“Jacob awoke early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had placed beneath his head, and established it as a monument, and poured oil on the top of it” (Genesis 28:18). “Jacob awoke early in the morning, and he took the stone…and poured oil on the top of it” – He provided to him, from the heavens, enough to fill a jug to its mouth. “He called the name of that place Beit El; however, Luz was the name of the city initially” (Genesis 28:19).
“However, Luz” – this is Luz, in which they dye sky blue wool. This is Luz that Sennacherib attacked but did not transfer its population; [that] Nebuchadnezzar [attacked], but he did not destroy it. This is Luz, over which the angel of death never had dominion. What would the elderly among them do?
When they would become very old, they would take them outside the walls and they would die. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Why is it called Luz? Anyone who would enter it would proliferate mitzvot and good deeds like an almond tree [luz]. The Rabbis say: Just as a luz has no opening,15The shell has no clear place from which to crack it. so, too, no man could ascertain the location of the city entrance.
Rabbi Simon said: Luz was located at the entrance of a city. Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Pinḥas bar Ḥama: Luz was located at the entrance of a cave. There was a hollow almond tree and they would enter the cave through the almond tree and through the cave to the city. That is what is written: “The sentries saw a man emerging from the city, and they said to him: Show us now the way into the city, and we will act benevolently with you.
He showed them the way into the city, and they smote the city by the sword, but the man and his entire family they released” (Judges 1:24–25). Rabbi Yanai and Rabbi Yishmael employed this as a conclusion:16Used this as a conclusion to what they said, ending with a statement praising the host. If this one, who did not go with his hands or with his feet, but because he showed them with his finger, was saved from suffering, Israel, who perform acts of kindness with their great ones17And their lesser ones. with their hands and with their feet, all the more so.