The twins born to Rebecca developed very different characteristics. The firstborn was ruddy, hairy and a huntsman. The second twin was more content at home than in the field and had gotten used to succeeding on his wits. The firstborn was destined from birth to form the nation of Edom, while the second son became a forefather of the Jewish nation.

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But can a future Israelite nation survive successfully lacking warlike characteristics? The answer is probably no. It will need the help of God to assure its survival. It will also need to have the confidence to know that God regards this nation as a prince among the nations and that their survival is destined forever. It will also need wiliness.

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Isaac’s second blessing to Jacob

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Rebecca’s scheming has worked out exactly as she intended. Isaac has appreciated the inevitability of the two nations being in conflict. Esau will form his own nation, the Edomites, and Jacob will become one of the forefathers of the Israelite nation. An important task yet remaining is for Jacob to find a wife and begin building the nation that had been promised to his father and grandfather.

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Before fleeing home from the threat of Esau, Jacob receives one further blessing from Isaac. Because his pending journey will result in the fulfillment of previous prophecies, it is appropriate that Isaac’s blessing will contain many of the words used in God’s prophecy to Abraham. It also contains the same names of God. The common words are shown in capitals in the following quotation:

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​Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and instructed him, and said to him: "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the home of Betuel, your mother's father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May EL SHADAI bless you MAKE YOU FRUITFUL AND MAKE YOU NUMEROUS, AND MAY YOU BE A CONGREGATION OF PEOPLES. AND MAY HE GIVE YOU the blessing of Abraham to you and to your descendants with you, that you may inherit (lerishtecha) THE LAND OF YOUR SOJOURNINGS, which Elohim gave to Abraham" (Genesis 28:1-4).

Abraham has fathered a son, Ishmael, through Sarah’s servant Hagar. God now assures Abraham that he and Sarah will sire their own son and his name will be Isaac. This prior speech is quoted below, with the similar phrases again shown in capitals.

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Avram was ninety-nine years old, and YHWH appeared to Avram and said to him, "I am EL SHADAI; walk before Me and be wholehearted. I shall give My covenant between Me and you, AND I SHALL MULTIPLY YOU EXCEEDINGLY MUCH." And Avram fell upon his face, and Elohim spoke to him, saying: "Behold, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of many nations. And your name shall no longer be called 'Avram'; your name shall be 'Avraham,' for I have made you the father of many nations. And I SHALL MAKE YOU MOST EXCEEDINGLY FRUITFUL, and I will make NATIONS of you, and KINGS shall emerge from you. And I shall establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you, in their generations, as an eternal covenant, to be Elohim for you, and for your descendants after you. AND I SHALL GIVE YOU – and your descendants after you – the LAND OF YOUR SOJOURNINGS; all of the land of Canaan, as an eternal possession (la’achuzat) (לַאֲחֻזַּ֖ת) and I shall be their Elohim" (Genesis 17:1-8).

In his blessing to Jacob, Isaac invokes the name of God El Shadai. God also calls Himself El Shadai in His Covenant of Circumcision given to Abraham. 

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Rashi suggests that this name has the meaning of “sh’yesh dai,” translated as “there is sufficiency.”1 In other words, there is within God’s Divinity sufficient for every individual. No one in this world needs be left out of God’s providence. Maimonides in his Guide to the Perplexed adopts a different philosophical approach — God is self-sufficient and needs nothing from anything that is in existence.2 

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An explanation proposed by Umberto Cassuto, an academic Biblical scholar writing in the early 1900s, is that this name encompasses the aspect of God related to fertility.3 At first glance this sounds a pagan idea, since the ancient pagan religions also had gods governing fertility. However, there is no reason that an aspect of God most related to fertility should not also have a name, since fertility is not specifically a feature of the names YHWH and Elohim. Admittedly, to us moderns it sounds strange. Yet to the Jewish people at the time of the Bible, a fertility aspect of the One God would have been quite logical. Thus, as Jacob is being sent away to find a wife to build the tribes of Israel, it is appropriate for Isaac to invoke this aspect of God.

