A 5 year old  boy  was learning this week's Torah portion, Vayeitzei, with his rebbi. When they came to the section of Yaakov's dream, the rebbi posed a question to his young student:

In the dream there was a ladder and angels were going up and down, do you see anything out of order here?

The boy just smiled and said it seems normal to me. But angels come from heaven, said his rebbi, they should be coming down first then climbing back up. The young book smiled again and said, rebbi it is just a dream and in the dream Yaakov can have the angels going up then down if he wants.

Actually our great Torah commentator, Rashi, asks the same question. Rashi answers that since Yaakov was leaving the land of Israel, the angels who were protecting him could not accompany him, so HaShem dispatched new angels to protect him outside the land (diaspora). Thus we see angels ascending first then descending.

Later, when Yaakov returned with his wives and children to the land of Israel, angels came to escort them home. What changed? Now guardian angels from Israel were able to come a great distance into the diaspora to escort Yaakov and his family?

Chassidis teaches that we, who were given a Jewish neshama, have a special mission in this world. We have been entrusted with making this world a dwelling place for HaShem, to reveal the G-dlinnes that already exists here. We also have the responsibility to teach all the other nations that there is only one G-d and that they are to keep the 7 Noahidic commandments.

This is what Yaakov, our father, did when he left the land of Israel. He transformed the diaspora into a spiritual Israel, a dwelling place for HaShem, by learning Torah and doing mitzvahs.

Now we can understand why the angels were allowed to come to meet Yaakov outside of the Land. They were honoring Yaakov, not acting as guardians, showing that he transformed the place where he had been into the Land of Israel.

This is the lesson for all of us today. We can change the world and make it into a dwelling place for HaShem. Each one of us can start right where we are living and make it into the land of Israel.

Change the world
Love one another
Do one more mitzvah
Learn a little more Torah today

lchaim lchaim

r. yaakov ephraim