Jacob's Stone Pillar Becomes the Sanctuary of the Lord

Jacob set a pillar and poured oil on it (Genesis 28:22). Then he made a promise about what that pillar would become.

The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan goes further than the plain verse. This stone shall be ordained for the house of the sanctuary of the Lord. It is not a commemorative stone. It is a seed stone. It will grow, over centuries, into the Temple.

And on it, says the Targum, generations shall worship the Name of the Lord. The pillar becomes the point of prayer continuity. Jacob's great-grandchildren will pour oil on the corners of an altar. The kings of the house of David will bring sacrifices here. The pilgrims of every generation will stand on the mountain Jacob marked.

Then the tithe. Of all that Thou mayest give me, the tenth will I separate before Thee. The first vow of tithing in Jewish history. Before Moses, before the Levitical code, before the Temple treasury, Jacob invents the principle: one-tenth belongs to Heaven. Abraham had paid a tithe once to Malki-Tzedek (Genesis 14:20). Jacob makes it a lifelong commitment.

Charity, in Judaism, is not an invention of the law. It is an inheritance from the patriarchs. A Jew who sets aside maaser — a tenth — for the poor or the sanctuary is not adopting a rabbinic stringency. They are completing Jacob's vow.

The takeaway: the Temple Mount began as a pillow under a sleeping fugitive. And the Jewish practice of tithing began as the gratitude of a man who had nothing but a stone and a dream.