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That the name El Shadai was recognized in the Biblical period as being associated with fertility is evident in the following passage from the Book of Ruth. In this passage, Naomi recognizes that the name Shadai relates not only to God dispensing fertility, but also controlling fertility in taking it away:

Do not call me Naomi (pleasant one), call me Mara (embittered one), for Shadai has dealt very bitterly with me. I was full when I went away, but YHWH has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi; YHWH has testified against me, and Shadai has brought misfortune upon me (Ruth 1:20-21).

Not only does Isaac invoke the name of God El Shadai, but, as for the Covenant of Circumcision, Isaac’s blessing is given under the name Elohim. This is probably because Isaac’s blessing relates to the underlying theme of the Covenant of Circumcision, which is the place of the Jewish people in the community of nations in their residing in the land of Canaan. The role of Elohim, as distinct from the name YHWH, will also become apparent in subsequent visions experienced by Jacob, although the distinction between the two names will be less pronounced than it was for Abraham, in that the YHWH and Elohim aspects of God will function in history closely together.

A ladder reaching up to heaven

Jacobs is on his way to Haran, penniless, and fleeing from the anger of his brother Esau who has threatened to kill him. He sleeps out in the open in a “place,” which he later names Beth-El, and there he experiences a vision of a ladder reaching towards the heavens, and upon which angels of Elohim are ascending and descending:

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​Jacob departed from Beersheba and went to Haran. He encountered the place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took from the stones of the place, which he arranged around his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamt, and behold! A ladder was set was set earthward and its top reached heavenward; and behold! Angels of Elohim were ascending and descending on it. And behold! YHWH was standing upon it/him. . .  (Genesis 28:10-13).

The Torah offers no explanation for the meaning of this vision, and many interpretations have been offered. A presumption has to be that the vision is linked in some way to God’s speech that follows.

The explanation I very much favor is that of Nachmanides, who writes that this vision is revealing to Jacob the phenomenon of individual Divine providence that exists in this world:

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[God] showed [Jacob] in a prophetic dream that everything done on earth is done through the hand of the angels and everything they do is by the Supreme One’s decree upon them. For the angels of God, whom YHWH sends to travel throughout the earth, do not do anything minor or major before returning to present themselves before the Lord of all the land . . . 4

Jacob’s vision of angels is the clearest exposition in the Torah of the concept of individual providence. At the time the Torah was given this would have been a radical idea. The ancients envisaged a clear separation between the activities of the gods and humans. Gods were confined to the heavens. They inhered within nature, and could influence the affairs of man by producing storms, floods, sickness and fertility. However, they had no interest in the lives of individuals. The God of Abraham, on the other hand, has concern over the affairs of individuals, to the extent of ensuring that their basic needs are met and that they are sufficiently fed and clothed. 

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Moreover, the demonstration of God’s individual providence is a necessary preliminary to the concept of national providence. With awareness that God cared for their forefathers, the Children of Israel can fully trust that He will do the same for their nation.  

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But why would angels first ascend to heaven and then descend to earth? Should they not first receive their directives from heaven and then descend to their missions. This leads me to a radical idea — that the main abode of the angels of Elohim is not in heaven but on earth! 

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Our concept of Elohim is of a distant transcendent God. Events in this world are not random but directed by God, and angels are a means by which He directs His will on earth. Hence, angels go up the ladder to receive their instructions from Elohim and then return to earth to carry out His instructions. It is in our world that the angels of Elohim are functioning.

