Just after leaving his home in Beersheba and setting out toward Haran, Jacob has an encounter (va-yifga) in a certain place (ba-makom). The biblical commentaries derive two significant lessons from these vague, ambiguous words. First, Jacob’s “encounter” is understood as an act of prayer. Second, this undefined “place” becomes a key to understanding Judaism’s vision of sacred space.
Vayifga – Jacob’s Encounter
Jacob’s encounter occurs at nightfall. He is alone, exiled from home, and enveloped in darkness. The Talmud teaches that Jacob instituted the evening prayer. Whereas Abraham and Isaac inspired the morning and afternoon prayers, only Jacob is associated with night and uncertainty.
The Hasidic commentary Netivot Shalom explains that it was precisely fitting for Jacob to initiate evening prayer. At home, he enjoyed spiritual clarity. Once he left, he found himself surrounded by darkness and had to discover a new path to God. He bequeaths this gift to the Jewish people – the ability to maintain faith even in the bleakest of times. As Dr. Avivah Zornberg writes, Jacob created a “new genre of prayer.”
Of the three patriarchs, the Sages may have most identified with Jacob. In the biblical world, Jewish worship was centered in the Temple; generations after its destruction, the Babylonian Sages also found themselves far from Jerusalem and seemingly distant from God. They saw in Jacob the model of praying in darkness – with uncertainty, but also with perseverance. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote: “We find God not only in holy or familiar places but also in the midst of a journey, alone at night.” The message to the children of Jacob is profound: even without the Temple, even in the hardest moments of Jewish history, prayer and connection are always possible.
Ha-Makom – The Place
The word makom appears repeatedly at the start of Parshat Vayetzei: “He came upon the place.” What is the place? The medieval commentator Rashi identifies it with the unnamed location in the Binding of Isaac narrative: “Abraham looked up and saw the place (ha-makom) from afar,” the site later known as Mount Moriah. Both Abraham and Jacob experience divine revelation there. In the Torah, the Temple is likewise called ha-makom. The midrash thus associates “the place” with Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
But the story raises a difficulty: Jacob names the site Beit-El, formerly called Luz, seemingly not in Jerusalem. Commentators grapple with the apparent contradiction. In response, a striking Midrash suggests that the ladder connecting heaven and earth allowed Jacob to be physically in one location while spiritually linked to the Temple Mount: “The ladder stood in Beersheba, and the middle of its slope reached opposite the Temple” (Genesis Rabbah 69:7).
This interpretation preserves the centrality of the holiest place in Judaism while acknowledging that one can direct prayer toward it from afar. Jacob may have been in Beersheba or on the road to Haran, but through that dream he was spiritually bound to ha-makom – to Mount Moriah, to Jerusalem.
Similarly, the Sages teach that after the Temple’s destruction, the Divine Presence resides in synagogues, study houses, and in every place where people gather to pray, learn, or pursue justice. Most strikingly, Ha-Makom becomes a rabbinic name for God. When we perform mitzvot wherever we are, we draw on the holiness of Ha-Makom and infuse our own surroundings with sanctity.
Modern Encounters
In each wave of live hostages returning home, many of their stories have shared a common theme. In the darkest of places – underground and under torture, in a time of great uncertainty – they drew strength from religious and spiritual connection to tradition and God. They are like modern-day Jacobs, teaching Jews in Israel and around the world that even in the depths of despair, deeper commitment, strength, and connection can emerge.
Their testimony points us back to Jacob’s larger lesson. Like him, the Jewish people today are in a fragile moment of transformation. Many Diaspora communities feel less secure and more uncertain than ever before, and in Israel we are finally able to turn our attention toward healing and rebuilding – and there is much to do. Jacob reminds us that it is precisely at such moments of transition that we can grow stronger, adapt, and deepen our spiritual identity. In following his path, we rediscover that God meets us wherever we turn to Him, and that the holiness of Ha-Makom accompanies us even in the darkest places.
Rabbanit Karen Miller Jackson is a certified Meshivat Halacha, Jewish educator and writer known for her contributions to Torah studies and educational initiatives, including at Matan Institute for Torah Studies. She is a member of the second cohort of Sacks Scholars and a Matan Kitvuni Fellow, currently writing a book on aggada in Talmud Berachot. Karen is also the creator of #PowerParsha, host of the Eden Center podcast Women & Wellbeing, and is the founder of Kivun l’Sherut, a guidance program for religious girls before sherut le’umi or army service. She lives with her family in Ra’anana, Israel.