Vayeitze: The Attributes of Truth and Eternity: One and the Same

by Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, Rosh Yeshivat Beit El and former Chief Rabbi of Beit El, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

In honor of the weekly Torah portion of Vayeitze (B'reshit 28,10-32,3), we bring you a treatise on the Patriarch Yaakov and Beit El, the city he founded, by the founder of modern-day Beit El.

In 1978, during the first months of our residence in what was to become Beit El, when we still lived in caravans in the army camp, without running water, our teacher and rabbi Rav Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook zt"l came to visit us.

We gathered in the military synagogue [which has now recently been renewed for the use of the residents of Beit El's newest neighborhood, Ramat Beit El] and we asked Rav Tzvi Yehuda to speak. He asked us, "Where is the baal habayit, the master of the house?" He was referring to the commander of the military camp, and he explained that without the commander's permission, he had no authority to speak. We ran to find him, and he in fact came, sat down, and spoke to Rav Kook for a few minutes. After receiving his permission to speak, the Rav, in an off-the-cuff manner, delivered a wondrous lecture on Yaakov Avinu and Beit El.

He began with the Patriarch Avraham, continued with Yitzchak, and then reached Yaakov. Rav Kook explained that the trait of Yaakov is that of emet, truth, which is the trait of eternity. Our Sages teach (Taanit 5b) that Yaakov never died – and Beit El, too, has the unique quality of long life, as we learn in the Medrash (B'reshit Rabba 69,8):

"The Torah states that Luz was the original name of Beit El… The same luz with which sky-blue wool is dyed, the luz that Sennacherib attacked but whose population he did not transfer, the luz that Nebuchadnezzar attacked but did not destroy, the luz over which the angel of death never had dominion." This was a city in which life did not end and there was no death; when people became old, they would leave.

The Sages also note that there is a bone in the body called the luz – a special bone that never ceases to exist; even after death, it does not disintegrate. From it, it is taught, the body will be rebuilt and resurrected during T'chiyat HaMeitim (Resurrection of the Dead). That is, it has ever-lasting existence.

Once again we see that there is a connection between the place Beit El (Luz) and long life – and that is the concept of the trait of Truth. This is not a one-sided trait, but rather a central trait, one that is eternal. And this is the trait of Yaakov Avinu.

The Talmud (ibid.) asks: If Yaakov did not die, was it for naught that the Torah tells us that he was eulogized and embalmed and buried? The given answer is that a verse in Jeremiah compares Yaakov to his descendants, and therefore, "just as Yaakov's seed lives forever, so too he lives forever." We can explain that Yaakov Avinu is essentially the entirety of Israel, Clal Yisrael; he is the choice Patriarch, for all his children continued in his path [as opposed to Avraham and Yitzchak]. When his children live, it is as if he is living. "The eternity of Israel will not lie" (Shmuel I 15,29); the eternity of Israel is forever.

This city also has another unique quality. The above Medrash states that the city of Luz had a concealed entrance, hidden among the mountains, and when people would come to the city for the first time, they did not know how to get in. In fact, the entrance was via a luz tree. Concealed things exist for very long. The Sages say: "Blessing is only upon that which is hidden from the eye." Thus, what characterizes Beit El also characterizes Yaakov Avinu. As the Torah states, he dreamt of a "ladder standing on the ground, with its head reaching the heavens" – this is the trait of truth, the trait of eternity.