Rashi tells us that the middle of the ladder in Jacob's dream was above
the Beis Hamikdosh. The question that struck me is, what do we have
to know this for?
And I thought of an answer with a story (told over in the name of the
Bal Shem Tov) of a king that promised his daughter to whoever will climb this
massive huge building of 100 floors - till the top.
Loads of people started ascending the stairs, but they eventually became
exhausted at some level. The strong ones climbed up till the 40th, others till
the 45th floor, and then they gave up.
There was one person who was on the verge of giving up but he thought to
himself, "if the king said climb to the top, it must be possible. It
can't be that he gave a task that nobody can fulfill", and with this
he climbed another 5 floors.
Upon reaching the 50th floor, he saw that the stairs finished at a lift, and as
soon as he entered the lift, it took him straight to the top!!
The king just wanted to see who will trust him blindly; and he took care
of the rest!
That's the lesson of Jacob's ladder. You are trying to climb up? Just do
all you can, even if it seems impossible and you want to give up. Trust Hashem
that if he gave you this task, you will succeed. And once you have done your
part - that is like reaching the middle of the ladder ("our
half" as opposed to "Hashem's half"). And Rashi is telling us,
that the middle of the ladder is parallel to the Beis Hamikdosh, i.e.
Hashem's lift that will shoot us straight to the top!
May we all continue climbing only upwards
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