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Rashi, on the other hand, based on a midrash, introduces the concept of a personal angel, and suggests that this is a vision of Jacob’s protective angels. He proposes that the angels going up were those who had completed their task of protecting Jacob in Canaan, while those descending were angels assigned to accompany him outside the land of Israel.5 Jacob will again encounter angels as he is about reenter Israel at Machanayim after spending 20 years in Padam Aram in Mesopotamia (Genesis 32:2-3). In this instance, his angels have come back to escort him into the Land of Israel.6

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One can argue, though, with this explanation. Machanayim was close to the border of the land of Canaan, but Beth-El is but 12 miles from Jerusalem and still within the heartland of the country. There are many angels on this ladder, while all that Jacob will require are one or two. Moreover, these angels are called “angels of Elohim,” and Jacob will call this place “beit Elohim,” or house or abode of Elohim. If they were protective angels, it is more likely that they would be called angels of YHWH. Moreover, there is no prior mention of protective angels in the Torah, although there is mention of angels performing a mission. As Abraham mentions to his servant Eliezer when he is sent to Padam Aram to find a wife for his son, Isaac: “He [YHWH] will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there” (Genesis 24:7). All this supports Nachmanides’ interpretation of Jacob’s vision being a general vision of individual providence.

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Having said this, there does seem to be the concept in the Bible of a protective angel for the Israelite people. After the people left Egypt and they came to the Reed Sea:

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The angel of Elohim who had been going in front of the Children of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud travelled from in front of them and went behind them (Exodus 14:16).

God also tells Moses after the episode of the golden calf:

YHWH said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against Me, I shall erase him from My book. And now go, lead the people to that which I have spoken to you. Behold, My angel shall go before you, and on a day that I make an accounting, I shall bring their sin to account against them” (Exodus 32:33-34).

Back to Jacob. The phrase “And behold! YHWH was standing upon it/him. . .”   is ambiguous., as the Hebrew can be translated in either of two ways — YHWH was standing above him, i.e., above Jacob’s head, or He was standing above the ladder. Rashi is of the opinion that God was standing directly over Jacob. Nachmanides suggests that YHWH was standing on top of the ladder. I would like to suggest that the opinion of Rashi fits more into the significance of this vision, although using the explanation of Nachmanides regarding the function of the ladder and not that of Rashi! YHWH is the God of close relationships and it is appropriate that He stand above Jacob and not far in the heavens on top of a ladder.

It is now YHWH Who ratifies the prayer that Isaac made before sending Jacob on his way to Haran. Specifically, He assures Jacob that he will inherit the mantle of Abraham. God’s speech now contains words previously conveyed to Abraham by YHWH at the beginning of Abraham’s mission.7 These common words are again indicated in capital letters in the following three quotations. First the speech that YHWH gave by the ladder:

And behold, YHWH stood over him and He said: "I am YHWH, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. THE LAND UPON WHICH YOU ARE LYING — TO YOU I WILL GIVE IT, AND TO YOUR DESCENDANTS. YOUR OFFSPRING SHALL BE AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH, and you shall spread out WESTWARD, EASTWARD, NORTHWARD AND SOUTHWARD; and THROUGH YOU SHALL ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED" (Genesis 28:13-14).

Abraham received two communications from YHWH when beginning his mission. The first was when he was living in Haran, when he is told to leave his homeland to become a great nation and a source of blessing to humanity. It reads as follows:

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YHWH said to Avram, "Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; AND THROUGH YOU SHALL ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED" (Genesis 12:1-3)

The second is when Abraham returned from Egypt, after relocating there during a famine, and arrived at the area between Beth-El and Ai. His nephew Lot, who until that time would have been considered his heir, separated from him in Beth-El and left for the city of Sodom. He thereby separated himself from the material and spiritual inheritance of Abraham:

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YHWH said to Avram, after Lot had parted from him. "Lift up your eyes and see, from the place where you are – NORTHWARD, SOUTHWARD, EASTWARD AND WESTWARD. FOR ALL THE LAND WHICH YOU SEE — TO YOU I WILL GIVE IT, AND TO YOUR DESCENDANTS, FOREVER. I SHALL MAKE YOUR OFFSPRING AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH, that if one can count the dust of the earth — then your offspring too shall be counted. Arise, walk about in the land, throughout its length and breadth, for to you I will give it.” So, Abram packed his tent and moved and dwelled in the plains of Mamrei, which are in Hebron, and he built there an altar to YHWH (Genesis 13:14-18).

