The Ladder That Won’t Let Us Stand Still
Parshat Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3)
Have you ever looked up from your phone after scrolling for what felt like minutes, only to find an hour gone — and nothing in you had really moved forward? That unsettling feeling of drift is what Jacob faces on his first night away from home.
“Jacob had a dream: a ladder set on the earth, its top reaching toward heaven, with angels ascending and descending.” (Genesis 28:12)
Jacob’s dream comes at a moment of crisis. He is leaving the safety of his parents’ home, fleeing from Esau’s anger, and heading into an uncertain future. Alone, vulnerable, and with nothing but a stone for a pillow, Jacob receives a vision of a ladder connecting earth and heaven. Why Jacob, and why now? Because he is in between — no longer who he was, not yet who he will become. The ladder tells him: even in transition, especially in transition, you are meant to keep climbing.
Chassidic teaching puts it this way: life is never static. Just as a person on a ladder cannot freeze in place without slipping, so too with the soul. We are either moving upward into growth or downward into stagnation. There is no neutral. Jacob needed this reminder because his journey would not be simple. He would face years of exile, conflict, and disappointment. The dream wasn’t just a glimpse of heaven — it was a map for survival.
And it’s not only ladders. Life is more like a down escalator: if you stand still, you’re already moving backward. Or like a treadmill: you can work hard and go nowhere if you’re not aiming forward. The point is the same — drift is dangerous. Only deliberate steps carry us upward.
The angels in Jacob’s dream remind us that growth isn’t steady or smooth. Sometimes we rise in inspiration, sometimes we fall into setback. But G-d tells Jacob, “I am with you.” The climb is uneven, but never lonely.
Think of a young woman learning piano. At first, every wrong note is discouraging. At one recital, she falters so badly she nearly quits. But her teacher tells her, “Every master was once a beginner who stumbled many times.” With practice, her failures become lessons. Slowly, mistakes turn into music. What once felt like failure is revealed as the process itself.
That is how life’s ladders work. Each day offers another rung disguised as a choice: pausing to listen instead of reacting in anger, speaking honestly when it’s easier to shade the truth, reaching out to mend a relationship rather than letting it drift. These are not dramatic leaps, but steady steps — the kind Jacob was called to take on his long journey.
So the question is not whether we have a ladder, but whether we’re moving on it. What would it look like for you, this week, to take one deliberate step upward — to refuse drift and choose growth?
Jacob’s dream still stands: a ladder planted on earth, its top reaching toward heaven, waiting for us to climb.
Wishing you a good week and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yonatan Hambourger