Vayeitze 5782 Shabbat Afternoon Learning

He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. And the LORD was standing beside him and He said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac: the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring. Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. 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.”

Jacob instituted the evening prayer, as it is stated: “And he encountered [vayifga] the place and he slept there for the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11). The word encounter means nothing other than prayer, as it is stated when God spoke to Jeremiah: “And you, do not pray on behalf of this nation and do not raise on their behalf song and prayer, and do not encounter [tifga] Me for I do not hear you” (Jeremiah 7:16). Jacob prayed during the evening, after the sun had set.

As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf, do not plead with Me; for I will not listen to you.

ויפגע AND HE LIGHTED — similar are (Joshua 16:7) “and it reached (ופגע) unto Jericho”, and (Joshua 19:11) “and reached (ופגע) to Dabesheth”. Our Rabbis explained it in the sense of “praying”, just as (Jeremiah 7:16) “Neither make intercession (תפגע) to me”. Thus we may learn that Jacob originated the custom of Evening Prayer. Scripture purposely changed the usual word for “praying”, not writing יתפלל, “And he prayed” (which would have been the more appropriate word, but ויפגע which means to hit upon a place unexpectedly), to teach you also that the ground shrunk before him (the journey was miraculously shortened) as it is explained in the Chapter גיד הנשה (Chullin 91b).

The Sages explained it as a term for prayer... Accordingly, במקום means “to Hashem,” Who is called מקום (“Place”) since He is the world’s place. (Re’m)

is as it is written: “And Jacob departed from Beersheba and went to Haran” (Genesis 28:10), and it is written thereafter, ostensibly after he arrived in Haran: “And he encountered [vayyifga] the place, and he slept there, for the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11). This means that when Jacob arrived at Haran, he said: Is it possible that I bypassed a place where my forefathers prayed and I did not pray there? He sought to return to Beit El. Once he contemplated in his mind to return, the land contracted for him, and immediately: “And he encountered the place,” indicating that he arrived there unexpectedly, sooner than he would have arrived without a miracle.

The Gemara cites another exposition of Rabbi Yitzḥak to explain an apparent contradiction between two verses pertaining to this incident. It is written: “And he took of the stones of the place, and placed them under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep” (Genesis 28:11). And it is written: “And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had placed under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it” (Genesis 28:18). The first verse indicates that Jacob took several stones, whereas the latter verse indicates that he took only one stone. Rabbi Yitzḥak says: This teaches that all those stones gathered to one place and each one said: Let this righteous man place his head upon me. And it was taught: And all of them were absorbed into one large rock.

[AND HE LIGHTED UPON THE PLACE.] The reason the bet of ba-makom (the place) is vocalized with a pattach is that Moses in writing the Torah did so in order to indicate the place that was well known in his time. Similarly the prophet Hosea said, And there (at Beth-el) he would speak with us (Hos. 12:5). Hosea said this because he prophesied in Beth-el concerning Jeroboam the son of Joash. Hosea used the term “with us” because Amos, too, prophesied in Bethel. It is clear from the Book of Amos that Beth-el was a holy place. According to the plain meaning of the text, va-yifga (and he lighted) is not to be translated as, and he prayed, as in neither make intercession (tifga) to Me (Jer. 7:16), because we never find in the entire Bible the word makom (place) meaning God. Do not pay any attention to the Midrashic interpretation that explains makom, in makom acher (Es. 4:14), as referring to God, because it most certainly does not. Proof of this is found in the word acher (another) which follows makom.