YHWH has now bestowed upon Jacob all the blessings He had given previously to Abraham and thereby places Jacob as part of the direct transmission of this heritage. He now also promises to protect him, and eventually to bring him back to the Land of Israel.  

Behold I AM WITH YOU, and I will guard you wherever you go. And I will return you to this soil, for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have spoken to you (Genesis 28:15).

At this point Jacob made a vow:

Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: “Surely YHWH is in this place and I did not know!” And he became frightened and said: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of Elohim and this is the gate of heaven. Jacob arose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put at his head and set it as a pillar; and he poured oil on its top. He named that place Beit-El, though Luz had been the city's name originally (Genesis 28:16-19)

And he further said, referring to the angels of Elohim that would accompany him: 

If (im) (אִם) Elohim WILL BE WITH ME, and He will guard me on this way that I am going, and He will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I will return in peace to my father’s house, then YHWH will be a God to me — and this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall become a house of Elohim, and whatever You shall give me I shall tithe to you (Genesis 28:20-21).    

Jacob’s vows are directly related to God’s promises. Nachmanides explains that the word im (אִם) or “if” does not express doubt, but has the meaning of when, and he provides other example from the Torah where it has this meaning.8 The words “And He will guard me on this way that I am going” relate to God’s promise “And I will guard you wherever you go.” Jacob asks only for life’s barest necessities, and not for luxuries. Hence, the words “And He will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear” correspond to God’s promise “For I will not forsake you.”9

What does Jacob mean that he will set up a “house of Elohim”? Rashi and Onkelos suggest not so much a house, but that the pillar he erects will become a center for worshipping God, as is evident when he returns to Beth-El to fulfill his vows.10 It is worth noting, however, there will in the future be a biblical prohibition against the use of matzevot or pillars (Deuteronomy 16:22), and Beth-El will need to function on its reputation alone.

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It is noteworthy that in the vow Jacob makes, he uses mainly the name of God Elohim. This was also the case for the blessing that Isaac bestowed upon Jacob before he left for Padam Aram, and was the same name of God used in Abraham’s Covenant of Circumcision. It was angels of Elohim that Jacob saw in his dream, it will be Elohim who will be with him in his travels outside the land of Canaan, and it will be a House of Elohim that Jacob wishes to set up when he returns to Canaan. Finally, when he returns to Beth-El from Mesopotamia. the Torah uses the name Elohim in his nighttime struggle with an angel, and also when he finally goes to Beth El to fulfill his vows. I am suggesting that all these verses relate to the overall theme of the place of the future Israelite nation among the nations of the world, rather than about God’s individual relationship with Jacob and each one of his future descendants.

In Padan Aram, Jacob will find two wives and build up a family. During this time, he was very aware that God was caring for him, especially in situations that had the potential to be unfavorable to him. Hence, when he remonstrates with his father-in-law Laban when caught trying to flee from him he says: “Were it not that the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac WERE WITH ME, you would surely have sent me away empty handed” (Genesis 31:42). This phrase “were with me” is the same phrase that Jacob used when making a vow to God in Beth El.

Where was the “place”?

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The Torah writes that “He [Jacob] encountered “the PLACE” (bamakom) (בַּמָּקוֹם)" (Genesis 18:10). There seems to be an assumption on the part of the Bible, that the reader already knows where this “place” is. In fact, Rashi reminds us that the word “place” has been mentioned previously in the Torah, specifically in the Akeida story where the word “place” is mentioned several times. In this story, it is identified as being in the “land of Moriah”:

Go to the land of Moriah and bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you (Genesis 22:2).

The location of Mount Moriah is never identified in the Torah, although there is a strong tradition that it is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Hence, we are told in the Book of Chronicles:  

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And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where He had appeared to his father David, in THE PLACE which David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite (Chronicles 2:3:1).  

