The ancient rabbis pondered such a moment, centered on our patriarch, Jacob, and a vision of a ladder reaching to the heavens.
The scene is set in Genesis, where Jacob dreams of a ladder with angels ascending and descending. But Vayikra Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Leviticus, sees something more profound in this dream. Rabbi Naḥman begins by quoting Jeremiah: "You, have no fear, My servant Jacob" (Jeremiah 30:10), connecting it directly to Jacob's ladder. According to Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman, these weren't just any angels; they were the guardian angels of different nations.
Imagine Jacob watching these angels. The Holy One, blessed be He, showed him the guardian angel of Babylon ascending seventy rungs, Media ascending fifty-two, Greece ascending one hundred and eighty. But then he saw the guardian angel of Edom, traditionally understood as the forebear of Rome, ascending… and ascending… seemingly without end.
This terrified Jacob. "Is it possible that this one has no descent?" he wondered. The Holy One reassured him: "You, have no fear, My servant Jacob, even if it ascends and sits near Me, I will bring it down from there." This echoes the verse in Obadiah: "If you raise yourself like the eagle, or place your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, the utterance of the Lord" (Obadiah 1:4). No matter how high Edom might rise, God would ultimately bring it low.
Now, here's where it gets really interesting. Rabbi Berekhya, Rabbi Ḥelbo, and Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai, in the name of Rabbi Meir, offer a different, even more poignant interpretation. They say that God showed Jacob the angels of Babylon, Media, Greece, and Edom both ascending and descending. Then, God said to Jacob, "You, too, will ascend."
But Jacob hesitated. He feared that just as those angels had a descent after their ascent, so too would he. The Holy One reassured him: “You, have no fear, if you ascend, there will be no descent for you forever.” But Jacob, tragically, didn't believe it.
Rabbi Meir expounds on this, linking it to Psalms 78:32: "Nonetheless, they continued to sin and did not believe in His wonders." This, he says, is Jacob our patriarch, who did not believe and did not ascend. Because of this lack of faith, God declared that Jacob's descendants would be subjugated by the four kingdoms, burdened with taxes of all kinds.
Jacob, understandably distraught, asked if this subjugation would be forever. God reassured him with the words of Jeremiah: "Do not be afraid, Israel, as, behold, I will save you from afar" (Jeremiah 30:10). This salvation would come from distant lands like Babylon, Gaul (France), and Spain. Jacob would return, finding calm, tranquility, and freedom from trembling. God would bring annihilation upon the nations who oppressed them, but not upon Israel.
The midrash (rabbinic interpretation) concludes with a fascinating connection to the laws of the harvest. God says, "I will chastise you with justice" (Jeremiah 30:11), afflicting them with suffering to cleanse them of iniquities. But, the text implies, this suffering can be lessened during the time of justice, namely on Rosh Hashanah, in the seventh month. How? By supporting the poor, echoing the law of leaving a corner of one's field unharvested for the needy (Leviticus 23:22).
So, what are we to make of this? It seems to be a story about missed opportunities, about the consequences of fear and doubt, and about the enduring promise of redemption. But it's also about something more personal. What ladders are we being offered? What ascents are we shying away from because we fear the inevitable descent? And perhaps most importantly, how can we cultivate the faith to believe that, with God's help, our ascent might be without descent?