The LORD Stood Over Jacob and the Patriarchs as Chariot

"And behold, the LORD stood over him" (Genesis 28:13). Rabbi Yose ben Zimra opened with the verse, "My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You, in a dry and weary land without water" (Psalms 63:2) — like these thirsty fields that look toward the rain. The Rabbis said: just as my soul thirsts for You, so the two hundred and forty-eight limbs that are in me thirst for You. And where? "In a dry and weary land without water." "Thus I have beheld You in the sanctuary" (Psalms 63:3) — therefore in holiness I have beheld You, "to see Your strength" — this is Your retinue — "and Your glory." "And behold, the LORD stood over him." Rabbi Chama bar Chanina opened with the verse, "Iron sharpens iron, and a man sharpens the face of his fellow" (Proverbs 27:17). A knife is sharpened only against the side of its companion; so too a Torah scholar is improved only through his fellow. "And a man together" — this is Jacob, upon whom the Divine Presence became uniquely fixed. "And behold, the LORD stood over him." What is written above the matter? "And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it" (Genesis 28:12), and afterward "And behold, the LORD stood over him." A parable: to a king's son who was sleeping on his cradle, and flies were settling on him. His nurse came and bent over him, and the flies fled from him. So at first the angels of God were ascending and descending on him, but once the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed over him from on high, they fled from him. Rabbi Chiyya the Great and Rabbi Yochanan: one said "over him" means over the ladder, and one said "over him" means over Jacob. The one who says over the ladder — that is straightforward. To the one who says over Jacob — does the LORD stand over him? Rabbi Yochanan said: the wicked stand over their gods, "and Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he was standing over the river" (Genesis 41:1), but as for the righteous, the Holy One, blessed be He, stands over them, as it is said, "And behold, the LORD stood over him." Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: the patriarchs themselves are the Chariot, "And God went up from over Abraham" (Genesis 17:22) — God went up from over him. "And behold, the LORD stood over him."