Nevertheless, this opinion, that the Temple was built on Mount Moriah, is not accepted by all authorities. The Greek Septuagint translates the “land of Moriah” in the Akeida story as “the highland,” and the “Mount of Moriah” in Book of Chronicles as “the Mount of Moriah.” 

However, the words “the place” are mentioned even earlier in the Abraham story. When Abraham returns from Egypt the story continues:

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He proceeded on his journeys from the south to Beth-El to THE PLACE where his tent had been at first, between Beth-El and Ai, to THE PLACE of the altar which he had made there at first, and there Abram called upon the name of God (Genesis 13:3-4).

Interestingly, this “the place” is already called Beth-El, even though it has not yet been named by Jacob. Clearly, even at the time of Abraham it had the reputation of being a place where there was communication between God and Abraham. It is at this time, that Lot separates from Abraham to live in Sodom:

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YHWH said to Abram after Lot had parted from him: “Raise now your eyes and look out from THE PLACE where you are now — northward, southward, eastward and westward. For all the land that you see, to you will I give it, and to your descendants forever (Genesis 13:14-16).

In our chapter “the place” is identified very specifically. Following Jacob’s nighttime vision, the Bible tells us:

​Jacob arose early in the morning and took the stone that he had placed around his head and set it as a pillar; and he poured oil on its top. And he called the name of that THE PLACE Beth-El; however, Luz was the city’s name originally (Genesis 28:18-19). 

Rashi attempts to maintain the Rabbinic tradition that the PLACE is Jerusalem by envisaging a slanting ladder with the gate of heaven over Jerusalem and its upper end over “the place” of Beth-El:

​The Amora R’ Elazar said in the name of R’ Yose ben Zimra. This ladder was standing with its feet in Beer-sheba, and the middle of its incline reached opposite [i.e., over] the Temple (Beis HaMikdash). For Beer-sheba stands in the southern part of the territory of the Tribe of Judah and Jerusalem is in its northern part on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin. And Beth-el was in the northern part of Benjamin’s territory on the border between Benjamin and the sons of Joseph. It is thus found a ladder whose feet are in Beer-sheba and whose upper end in is Beth El, the middle of its incline (length) reaches opposite [i.e., over] Jerusalem.11

The selection of Jerusalem by King David as the site for the Temple occurred relatively late in biblical history. The Ark of the Covenant was initially placed by Joshua in the Tabernacle at Shiloh “And the entire community of the Children of Israel assembled at Shilo and erected the Sanctuary there” (Joshua18:1). Shilo is within about 10 miles from Beth-El. It was also in Beth-El during the time of the Judges, although for how long is unclear:

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Bnei Yisrael and all the nation went up and came to Beth-El, and they wept [about the casualties fighting the tribe of Benjamin] and sat there before God and fasted on that day until the evening, and they offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And Bnei Yisrael asked of God, for there the Ark of God’s Covenant was in those days. And Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron, stood before Him in those days (Judges 20:26-28).

The Ark was eventually captured by the Philistines from Shilo at the time of Eli the High Priest. When returned, it was kept at Kiryat Ye’arim, and from there, King David brought it to Jerusalem.

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After the division of the united monarchy, King Jeroboam I of the Northern Kingdom of Israel established Beth-El as one of two primary centers of worship, together with Dan where the tribe of Dan was residing. To consolidate his rule and prevent northern Israelites from traveling to the Jerusalem Temple in Judah, he set up a golden calf at these two places. Thus, Beth El now became associated with idolatry.

It would appear that Beth-El had the reputation of being a holy site, although it was never consistently the site of the Tabernacle. Moreover, it seems unlikely that the site of “the place” of Jacob’s dream and “the place” of the Akeida were both at the Temple Mount. This would have meant that these events occurred adjacent to a Jebusite city, as well as being on Jebusite farmland. More likely, it was, as the Torah tells us — in Beth-El.

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Having said this, the Torah assigns no permanence to where “the place” of a central sanctuary will be in the future. As we are later told in the Torah:

Then it shall be that the PLACE which YHWH your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, there shall you bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the offering of you hand (Deuteronomy 12:11).