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Our Torah begins with our ancestor, Jacob, on the run, an outlaw from his family and his people. Exhausted, he came to a certain place and rested there for the night, dreaming a vivid dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. As he awakened from his dream, he exclaimed, “Surely god is present in this place, and I did not know it!” (Genesis 28:11-16).

The ancient text speaks to us today as it surely did to our ancestors, and it compels us to ask: where can we find the gateway to heaven? When do we sense God’s presence by our side?

Perhaps the clue can be discovered in the ladder.

The idea of a ladder appears first in this Torah portion, but its imagery is used a second time to describe the path that Moses took when he climbed Mount Sinai to meet God. In each instance, the climb is treacherous; in each instance, the image conjured in the description is of an uneven and naturally created ladder with rungs that are not equally spread apart. These ladders – at Mount Sinai, in Jacob’s dream, and, perhaps, the ladders in our own spiritual lives - find that sometimes the steps are easy to take and feel within reach, while at other times, they require much effort to grasp. There are times as well when the climber – when we - have to jump and extend our hands in order to find the next rung. And still, there are other times when we require others to lift us to the next step. 

The path to reaching heaven and experiencing God is an uneven journey. There is no perfectly apportioned ladder set before us. But we must climb. We must reach.

Years ago, archaeologists excavated the steps that ascended to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. I was struck in particular by the fact that the steps were of uneven lengths. There were short steps that required me to take a half step and others that were wide and forced me to extend my legs. It was impossible to run up the steps or even to walk up in an even cadence.

Perhaps the lesson of these steps is the same. Reaching towards the heavens and towards an embrace of something spiritual is an uneven path. Still, the ladder stands before each of us. Yes, there are times when we find ourselves afraid of climbing. Yes, there are times when the steps appear uneven. Yes, the ladder often appears ancient and out of sync with the way we live our lives today.

But we can only experience God by beginning the climb. 

For each of us, there is a “gateway to heaven.” And for each of us, there is a ladder made for climbing. And for each of us, there is nobody who can take the steps for us; we must begin the journey with a step and advance one small, large, even, or uneven, step at a time.

Shabbat Shalom.