In today’s Chumash we learn about the beginning of Yaakov’s journey to Charan.

Yaakov left Be’er Sheva, on his way to Charan. Now that he was gone, the people in Be’er Sheva stopped acting as nicely!

Eisav sent his son, Elifaz, to kill Yaakov, since he was angry at him for getting the brachos. Elifaz caught up to Yaakov, but he had learned from his zaide, Yitzchak, and felt like he shouldn’t do what his father told him. He asked Yaakov what to do! Yaakov told him to take all of his money, because a poor person isn’t counted as being alive in some parts of Torah. Then he could tell his father that Yaakov was not alive.

Yaakov knew that Charan was a very not-good place. He wanted to make sure he was very strong in Ruchnius before he went, so he learned in the Yeshivah of Ever for 14 years.

Then, finally, he went on his way to Charan. When he got there, he realized that he had passed Har Hamoriah, where his father and grandfather had davened, and HE didn’t daven there! He turned around and went back towards Har Hamoriah. But Hashem moved it to Beis Keil, and so Yaakov didn’t even realize that he was already there! Hashem made it get dark early, so that Yaakov would sleep there.

Yaakov davened Maariv (he was the one who started this Tefillah!) and got ready to sleep. He put stones around his body to keep himself safe from wild animals. Then he took another stone to use as a pillow. Since ALL of the stones wanted to have the zechus of being a pillow for Yaakov Avinu’s head, Hashem made them into ONE stone!) Then Yaakov lay down to sleep. (This was the first time he was going to lie down to sleep in 14 years, since he had only taken naps in Yeshivah!)

Yaakov had a dream, where he saw a very tall ladder. The bottom was standing strong on the ground, but the top reached up to Shomayim! The malachim who had come with Yaakov until now were going up the ladder, and the malachim that were able to come with him out of Eretz Yisroel were coming down the ladder.

He saw that Hashem was standing over him. Hashem told him, “I am Hashem! I will give you the land you are sleeping on, for your children!” (Hashem folded the land of Eretz Yisroel under him, so Hashem was giving him the WHOLE Eretz Yisroel!) You will have many children coming from you! ‘Uforatzta’ — you will spread out all over, and everyone will bentch themselves that they want to be like you and like your children.

“Don’t be afraid of Esav or Lavan! I will take care of everything you need, and everything that I promised to Avraham’s children will be given to your children!”

Yaakov woke up from the dream. He realized that this was a very holy place to have such a dream! He said, “If I knew that this was a holy place, I wouldn’t have gone to sleep here! This must be Har Hamoriah, where our Tefillos go through to go up to Hashem.”

Yaakov woke up in the morning, and set up the stone he slept on as a Mizbeiach, putting oil on it, like we do for the keilim of the Beis Hamikdash. The place where he was used to be called “Luz.” But now, Yaakov said, it should be called Beis Keil, the house of Hashem!

Yaakov made a promise to Hashem: If Hashem would take care of him like He promised, keep him safe be’ruchnius, and bring him back in peace to his father’s home, then he would bring korbanos to Hashem on this mizbeiach, and give 10% of all he had for tzedakah.