Parshat Vayeitze "God was in this place & I did not know it" פרשת ויצע

(1) Now the יהוה said unto Abram: ‘Go yourself out of your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house, unto the land that I will show you. (2) And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. (3) And I will bless those that bless you, and those that curse you I will curse; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ (4) So Abram went and יהוה had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. (5) And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and they came into the land of Canaan.

(2) מארצך (from your land), G’d had to add this as it is difficult for a person to leave a homeland in which he had dwelled for many years, all the more so if that land was at the same time the place where he had been born.

(4) אל הארץ אשר אראך, if G’d had told Avram that He would show him a land which was rich, fertile, good, etc., it would not have been as difficult to comply with such a directive. But the fact that G’d did not add these inducements made it more difficult for Avram to decide. The reason why G’d did not offer these inducements was to show us, the readers, how great was Avram’s love of G’d that he unquestioningly abided by what G’d had asked him to do. He was determined to carry out the wishes of his G’d.

(10) And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. (11) And he lighted upon the place, and stayed there all night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. (12) And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of יהוה ascending and descending on it. (13) And, behold, יהוה stood beside him, and said: ‘I am יהוה, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land where you lie, I give it to you, and to your seed. (14) And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed. (15) And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you goe, and will bring you back into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of.’ (16) And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he said: ‘Surely יהוה is in this place; and I did not know it.’