Who is Jacob and what is this ladder? The image has captured many imaginations: the spiritual we just sang, composed in the 19th c by Liberian slaves who intended to return to Africa once they were free. Jacob's ladder is the name of a flower, the term for a rope ladder with wooden steps used on ships, and what the English call runs in your stockings. (This last courtesy of Phil Sullivan, who gave me some information from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.) What might this image have to do with us? Do you know?
The family of Abraham, to whom was given the covenant of the land of Israel, presents quite a story. Better than many we read and see in film today. Abraham's son Isaac, whom you might remember he almost sacrificed, married Rebekah and she became pregnant with twins. They tussled in her womb and she sought an answer from God and was told that she would give birth to two nations, which shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, . . . the first came forth red . . . so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. (Gen 25:23-26) Jacob is a play on the Hebrew word for heel, taking by the heel, or supplanting. The redness of Esau refers to the people called Edomites, with whom the Israelites had a rivalry and over whom Israel gained ascendancy.
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. They typified the different lives of the hunter and the shepherd, peoples that often clash when sharing the land. Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!' . . . Jacob said, First sell me your birthright.' Esau said, I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?' Jacob said, Swear to me first.' So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. (Gen 25:27-34) A birthright has to do with the rights of the eldest son: leadership of the family and a double share of the inheritance. (Herbert May in the RSV he edited) The supplanting had begun.
It culminated in Isaac's later years when he sought to bless Esau, his eldest son. These kind of death-bed blessings were important for they were believed to determine the blessed person's destiny. Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. . . . Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, Bring me game and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you before the Lord before I die.' (Gen 27:5-8) Rebekah helps Jacob disguise himself so that he would seem hairy like Esau, she cooks the food, and Jacob goes in to his blind father Isaac and fools him into believing he is Esau. Jacob receives the blessing. May God give you the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you! (Gen 27:28-29)
It isn't long before the ruse is discovered though. Esau plans to kill Jacob but again Rebekah finds out in advance and wants to send Jacob away to safety with her family. Once again she manipulates Isaac and gets him to charge Jacob with leaving home to find an acceptable wife from among her family. Esau had married two Canaanite women and they were not acceptable to Isaac and Rebekah because they were not believers in the same God. Israelites defined themselves as different from the Canaanites, the people who dwelt on the land when the Israelites arrived.
Thus Jacob escaped. And he came to a certain place, and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he20dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth . . . Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land' . . . . Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.' And he was afraid, and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' (Gen 28:10-17) Jacob then named the place Bethel, the house of God, and erected a stone pillar in the place where he saw the gate of heaven. Down through the centuries northern Israelites marked the sanctity of that pillar and that place. Jacob's action is, in itself, a supplanting because Bethel originally housed a shrine to the Canaanite god El. Canaanites, to whom his brother Esau was related by marriage.
From an ethical point of view, stories like these raise interesting questions for the current situation in Israel, such as whose claim to the land has more weight? Should a biblical promise factor in? But that is its own topic, perhaps for another day. Also from an ethical point of view, you might be wondering why such a covenant is made with a liar and a cheat like Jacob. It's hard for us not to insert our morality into the actions of biblical characters. But this tale has etiological qualities, it is, in part, an explanation story. It explains the pillar and the importance of Bethel. I explains the relationship with the Edomites. Jacob had to supplant Esau -- that was the prophecy. How else could he have done it except by trickery? Esau would not have willingly given up the blessing. The other way would have Jacob murdering Esau, but that would not have fit the historical reality. Why the prophecy? Because when this story was written down, a timeframe which scholars think spans two centuries starting around the time of David in the 10th century BCE, Israel, whom Jacob represents, had subjugated Edom and the Edomites, whom Esau represents, (who were on the land before the Israelites and therefore older than the Israelites). The story, with its sibling rivalry and its prophecy, explains a lived historical experience for the people around at the time of its writing.
Fine. But beside providing an explanation for Bethel and for Israel's relationship with Edom, what else might this story have to say? The ladder provides a key. Jacob has succeeded in supplanting Esau, but because of it he can no longer live at home. Fulfillment of the prophecy has been set in motion, but what now? What does Jacob do now?
Have you ever reached a point in your life when, after great exertion, and perhaps great accomplishment, you ask What now?'? High school graduation, college graduation -- what now? Retirement -- what now? Completion of the novel, the painting, the song -- what now? We've climbed the mountain, swum the channel, finished the marathon -- what now? Remember the closing scene of the film The Graduate, when Elaine has left her groom standing at the altar and ran away to join Benjamin and they get on a public bus? They laugh and laugh at their escape from all that would hold them back but then they look at each other and the look on their faces asks, What now? The film ends, but their lives don't. Have you known that place of questioning that follows exertion and/or accomplishment, that signals change, that seems to ask something else from us but we don't know how to answer? Have you known that place? What now? That's when we need the ladder.
The ladder is rooted in the earth and it extends to the heavens. Angels travel up and down it and Jacob sees God standing at the top. The image of the ladder itself probably comes from a Babylonian ziggurat, a stepped structure with ramps leading to the top. Babylonians believed that the gods dwelt at the top of the ziggurat and so made ramps for priests to get there. The Tower of Babel was probably a ziggurat. If you go to Iraq you can see archaeological remains of them. The early Israelites had contact with Babylonians and thus the presence of Babylonian images in the book of Genesis.
The ladder symbolizes then, among other things, connection with God, a bridge to that which is greater than humankind. It's a bridge that allows travel both ways: humanity to that which is greater and the messengers of that which is greater, the angels, can travel to humanity. Access to the ramp comes in a dream, in a vision.
