Deciphering Disbelief
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Yaakov, after receiving his father's blessing, flees from Esau's wrath. On his way to Charan, night falls, and Yaakov lies down to sleep. He dreams of a ladder, planted on earth but reaching heavenward, with angels ascending and descending its rungs. Obviously, there is tremendous symbolism in this dream. Most notably, as the medrash says, the angels ascending the ladder represent the different monarchies that would subjugate Bnei Yisroel throughout our history, Babylon, Persia-Medea, Greece, and Edom-Rome. Each national/angel ascended according to the length of its domination and then fell.
The medrash continues with a lesser known narrative. Chapter two has Hashem telling Yaakov Avinu to ascend as well. However, Yaakov was afraid that perhaps, like these angels, he too would fall. Hashem encouraged him not to be afraid, that if he ascended, he would never descend. However Yaakov feared that if his descendants sinned, they would lose that heavenly promise. This was the same fear that Yaakov later exhibited when he was approaching Esau, writes Rabbi Munk zt”l; then Yaakov speculated that his worthiness had perhaps been diminished by some sin and Hashem would no longer extend His kindness to him.
Here Hashem was assuring Yaakov that his nation would never descend, that they would always be subject only to Hashem's punishment. But Yaakov did not believe, and because of this fault, Hashem would punish Bnei Yisroel through the domination of these other empires.
In Moda Labinah, Rabbi Rotberg clarifies some of the message of the dream. True, these nations were ascending, but their ascension would be totally physical, a physical domination. Had Yaakov heeded Hashem's request, he too would have ascended in the physical, material world. What Yaakov feared was the power of physicality and materialism have to corrupt the spiritual. This would be in direct opposition to the mission of Bnei Yisroel, to elevate the physical to the spiritual. As a consequence of Yaakov's not ascending the ladder, his descendants would lose all their physical possessions whenever they were exiled. They would become not only the wandering Jew, but also the poor wandering Jew. However, Bnei Yisroel would still remain focused on the spiritual.
Rebbetzin Smiles notes that these conditions took effect immediately. When Yaakov left his father's house, he took with him gifts for a future wife. However, Esau's son Elifaz, took it all from him on the road. (The details are for another shiur.)
The dilemma surfaces again when, years later, Yaakov is returning with his entire family. After crossing the Yabok River, Yaakov realizes he had forgotten some small jars on the other side. Leaving his family, he returns to retrieve the jars, only to encounter Esau's guardian angel. Was Yaakov so invested in materialism that he put himself in danger for these items of little value? Actually, Yaakov understood that even these material items could be elevated and used for spiritual pursuits. However, by going back for these jars, was Yaakov usurping the physical world of Esau? While Yaakov was victorious in this battle, he was nevertheless injured in his thigh, symbolic of the difficulty in garnering material support for Torah. Yaakov knew he wanted to have control over the physical and material; do we control our possessions, or do they control us?
We are meant to retain our intrinsic essence, not to be defined by what we possess. Rabbi Bernstein makes this point by citing the verses about Yair and Novach, two of Menashe's sons who settled on the other side of the Jordan River. Both brothers captured cities and renamed them. Novach named the cities Novach, his own name, seemingly identifying the cities with his self. Yair, on the other hand, renamed the cities Chavot Yair, the Farms of Yair, Yair's possessions, but not Yair himself. The cities of Novach did not retain their names, while Chavot Yair retained their identities.
Along these lines, Rabbi Bernstein Notes that we wish a newly married couple to merit building "faithful house" in Israel, a home that is faithful to its mission of serving Hashem rather than a house identifiable only by its physical comfort and material luxury. This was a challenge Yaakov feared his descendants might fail, and therefore he did not ascend the ladder.
When a person sets a goal for himself and strengthens himself for the challenge, he is already on the road to success. However, if he is so sure he will not succeed, he has already failed and will never reach his goal, writes Rabbi Dessler zt”l.
Within this context, Rabbi Dessler interprets the ladder as a ladder to spirituality rather than to physicality. Had Yaakov Avinu ascended the ladder, the other nations would not have had dominion over Bnei Yisroel. Yaakov had a lapse in his faith. He did not believe he could reach that level and therefore he didn't even try to ascend. Our galus/exile is meant to strengthen our faith, to bring us closer to Hakodosh boruch Hu, and rectify this lapse. Only after Yaakov faces this challenge by meeting Esau does Yaakov return shaleim/complete and intact, both physically and spiritually.
We at our level must realize that our work is bearing fruit. We must not allow our yetzer horo to convince us that we cannot succeed and improve ourselves. It is more the desire, the will to succeed rather than ability that determines our success.
But each of us is unique. Just as each of us has our individual challenges, so do we each have our individual set of strengths, talents and skills. As Rabbi Friefeld zt”l says, we are meant to take these raw materials and create a work of art with our lives. And we must have the passion to be willing to do the work necessary to achieve that goal, adds Rabbi Chayim Mordechai Katz zt”l.
But we must recognize our greatness as children of the King in order to actualize that greatness adds Rabbi Hershkovitz in She'efah. Are we aware of our soul's desire to grow in Torah, to improve our character, to go beyond our physicality? If we believe in the greatness Hashem has invested in us, and we aspire to achieve it, we will succeed.
