I shared a room with my twin sister as a kid, and we had bunk beds intermittently throughout our childhood. The first time I tried climbing the ladder up to the top bunk didn’t end well. It ended with a fat lip, a crying kid, and the decision that my sister would sleep on the top bunk. I vividly remember this experience. How easy it was to get up, and how utterly terrifying the way down was. Those two seconds of falling felt like an eternity. Ladders are much more complicated than they seem.
So let’s talk about a complicated ladder, Jacob’s ladder, that is. Jacob’s infamous dream details seeing a ladder starting at the ground and reaching the sky with angels traveling on it. We are then told that God is standing next to Jacob as he receives a divine promise. It is in this parsha that God tells Jacob of a promised land, Eretz Yisrael, and that it will be his. Ours.
According to the translation I use, we actually aren’t explicitly told where Jacob is standing in relation to this ladder. Is he at the bottom looking up? That’s the assumption. But let’s remember that Jacob is dreaming, so he could very well be standing at the top of the ladder in some mystical place with God looking down at the land he is being promised. But why is this important? Because I doubt I’m the only one in the room who thinks that descending a ladder can be scarier than ascending. Four year old me would agree. Imagine standing at the top of the ladder staring down the timeline that is the journey to Israel. That’s a long way down.
“Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” That is what God said to Jacob in this dream. On October 6th, I bet it felt like we had reached the bottom, returned to Israel. We had, after all, just celebrated 75 years. And yet on October 7th we awoke at the very top again, staring down a long ladder back to a promised land. We’re doing something scary now. Rung by rung, with sweaty palms and shaky feet, we’re doing something inexplicably scary.
When you’re at the top of a ladder, what does everyone say? “Don’t look down!” Right now I’d encourage you to do the opposite. Look down, because at the bottom you’ll see holy land, peace, and an end to what is currently at play. No, it doesn’t make the descent any less scary, but we are the descendants. So, let’s descend.
But let’s also remember that we’re not traveling alone. God promised to be with Jacob every rung along the way. In however way you define, believe, and interact with God, that’s true to us, too. You have an entire community of people, both Jews and allies, on this ladder with you. Four year old Elizabeth had a loving mother spotting her as she navigated a ladder for the first time.She grimaced as I fell and held me at the end. She didn’t prevent my fall, but she was with me nonetheless.
Ultimately, falling down that ladder was worth it. Yes, it hurt, but I had a new bed waiting for me at the bottom. A bed I could feel safe in. And yes, I got better at descending that ladder as time went on. I know that what awaits us at the bottom of this ladder, Israel in restored peace, is what we’re all hoping for. When we get there, we’ll have done it together.
I don’t know how long this ladder is, nor do I know how many rungs are broken along the way. But I do know that I’m with you, we’re with you, and God is with you. It may not make things less scary, but it sure makes them more possible.
Humble Chutzpah 