When we are in the place of What now, answers often come not through our minds. We can work the problems; we can list the pros and cons of all our choices, but somehow we still don't know what next. At times we cannot even see what choices lie before us. How then do we find answers? In dreams, in mystical moments, through intuition, in creativity, in body learning, through inspiration. Didn't the idea for the double helix of DNA come to James Watson through a dream? Didn't Mozart report hearing inner musical scores?
Jacob is out of answers and only when he lets go of his conscious mind, through sleep, does he make room for other aspects of himself, or that which is beyond himself, to give him the answers. The ladder is the connection to those other parts of himself, to that which is both transcendent -- outside of us -- and immanent -- deep within us. The ladder reaches to the heavens but is rooted in the earth. For Jacob that transcendence and immanence is God. Others of us might have different names for it. The point is if we can find the unconscious parts of ourselves and set up the ladder for communicating with them, they will have very important things to say to us.
I have added swimming to my life within the last year and in order to learn some strokes? I went online and did some reading and watched some videos. I practiced on the floor at home. I'm all in my head with this, right?? Then I went to the pool and tried a sidestroke. Okay, I could do it while on my right side. Okay. I turned to my left side and I could not do it. I simply could not. I rehearsed in my head what I had seen on video -- still no left sidestroke. I let it go. The next time I went to the pool and jumped into the deep end, I automatically turned onto my left side and side-stroked to the other end. When I got there it took me a while to realize that without thinking about it at all I had accomplished what I could not accomplish before. Somehow my body had learned the stroke without further help from my mind. This is what I mean by finding answers from parts of ourselves that lie beyond our minds. I had to get out of my own way and stop thinking about it in order to find the ramp, the ladder, that connected me to myself and what my body apparently knew.
Sometimes we experience the ladder, the ramp, connecting us to something or someone beyond ourselves. I can remember walking along the Atlantic ocean one year in May, around Mother's Day, only two months after my mother died. As I stared at the ocean and my senses took in the sight, the sound, the smell, the taste, the touch of it, I felt bereft, sad and lonely. Then I felt what I could only describe as a great love rise out of the ocean and fill me and comfort me and let me know that I was not alone. I felt completely connected to that love. And I was sure that it was true. Moments like this give our lives meaning and renew our purpose.
Have you ever had such a ladder experience, connecting you to something deep within yourself, and/or something greater than yourself, giving you answers, helping you find meaning? What was it?
Jacob finds a blessing from God. It is much like the blessing he received from his father Isaac. He and his descendants will prosper, they will always return to the land promised them. God will be with them, which blesses them before all peoples. But this blessing was given freely and it gives Jacob's life a new direction and purpose. He will go to Rebekah's family and he will find a wife, two of them, and he will father sons whose descendants will become the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jacob's ladder is a symbol for that which connects us to parts of ourselves that we do not completely access with our minds. It connects us to whatever we believe is greater than us, again which we don't completely access with our minds. Experiencing that connection, the walking up and down the ramp, gives us answers; it helps us find meaning and purpose for our lives. It instructs us that life must be lived with firm roots in real world ” the base of the ladder ” yet simultaneously with deep attachment to the values and ideals of heaven (metaphorically speaking) the ladder's peak. (Rabbi Shanah Tovah) The ladder is that bridge showing us how to live in the world we live in and at the same time hold onto visions, hold onto meanings and purposes for our world which our sense of reality would dismiss as too idealistic, too out of reach. The ladder helps us not to be completely closed in by the reality we see at the moment. There is more than that to life. We must never stop dreaming of the world that can be. And if we can find and make use of our ladders of connection, we will find the wisdom and meaning within us and beyond us, and we will use that to bring our dreams closer to reality.
Jacob's ladder is always there. We just have to clear enough space in our beings for it to appear. Our world is full of distractions: radio, TV, computers, entertainment of all types. We never have to have quiet around us if we don't want to. But maybe we need to. Maybe we need to find our way to the ladder. Sometimes its a walk all by ourselves, sometimes it comes through creative activity, sometimes in prayer, or meditation, or walking meditation, repetitive exercise that allows our minds to go free, even dreaming. We each have our way to the ladder, if we practice it; if we remain open to it. Have you known Jacob's ladder?
When we are in the place of What now and cannot come up with the answers we need and we feel a bit without purpose, may we open ourselves to Jacob's ladder. May we do what works for us to get out of our own way and access the connections with ourselves and with that which is greater than ourselves. The connections that will provide the wisdom of new meaning and renewed purpose for our lives. The connections that will enable us to dream and to work for a better world and a better us, even as we are well aware of our present realities. We are more than we realize, or as Hamlet said, There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. And therein lies our greatest hope.
When our heart is in a holy place, when our heart is in a holy place, we are blessed with love and amazing grace, when our heart is in a holy place. (Joyce Poley) May it be so.
Song #1008 When Our Heart is in a Holy Place
Sources for this exploration include a sermon given by Shanah Tovah, given on 9/14/0 6 and found on the Speaking of Faith website (www.speakingoffaith.publicradio.org) on a program about the High Holy Days. Other sources include Harper's Bible Commentary and the Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible. Phil Sullivan gave me information from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco's weekly series called Brush Up Your Bible, www.gracecathedral.org. Thank you Phil.
Closing words by Abraham Joshua Heschel, Who is Man?
A stone is characterized by its finality, whereas (humanity's) outstanding quality is in its being a surprise. To claim to be what I am not is a pretension. To insist that I must be only what I am now is a restriction which human nature must abhor. The being of a person is never complete, final.