Our Parasha covers twenty years of the life of Ya’aqob Abinu. These years elapsed between two dreams. The first dream took place when Ya’aqob was leaving the land of Israel and heading towards Haran, in northern Syria. In his dream, Ya’aqob saw angels descending from heaven to earth and ascending from earth to heaven. Beyond the different interpretations of the amazing dream, the point I would like to focus on is that upon leaving Israel, our patriarch Jacob dreamed with angels. Dreams don’t come out of nowhere. And dreams don’t lie.
WHAT ARE DREAMS MADE OF?
First, let’s understand a little better what dreams are. We are what we dream. And we dream what we are. The content of our dreams reflects our lives. Desires, traumas and fears that we experience in our daily routine. If one dreams that he or she is flying, it is likely that he is aspiring to advance in his life, to have a better job, etc. but he feels that he is chained and trapped. Dreaming that one “flies” frees the dreamer for a few moments from those chains that limits him: the dream expresses his deep desire to progress. If you dream that you are driving a car and the brakes do not work, you probably feel, even if you don’t realize this consciously, that you are not in control of your life, and you want to be in control before it is too late. When you dream that you are in public without appropriate clothes, it is probably a reflection of your fear that people will discover something embarrassing that you do not want to be known. Dreams say a lot about us, our fears and desires that live in our subconscious mind.
THE DREAMS OF A PATRIARCH
Ya’aqob’s dream is deeply spiritual. Ya’aqob Abinu saw angels in his dream because that was his daily reality. He lived among them: his mother, his father, his grandfather Abraham, Shem, and Eber. Ya’aqob runs away from the land of his parents for fear that his brother Esav will kill him. He flees to the house of his uncle Laban. And there he has to work very hard. Laban, for a long time takes advantage of him. Until one day, after many years, Jacob tells Laban Gen. 31: 38-40 «These twenty years that I have been working for you, your sheep and your goats have not been injured, I have never taken from the animals of your flock [to my personal benefit], I never brought you an animal torn to pieces by wild beasts [I always took great care of them], and if they ever suffered an accident, I have taken the losses, since you always demanded that from my hand [even if it was not my guilt], and I did the same when an animal was stolen … day or night … [I worked non-stop]: during the day the heat consumed me and at night the frost, and so sleep fled from my eyes. »
METAMORPHOSIS
At the end of those twenty years, Ya’aqob dreams again. But this time he has a very different dream. There are no angels climbing a ladder, but animals mating, climbing one on top of the other. “Males climbed into herds, producing striped, dotted, and spotted animals” (Gen. 31: 10-11). This second dream is not a “spiritual” dream but a very material one! Animals represent material goods: there is no greater opposition than: “angels” vs “animals.” In his second dream, an angel indeed speaks to Ya’aqob, but only to teach him how to outsmart the shrewd Laban in business. This is a 100% materialistic dream, unbecoming the Ya’aqob we previously knew.… But in that same dream, Ya’aqob receives a direct order from HaShem, and this order comes with an explanation: (31; 11) «ki raiti et asher laban‘ ose imakh. Because I’ve seen what Laban has done to you. It’s as if HaShem is saying to Ya’aqob: “I see that working twenty years for Laban has affected you deeply. You have changed, and it can be seen in your dreams: twenty years ago you dreamed of angels and a ladder that linked earth to heaven. Now your dreams have been transformed: they are horizontal, ‘superficial.’ The angels were replaced by sheep and the stairs by stables. These dreams are worthy of Laban, not Ya’aqob!”
THE WAY BACK HOME
Ya’aqob then receives a direct order from HaShem, without ambiguity. It is time to go back home (31:11): “Now you must leave that land [Haran] and return to your homeland, [Israel].” You have to go back so that your dreams change, so that you dream of angels and ladders. And you will achieve that by living a life that constantly promotes that connection between earth and heaven. Your destiny is to be one of those human “angels” who ascend to heaven and bring the Tora to earth. So it was. In the last pasuq of this Parasha 32: 1, as soon as Ya’aqob arrives in Eretz Israel, he again visualizes “the angels” coming to meet him at Machanayim.
Ya’aqob, and us, his descendants, learned this great lesson. We must live our lives dealing with whatever we need to live with dignity and comfort, but with enough spirituality to dream of angels and ladders between heavens and earth.
