Vayetzei
What can be found in paradox?
Reflection by Ariel Dominique Hendelman, the Or HaLev Team
"In the portion of Vayetzei, we have one of the most intriguing stories in the Torah, and we are also introduced to the Torah's first dreamer - Yaakov. Yaakov represents the archetype of finding the Divine in paradox.
Yaakov goes to sleep and dreams of angels ascending and descending on a ladder which is situated in the earth and reaches up to shamayim. The angels' vertical movement up and down exemplifies Yaakov's lived experience, spiritual and physical. According to a Midrash, when Yaakov wakes up, the three stones he places around his head have fused together. Stones do not fuse; this is impossible. But then again, so is creating coherent wholeness from the seemingly chaotic and divided, which is the essential human task.
Yaakov awakes from his dream and realizes that it is the paradox he was born into that will be his greatest blessing, his gentle strength. Yaakov enters the realm of the night, where nothing is clear, all is shifting, time is irrelevant. But it is here where Yaakov finds his ground of truth.
Perhaps the makom - the place - is really the place of presence, where we are receptive and open to what we need to hear. Perhaps every time we meditate and embark on that courageous turning inwards, we encounter the makom, where dreams, ladders, angels, stones all conspire to remind us that God is with us in all that we go through."