בָּר֥וּךְ כְּבוֹד־יְהֹוָ֖ה מִמְּקוֹמֽוֹ
“Blessed is the Glory of HaShem from His Place.”
Genesis 28:10
וַיֵּצֵא יַעֲקֹב מִבְּאֵר שָׁבַע וַיֵּלֶךְ חָרָנָה
“Yaakov left Beersheva, and set out for Charan.”
Genesis 28:10
וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם וַיָּלֶן שָׁם כִּי־בָא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח מֵאַבְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם וַיָּשֶׂם מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָיו וַיִּשְׁכַּב בַּמָּקוֹם הַהוּא׃
“He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.”
Genesis 28:11
הַמָּקוֹם
And he encountered the place (28:11)
"The place" is Mount Moriah (the "Temple Mount" in Jerusalem, where Abraham had bound Isaac upon the altar and where King Solomon would erect the Holy Temple).”
Rashi cited at Chabad.org
“Avraham and Yitzchak are brought, by Divine command, to this specific place, and it is here that Yitzchak is bound up for an offering, and eventually replaced by the ram that is sacrificed in his stead. Here, as in the two later visits by Yaakov, this place is called "the place", above all others, different than all others. This is the place that will house the Beit HaMikdash, the physical manifestation of God's presence, the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds - perhaps the very House of God that Yaakov saw in prophetic vision.”
R’ Ari Kahn, M’oray Ha’Aish, Vayetzei: The Place - Hamakom
“Why do we call G‑d Hamakom, “The Place”?
Said Rabbi Yosei ben Chalafta: We do not know whether G‑d is the place of His world or whether His world is His place. But when the verse (Exodus 33:21) states, “Behold, there is a place with Me,” it follows that G‑d is the place of His world, but His world is not His place.”
Midrash Rabbah (Yalqut Shimoni, Vayetze, Remez 117) cited at Chabad.org
Ein Sof Ohr
Infinite Light
משיח
שם חי
Mashiach
Living Name
“The six Midot, Chesed to Yesod…issue forth from Imma as a unit, as the Partzuf of Ben (the Son), known as Z’eyr Anpin (the Small or lesser Countenance; Microprosopus). . . All these terms, and these concepts of the Partzufim, do not imply any pluralism in the G-dhead, various aspects under which G-d manifests Himself. Said Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: “Whatever I said of the Holy Ancient0One, and whatever I said of Z’eyr Anpin are absolutely One. There is no division in Him, blessed be He and blessed be His Name Foreverlasting. The sum of all this is: The Ancient of the Ancient and the Z’eyr Anpin are absolutely One. All is, all was, and all shall be; He will not change, He is unchanging, and He has not changed…Should you ask, what then is the difference between one and the other? It is all One, but from (above) His paths divide, and from (below) judgment is found; from our perspective they differ from one another.” (Zohar III:141a f)
Mystical Concepts in Chassidism – Chapter VIII: Partzufim, by R’ Jacob Immanuel Schochet, in the back of Likutei Amarim: Tanya, Kehot Publication Society, pg. 943
לְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים
l’olmei olamim
Forever and ever
To the World of Worlds
To the Universe of Universes
To the Vanishing Point of Vanishing Points
“To the End of Time and Space”
עולם
“And he dreamed, and behold—a ladder was standing on the earth, and its top reached the heavens; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:12)
“The Midrash says that the “angels from God were going up and down,” not “upon it” (Hebrew having no gender-neutral pronoun) but “upon him,” on Yaakov himself. Yaakov, through his deeds, regulates the Divine flow from above, the angels go up and down on him, by him and for him. He is the ladder.”�The Essential Malbim, Parashas Vayeitzei, Mesorah Publishing Ltd., 229-230
He lay down in that place…He dreamt…a ladder…
SULaM (סולם has the same numerical value as KOL (קול , voice). That is, one must arouse his voice to pray to G-d, and the only way to do this is when he stands firmly upon the earth, for “Truth will sprout from the earth” (Psalms 85:12) . When a person tries to utter his prayers as truthfully and sincerely as possible, he, too, will see “angels ascending and descending”—his prayers will be elevated to G-d and the answers to his prayers will be sent down (Likutey Halakhot III, p. 498)
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (pp. 231-232). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.”
Exodus 23:20, NKJV
“The first time the word makom is used in the Torah, God gathers all the primordial waters to one place and thus reveals the earth below. This gathering of water is called mikveh:
“And God said, 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;' and it was so.” (Bereishit 1:9)
The act of gathering the waters which results in dry land being revealed is called mikveh, while the place into which the waters are gathered is called makom. We know in our own experience that this gathering of water, the mikveh, is a place of purity, where people can return to themselves - in the pure, pristine sense of regeneration; it is a place where a person can return to God.”
R’ Ari Kahn, M’oray Ha’Aish, Vayetzei: The Place - Hamakom
“There before his eyes was a well in the open. Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for the flocks were watered from that well. The stone on the mouth of the well was large.”
Genesis 29:11
“Jacob came closer and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the flock”
“There are times when the “stone” upon one’s heart is very heavy and cannot be moved easily in order to reveal the wellsprings of Torah that lie hidden underneath. The way to get the stone moving is to long and desire to serve G-d �(Likutey Halakhot IV, p. 80)"
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (p. 235). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“The "well" represents the wellsprings of Torah that can bring life to all, but there is a “big stone” upon the well—a “heart of stone” (Ezekiel 36:26) that represents the Evil One and the obstacles to spiritual living."
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (p. 225). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“There is no water but Torah.”
Bava Kamma 82a
אין מים אלא תורה
אין מים אלא תורה
“the openמ describes the open aspect of the Torah, and the closed
ם denotes the concealed…According to the Zohar, for example, theמ stands allegorically both forמשה Moses and forמשיח the Messiah, who represent these two aspects of the Torah. Mem stands for Moses because he started to reveal the infinite Torah on a level that man could perceive. Not everything was transmitted by Moses, however. The concealed will be revealed by the Messiah…This is the allusion of theמם which stands openly for משה and concealed for משיח (Osios R’ Yitzchok).”�The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, R’ Michael L. Munk, Artscroll Mesorah Series, pgs. 146-147
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?�Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live…”
Isaiah 55:1, ESV
“Here, God Himself is the Makom; when we feel distant, bereft, disconnected from our life-source, in need of comfort, it is specifically the aspect of God as related to makom that comforts us. Moreover, we are consoled by connecting our own personal loss to the comfort that comes from Jerusalem, from that very specific makom that is the source of our true identity. Our lives are bound up with the Altar in Jerusalem, with the dust of the earth of the Temple Mount. Every death, then, is a destruction of the Altar and the Temple. . .”
“…When we feel distant, when we feel alienated and exiled, when death strikes and we feel alone, God, The Place, the Makom and the Mekayam - the source and sustainer of all existence, lifts us up by revealing to us, once again, that unique bridge that spans the void and acts as a conduit between our physical and spiritual selves. Like Yeshayahu, Yechezkel, and Yaakov before them, He allows us to see that truly His Glory fills all existence.”
R’ Ari Kahn, M’oray Ha’Aish: Vayetzei, The Place – HaMakom, Aish.com
“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, and believe also in Me. In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also may be.”
John 14:1-3
הִנְנִי הֹלֵךְ לְהָכִין לָכֶם מָקוֹם