(12) He (Jacob) had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.
The nature of a ladder [sulam] is a symbol [semel], or it is an explanation of the Gematria valuation of 'Sinai' (Genesis Rabbah 68:12-14). And Rabbi Shlomo HaSefardi said that 'ladder' hints at the highest soul and 'G-d's angels' hints at wise thoughts. Rabbi Joshua said that the reason for the ladder is that his (Jacob's) prayer rose on it and his salvation from the heavens came down on it. These explanations do not explain it in light of the prophecy of Zecharia (1:8), Amos (7:1), and Jeremiah (1:11). The reason for the ladder here is a metaphor, for nothing is concealed from G-d. Worldly things hang onto the heavens as though there is a ladder between them, upon which the angels go up to report on things after they have been walking along the earth. Likewise, it is written that other angels descend to fulfill G-d's tasks, like a king with his servants.
'ויאמר אני ה, “God said: I am the Lord, etc.;” this parallels what Hashem said at the beginning of the Decalogue in Exodus, 20,2. An alternate interpretation; the word סולם is to be understood literally, as “ladder;” the words: והנה מלאכי אלוקים, describe God as showing Yaakov the spiritual representative of Egypt in the celestial spheres, (as also stated in the commentary by Nachmanides) and how that empire after first rising to great heights was brought down completely. A third interpretation: these angels were the angels that had come to Sodom to rescue Lot, and had been demoted by God after describing themselves to Lot as initiating the destruction of Sodom, by telling Lot that they had come to destroy Sodom, as if they had the power to do this instead of simply carrying out God’s command. (Genesis 19,14,) They had also revealed some of God’s secrets without having permission to do so. According to tradition, their punishment had been to be banned from the celestial regions. Now, 138 years later, they had been allowed to return to their places in the celestial regions.
תָּנוּ רַבָּנָן, (בראשית כ״ח:י״ב) וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה, זֶהוּ בֵּית עוֹלָמִים. וְרֹאשׁוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה, כְּמָה דְאַתְּ אָמֵר (שמות ט״ו:י״ז) מָכוֹן לְשִׁבְתְּךָ פָּעַלְתָּ ה'. אֵיזֶהוּ רֹאשׁוֹ, זֶהוּ צִיּוֹן, שֶׁשָּׁם הַשְּׁכִינָה, וְהַכְּרוּבִים, וְקֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים. אָמַר רִבִּי אַבָּא, סוּלָּם זֶה סִינַי, שֶׁבּוֹ נִיתְּנָה תּוֹרָה, וְשָׁם נִגְלוּ מֶרְכְּבוֹתָיו שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא.
Our Rabbis teach: Behold there was a ladder stationed on the ground, this is the house of worlds. And its top reached towards the heavens, as it is said, "The place You made to dwell in" (Ex. 15:17) What is at the top? Zion, for there is the Divine Presence, and the Cherubim, and the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Aba said: This ladder is Sinai, where the Torah will be given, and there the chariots of God will be revealed.
במדרש והנה סולם זה סיני כי התורה היא משיבת נפש ומלמדת איך להעלות כל הדברים אל השורש כי באורייתא ברא קוב"ה עלמא ויש בתורה הרבה פירושים פרד"ס והם כמו סולם מדריגה אחר מדריגה עד השורש העליון. אכן מ"ש עולים ואחר כך יורדים נראה שהוא לרמוז ליעקב אבינו ע"ה. כי עתידין בני ישראל להקדים נעשה לנשמע. כמ"ש עושי דברו לשמוע בקול דברו. ואיתא במדרש בשעת הבריאה הי' השמים לה' והארץ לתחתונים. ובקבלת התורה נתחברו. וכתיב ומשה עלה. וירד ה' על הר סיני ע"ש. והנה כ' מקודם ומשה עלה עולים ואח"כ יורדים וכך היו האבות בחי' עשי' שקדמה לקבלת התורה כמ"ש במ"א. והתורה שלהם הוא בחי' תושבע"פ נטע בתוכינו. והוא בחי' מלאכי אלקים עולים. ועי"ז זכו אח"כ בנ"י להוריד את התורה מן השמים בכחו של מרע"ה בבחי' תורה שבכתב:
In the midrash, "Behold there was a ladder," this is Sinai, for the Torah returns the soul and teach how to raise up all things to the root. For with the Torah God created the world, and there are in Torah many explanations on the levels of PaRDeS (Pashat, Remez, Drash, and Sod,) and they are like a ladder with rung after rung until the Heavenly Root.
Thus the ministering angels go up and afterwards descend as a hint to Jacob, our father, peace be upon him.
For in the future the children of Israel will precede "We will do," to "We will listen." Like the ministering angels who do God's words to listen to the voice of God's words.
And it is brought in the Midrash that at the moment of creation it was that the heavens belonged to God and the land belonged to the lowly. And at the moment of receiving Torah they joined together. It is written, "Moses went up." "And God descended on Mt. Sinai." And here, like before, Moses goes up and afterwards God descends, and such were our ancestors in their aspect of "doing" (asiyah) that came before the Torah. Their Torah is in the form of Oral Torah that is planted inside us. And this is like the Angels of God going up. And through this the children of Israel merited afterwards to bring down the Torah from the heavens through the power of Moshe our Teacher, peace be upon him, in the form of the written Torah.
Shacharis- The four ladder movement, upward and inward
From Iyyun.com
Prayer is likened to the ladder in the dream of Yaakov. As the Book of Genesis relates (28:12), in his dream, Yaakov saw “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.”
The Hebrew word for “ladder”—sulam—is comprised of three Hebrew letters totaling 130: samach equaling 60; lamed equaling 30; and mem equaling 40. This is the same numerical value as that of the word Sinai: samach equaling 60; yud equaling 10; nun equaling 50; and yud equaling 10. This implies that the peak or ultimate experience of prayer is mystical union with Hashem, such the Jewish people achieved at Mt. Sinai.
If the word sulam is spelled with an additional letter vav (equaling 6) its numerical value is 136, which is the same as kol meaning “voice.” This suggests that the means of travel on the ladder of prayer is through the vocalization of our prayers. We need to include all levels of our being on this inner journey of prayer, most importantly our humanness, which is distinguished by our ability to speak, an ability not shared by any other creatures.
Four Stages of Prayer
The Midrash Tanchuma says that there were four steps to Yaakov’s ladder, and the Zohar teaches that these four rugs parallel the four main stages of morning prayer, beginning with earthly reality and slowly moving upward and inward to a higher, deeper level of connection and unity with Hashem. At the outset of prayer, we begin by standing on the first rung, and through the course of the prayer service, we climb the ladder toward spiritual perfection and elevation.
The four stages of morning prayer are as follows:
1) Morning Blessings (Birchas Hashchar) which reflect our dawn of our awareness.
2) Verses of Praise (Pesukei DeZimrah) which cut away any negativity and awaken our emotions.
3) Reading of the Shema (Kerias Shema) which internalizes our emotions.
4) The Silent Standing Prayer (Amidah also known as the Shemonei Esrei) which is a deep encounter with the Divine in a quite space of union, ultimately reaching a place of oneness.
The stages of prayer parallel the worlds of creation as well as the levels of our soul:
1) the world of action (asiyah) and the soul level of physical/functional consciousness (nefesh)
2) the world of formation (yetzirah) and the soul level of emotional consciousness (ruach)
3) the world of creation/context (beriah) and the soul level of intellectual/cognitive ability (neshamah)
4) the world of unity (atzilus) and the soul level of transcendental consciousness (chayah) which is reflected as our inner most deepest will and desire.
