Yaakov and Mikdash - Yom Yerushalayim 2007

This is a little late for those of us who live in the holy land, but for you chutznikim it's still YY.

Every kindergarten kid knows that the story in the beginning of Vayetze in which Yaakov dreams happened in makom hamikdash. However, the truth is that it is a machloket between the two camps of parshanim.
The pashtanim - see Radak, Rashbam, and Sforno - suggest that it was just some random place along the way. They seem compelled to suggest this because Yaakov names the place Bet El and the psukim explicitly state that it was called Ulam Luz before and with all this talk of the names we don't hear any hint to it being Yerushalayim.
IMHO, Rashi had the right idea when he identified the spot as Yerushalayim.
(1) The passuk states bamakom as opposed to bemakom - a clear indication that it is a very specific spot. Rashi himself notes that in his perush and therefore associates it with the previous makom that we heard of, namely Moriah, in the Akeidat Yitzchak narrative. Furthermore, the word "makom" appears no less than six times in the narrative, clearly suggesting that there is some significance in that particular place.
(2) As Rav Hirsch notes, the root "pagah" is usually meaningful and intentional and used in the context of going out to battle or making a request.
(3) Most noteworthy is the fact that Yaakov himself refers to the spot as "Bet Elokim."
Derech agav, it is interesting to note that the Gemarah in Hullin 91b which darshens this entire narrative suggests that Yaakov passed by the place and realized that it was where his fathers prayed and he decided to go back so that he too could pray there. Rashi on the spot suggests that the Akeidat Yitzach happened there as well as Yitzchak's going out "lasuach basadeh."

Yaakov goes to sleep and has a really weird dream in which he sees angels traveling up towards heaven and down towards the earth. For some reason, this inspires Yaakov to build a matzevah and cut a deal with God. Why? What did he see in his dream?

There is an obvious tension, or dialectic if you prefer (or you're a Gush guy), between God's transcendence and His imminence. I don't feel that I need to belabor this point because it's obvious - intuitively and through the text of our tefillot. I would like to suggest that before this point God was viewed as a wholly transcendent Being. For example, when Avraham davens for Sdom every other word is an apology lest God destroy him for his speech. The interactions between God and man are very limited. Suddenly, upon arising, Yaakov feels that he can "cut a deal" with God. We don't really find that kind of interaction beforehand.
Yaakov sees in his dream a symbol of interaction between the two worlds and thus that within His transcendence, there is an imminence to Him as well. The angels go up, the angels go down - two worlds interact.
I was thinking about the following last night and then Rabbi Bick sort of said it in his shiur today so baruch shekevanti I guess: The chiddush of "veshakhanti betokham" and the concept of a mikdash is that although God is so far from us, we can still create a place, through our own efforts, in which we can work towards serving Him. And that is what Yaakov learned from his dream and therefore he doesn't only build a matzevah and cut a deal with God, but in this deal he promises to build a "bayit" for God if God fulfills His side.

The Gemarah in Pesachim 88a explains why the passuk in Yeshayahu 2 describes the mikdash as "Beit Elokei Yaakov" as opposed to any of the other Avot. The Gemarah answers that even though Avraham refers to it as "behar Hashem yera'eh" and Yitzchak goes out "lasuach basadeh" (probably Rashi's source in our psukim in Vayetze), Yaakov is the first one who calls it "bayit." Yaakov revolutionized the concept of mikdash and the unique way of relating to God that it represents.

This is also evident in Vayishlach, when Yaakov comes back and builds a mizbeach in that very same place. In Vayetze he builds a matzevah which is completely natural in character - it is made of only one rock and requires no human manipulation. In Vayishlach, God tells him to build a mizbe'ach which is made of many stones built up to create an alter. This action brings the story full circle - at the outset, when he was just beginning his lesson a matzevah was in order, but now God tells him to build a mizbeach because after everything has worked out he can fully conceive of humans building something so as to make God more imminent.

Chag Sameach.