"And the Lord revealed Himself to Jacob again on his return from Padan of Aram, and the Lord blessed him by the name of His Memra, after the death of his mother." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 35:9) adds two details the plain text does not include: the blessing came through the Memra, the divine Word, and it came right after Rebecca's death.
Comfort after bereavement
The rabbis read this timing as sacred. The Talmud (Sotah 14a) teaches that just as God comforted Isaac after the death of Abraham, so He comforts every mourner. Here the Targum places Jacob in that same lineage. He has just learned of his mother's death. God meets him with a blessing.
The tradition calls this nichum avelim — comforting mourners — and it is one of the deepest obligations in Jewish life. When a person is bereaved, we do not leave them alone. We sit with them. We bring food. We speak of the one who died. God Himself models this at Bethel: He waits for the moment of Jacob's grief and then He speaks.
Blessed by the Memra
The blessing comes through the Memra, the active speaking presence of the Holy One. It is God coming close, not in a theophany of fire, but in a word. The patriarch newly orphaned needs neither thunder nor lightning. He needs a sentence. And God gives him one.
The takeaway: the holiest comfort after a loss is often a few quiet words from someone who loves you.