I.15), the purpose of the ladder is to explain the relationship between two realities, between existence on earth and existence in the world of heavenly spheres,” both of which are set in motion by God. Jacob sees “angels of God” on the ladder. Those “going up and down on it” are the prophets who, from studying the ladder–the connection between the two worlds, i.e., God’s providence–are elevated to a higher, heavenly level of understanding. That is why it says “going up and down”; first they ascend and become inspired, then they descend and transmit the understanding they acquired to the world. In addition, “God stands on it,” e.g., on the “ladder”; this means God is there constantly, as the Prime Mover, the Cause that governs and is providence over all. According to Maimonides, the dream is a representation of the two worlds, and Jacob, as the person who contemplates the ladder, e.g., the connection between the worlds, attains an understanding of God and of His ways in our world.

A different interpretation of the ladder follows from the commentaries of the great hassidic leader R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady and R. Hayyim of Volozhin, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon. According to their approaches, the ladder symbolized the stages by which a person ascends in spirituality. The ladder has “angels of God going up and down on it”, because the entire universe, including the angels, ascends and descends along the rungs by which human beings ascend and descend, and in their wake. That is to say, everything depends on human deeds, ascending as mankind ascends, and descending as mankind descends.

This approach is a matter of dispute among the classic Jewish philosophers and exegetes. Some commentators follow the ideas set forth in various sayings of the Sages, that the world was created for man, and that human beings are the focal point of creation. Others take issue with this approach and do not see man as the ultimate in Creation. Both of these approaches are reflected by Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Exodus 23:20: “I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way… ” I send my critique against the Gaon who was so arrogant as to say that human beings are more noble than the angels of God and that they were created for the sake of man, … But Scriptures say ‘Man is like a breath’ (Ps. 144:4), ‘Men are mere breath’ (Ps. 62:10). If the angels were created for man, why are they lasting and man not? … and given that man is but empty breath and delusion, then are we to conclude that the angels were created for such nought? — such ‘wickedness’ is far from God…”

 

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