Vayetzei

Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

28:15

Jacob had reason to wonder. Why, if he was all that meritorious he did not merit God’s direct intervention on his behalf. Abraham had been saved from Nimrod’s furnace by God’s miraculous intervention, and while outside the Holy Land had been commanded to proceed to it. Isaac had at least not been permitted to leave the land of Israel. He, Jacob, was forced to flee to the diaspora…The new revelation to Jacob consisted in his realizing that he was not inferior to his father or grandfather. On the contrary, God would extend His constant protection to him even while he would be outside the land of Israel since only there would he enjoy God’s full protection, without intermediaries.

Moshe Alshich (16^th Century)

I am with you. Therefore, do not fear. Neither fear that you might forfeit something of the happiness of the soul, for I am with you outside of the land of Israel as inside of it, nor should you fear Esav or Lavan, for I will be protecting you wherever you go. Nor will I be leaving you alone until I fulfill My promise about you: all promises that I pledged to Avraham and to Isaac were about you, on your behalf, and I am bound to keep those promises. I could only forsake you if I nullified those promises – and that is not possible.

Malbim (19^th Century)

Jacob was on a level where god applied to him the attribute of “Shaddai,” God as Master of nature. Whatever assistance Jacob would receive would not be by means of the kind of miracles which upset the laws of nature…

Rabbeinu Bachya (14^th Century)

The heart of the promise, however, the new note struck in the history of God’s speeches to man, is the last verse: “Remember I am with you…” Here, on one level, God speaks of ends to be consummated: Jacob will return from exile, all the promises made to his fathers will be fulfilled in him…But…God’s message…goes far beyond this established pattern…an energy will accompany Jacob constantly through all the vicissitudes of exile. There is a quality of life promised here…By contrast with the angels and their compulsive ascent and descent of the ladder, Jacob will go with an extended sense of self that, mysteriously, will contain God…Jacob is no longer entirely his own man: he goes on Divine business…Jacob hears in God’s words a concern for the vulnerability of human experience that needs protection at every point…

Avivah Zornberg (Contemporary)

Jacob’s inner space becomes transformed, by becoming blessed, for he is promised what the Jewish mystical tradition refers to as a “portion of the land without boundaries…” 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…The “Maharsha” speaks of the synagogues and houses of study of the Diaspora as being part of the land of Israel…

Yehuda Gellman (Contemporary)