Rabbi Hershkovitz cites the example of Rabbi Kahaneman zt”l, the founder of the Ponovezh Yeshivah. Shortly after the Holocaust, Rabbi Kahaneman stood before a Torah crowd and predicted, "Here with Hashem's Help will be built a yeshivah for six hundred students. Even the great Rav Yechezkel Abramski zt”l approached him and told Rabbi Kahaneman that he was dreaming. Rabbi Kahaneman's reply? "I may be dreaming, but I'm not asleep." Today that dream is a reality, with over a thousand students besides a Kollel and other affiliated schools. Without Rabbi Kahaneman's dream, vision, and work, this bastion of Torah would not exist today.
Yet another example. As a child, Rabbi Gifter zt”l had an album for the picture cards of great rabbis he had collected. His mother noticed that a page in the middle of the book was empty. When she asked the child why he had left it empty, the child answered, "Because one day my picture card will go in there." Rabbi Gifter indeed grew to be a great Torah leader and the Rosh Yeshivah of Telser Yeshivah in Ohio. (At this point, Rebbetzin Smiles held up the card with the photo of Rabbi Gifter.) He dreamed, he put in the effort, and Hashem helped him achieve his greatness.
Even in a secular context, that axiom is valid. Napoleon is recorded as saying, "A soldier who does not have a vision of being a general is not even a soldier."
Yaakov's fear, writes Rabbi Ezrachi zt”l, was that he did not have the capability to reach the level the ladder represented. Because he was comparing himself to these nations, he would be punished by being subjugated to these nations.
We often don't believe the tremendous energy and talents Hashem has invested in us, and so often we are afraid to even start a project, either religiously or even physically or materially. Nevertheless, when we have no choice, we are surprised at what we accomplished, writes Rabbi Meizlish. We have the potential to be as great as Moshe Rabbenu or as evil as King Yirovom ben Nevot. We are in control. We are limiting ourselves by by our own imagined shortcomings. As Rabbi Friefeld says, if you think of yourself as a loser, you will float through life and waste your time. Our greatest shame lies in the gap between our potential and what we failed to actualize because of our own fears.
As we enter the month of Kislev and approach the holiday of Chanukah, Rabbi Pincus zt”l urges us to integrate the messages of Chanukah. Are we living in darkness, thinking of ourselves as small and incapable? We must focus on light, on the limitless power and treasures concentrated in our "smallness." [Think of the tiny atom and the tremendous power within it. CKS] Believe in yourself, just as Hashem has faith in us, as we recite every morning, "מודה אני... רבה אמונתך /I thank You... for You have great faith in me," so must we have faith in ourselves.
The mindset of I can't do it is what keeps us back and is the major source of laziness, writes Rabbi Wachtfogel zt”l. When we realize how we are sabotaging ourselves, it is time to take a step, put our עקב /heels to the ground, and go and daven. Then Hashem will help us and shorten the path, just as He shortened the path for Yaakov so that he could return to pray in Chevron, at the resting place of his grandfather.
Where Yaakov failed was not in actually ascending the ladder, but in not even trying to step on the bottom rung. He was tasked with beginning, not necessarily with completing the job. When the Chofetz Chaim zt”l contemplated writing the work that bears his name, he did not believe himself capable of completing such a project. But he saw the need Bnei Yisroel had the Mishna Bruriah. He took the first steps, started the project, and Hashem helped him successfully complete the work.
If we do not have such giants in Torah today, it is because our desire is not strong enough. As the verse in Tehillim says, "Open your mouth and I will fill it." We need to ask. We need a vision, we need to recognize who and what we are, we need to believe in our capability, and we must remember to ask Hashem to help us.
How many times, even when we do ask Hashem for help, do we limit our requests to the bare minimum? For example, notes Rabbi Mordechai Ezrachi, when the blinded Shimshon was brought to be shamefully displayed as tribute in the temple of Dagan, Shimshom cried out to Hashem for one final time: "Strengthen me only this once... Let me die with the Philistines." Rabbi Ezrachi asks, why didn't Shimshon pray to survive, to live after he avenged himself and killed the Philistines in their temple? Like Yaakov Avinu, Shimshon understood the power of prayer but nevertheless had limited vision.
Let us now move to an even more symbolic interpretation of the ladder. The Sifsei Da'as on the Sefas Emes zt”l compares the ladder to the human being; his feet are indeed on the ground, but his head can reach the heavens. While man's body is made from the material of the earth and has earthly tendencies with a yetzer horo, he can still reach spiritual heights. The "angels" can ascend or descend the ladder. Each individual and all of humankind has the potential to ascend, to perfect ourselves and society, for the ladder stands in the present tense, now, waiting to be climbed.
What we do here on this physical earth has tremendous ripple effects in heaven. Every prayer and every mitzvah carries tremendous power both on earth and in heaven, writes Rabbi Meizlish in Sichot Baavodat Hashem, even the seemingly small, insignificant mitzvah. We can affect both the physical and the spiritual world.
Every great accomplishment begins with a dream and a vision. Let us dream big, let us believe in ourselves, for Hashem has invested us with greatness, and daven for siyatta d’Shmaya.