Jacob's Ladder Read as the Temple Altar and as Mount Sinai

"And he dreamed." Bar Kappara taught: there is no dream that has no interpretation. "And behold a ladder" - this is the ramp [of the altar], "set upon the earth" - this is the altar, as you say, "an altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall offer upon it your burnt-offerings" (Exodus 20:21). "And its top reached toward heaven" - these are the sacrifices whose fragrance rises to heaven. "And behold, angels of God" - these are the high priests. "Ascending and descending on it" - for they would ascend and descend on the ramp. "And behold, the LORD stood over it" - "I saw the LORD standing over the altar" (Amos 9:1). The Rabbis interpret it of Sinai. "And behold a ladder" - this is Sinai; the letters of the one [sulam] equal in numerical value the letters of the other [Sinai]. "Set upon the earth" - "and they stood at the foot of the mountain" (Exodus 19:17). "And its top reached toward heaven" - "and the mountain burned with fire up to the heart of heaven" (Deuteronomy 4:11). "And behold, angels of God" - this is Moses and Aaron. "Ascending and descending on it" - "come up to Me on the mountain" (Exodus 24:12), "and Moses came down from the mountain" (Exodus 19:14). "And behold, the LORD stood over it" - "and the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai" (Exodus 19:20). "And behold, the LORD stood over it." Resh Lakish said: He showed him a three-legged seat - you are the third leg, as it is written, "for the portion of the LORD is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:9); just as a cord of fewer than three strands cannot be untwisted [text uncertain], so the patriarchs are not fewer than three. Rabbi Berechiah said: He showed him the world and a third of the world - "ascending," not fewer than two, and "descending," not fewer than two, and the angel is a third of the world, as it is said, "and his body was like beryl" (Daniel 10:6). Rabbi Chiyya the Great and Rabbi Yannai: one said the angels were ascending and descending on the ladder, and one said they were ascending and descending on Jacob. The one who says on the ladder is straightforward. The one who says on Jacob means they were raising him up and bringing him down, leaping upon him, springing upon him, reviling him - "Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah 49:3). You are the one whose features are engraved on high. They ascended on high and found his features, and descended below and found him sleeping. A parable: to a king who sat in judgment; they go up to the basilica and find him sitting in judgment, they go down to the colonnade and find him asleep.