He reported he never had that experience again. While travelling at 140 mph, he experienced a moment of perfect stillness.
Today I want to take a closer look at the beginning of the Parasha today using those two modes. The parasha starts… ‘Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran…. Mode one right? Journey
Then… “He came upon a certain place/Makom and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place/Makom, he put it under his head and lay down in that place/Makom”
Mode 2, right? That is definitely mode 2. So much so that the word Makom is said three times in one sentence. I saw that in a commentary from Ismar Schorsch who lives and teaches in New York, and Professor Schorsh learned it from Abravanel, a Jewish statesman, and bible commentator who lived in Portugal 500 years ago. Ideas can travel, and ideas can land too.
Next line in the parasha…
‘He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.’ הִנֵּ֤ה סֻלָּם֙ Again travel…journey, mode 1. Now it’s the angels who are on the move.
Next line…
‘And the LORD was standing beside him and He said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac: Remember, I am with you: Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is present in this place, and I did not know it!” Shaken, he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the Home of God
So far, so mode 2. Jakob is there. And God is standing there with him. And Jakob understands this profoundly. He understands that he didn’t know it before, but he does now. He understands that God was there all the time. But then next line, the mode switches…Jakob says that this is the Home of God (mode two)
and that is the gate to heaven.” Mode 1 וְזֶ֖ה שַׁ֥עַר הַשָּׁמָֽיִם
I’ve spoken before about what the Talmud thinks about gates to heaven. The short answer is that since the destruction of the Temple, the gate to heaven is closed, except for the gates of wounded feeling.
Between those two modes of God here and God there, is a sense that God is Immanent, here in everything. And also, God is transcendent. Above us somewhere. This is reflected in many Jewish names for God. Transcendent is Shechina is floating above us, somewhere to get to. Ha Makom is right here where we already are. You don’t have to climb up a ladder to get there. Ha makom is comforting and close by. That’s why we use it to comfort mourners… when we say HaMakom yenachem et'chem b'toch shar avay'lay Tzion vee'Yerushalayim. May the Makom comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
HaMakom says God is everywhere and everything: physical and spiritual, matter and energy. Like Jakob the person might awake from a sleep and realise Surely the LORD is present in this place, and I did not know it!” A person might realise that there is nowhere to go to reach God because God is there, was there and will be there. And we forget that. In that moment of complete peace, or bliss or flow, when we have felt part of a bigger life force for a moment, it is then later remembered like a touchstone. That’s what I think what Jakob realises when he wakes up, and then he tries to get there again…
Of all the names for God my favourite name remains Eyn Od. It includes the traveling up a ladder and being in the place. The journey and the destination. It includes in the world and beyond the world. Eyn Od means there is nothing else. There is nothing else to say. Shabbat shalom
