Vayetzei

Shaken, he (Jacob) said, “How awesome is this place, this is none other than the abode of God, and this the gateway to heaven.”

28:17

Jacob wanted to collect the stones, but he found them all to be one stone, and so he set it up as a pillar in that place. Thereupon oil flowed down for him from heaven, and he poured it on top of the stone, aid, And he poured oil upon the top of it…(God then) sank the anointed stone unto the depths of the abyss to serve as the key-stone of the earth, just as one inserts a key-stone in an arch. It is for this reason that it is called Even Hashethiyah (the Foundation Stone). For there is the center of the earth, from there the earth unfurled and upon it stands the Temple of God…

Nachmanides(13^th Century)

After his dream, he was able to exclaim “indeed the Lord is in this place, although such a thought had been furthest from my mind.” This new found insight had been contradicted by Jacob’s thought processes on several accounts.

A) The assumption that God is subject to physical dimensions as we humans

use the term had been quite alien to Jacob. He was amazed to learn

that God has a permanent residence on earth.

B) The idea that God moves from place to place accompanying people,

would never have occurred to him, had this fact not been revealed to

him.

C) The thought that God’s movements, as it were, could be brought about by

outside influences, i.e. were not completely self induced, had likewise been beyond Jacob’s wildest imagination….only when we realize the limitations of our powers of perception, grieve over it and long to expand our spiritual horizons, will God grant us greater insights.

Akedat Yitzchak (15^th Century)

The expression “Zeh” (this) occurs three times in this verse. The Midrash therefore claims that God showed Jacob a Temple built and destroyed; when Jacob saw the Temple built, he exclaimed: “how awesome is this place!” When he was shown the Temple ruined, he exclaimed “This cannot be!” When he was finally shown the Temple rebuilt, he exclaimed “this must be the gateway to heaven.” According to this version of the Midrash God showed Yaakov only two Temples…It is possible to explain our verse in a manner which shows that it contains allusions to all three Temples…

Rabbeinu Bachya (13^th Century)

Now I understand Maimonides cryptic explanation for the eternal sanctity of Jerusalem: “The sanctity of Jerusalem is the sanctity of the divine presence, and the divine presence can never be nullified.” Maimonides is not implying that there is “more of God” in Jerusalem than any other place, because God is incorporeal and therefore not quantifiable; he is saying, however, that the eternal God of history, is revealed in Jerusalem…and just as the Jewish people and its ultimate salvation can never be nullified, so the sanctity of god in Jerusalem can never be nullified.

Shlomo Riskin (Contemporary)

Finally, Jacob’s inner space becomes transformed, by becoming blessed, for he is promised what the Jewish mystical tradition refers to as a “portion of land without boundaries.” God says: “And you shall spread to the west, the east, the north and to the south.” Jacob is granted the blessing of retaining the Land of Israel within his inner space even if he is beyond its borders, for the inner space of which we speak knows no borders. It is an expansion of the soul, an inner analogue of the land of Israel. The renowned Talmudic commentator, Rabbi Samuel Edels, the Maharsha (16^th Century), speaks of the synagogues and houses of study of the diaspora as being part of the land of Israel, and the great Hasidic master, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (19^th Century), who lived in the Ukraine, used to say, “Wherever I go, I am going to the land of Israel.” This saying defined his inner space.

Yehuda Gellman (Contemporary)