Nothing of His Own: The Tzaddik's Ladder of Prayer

3Or we may say that “And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva … and he encountered the place …” speaks of a tzaddik who counts nothing as his own. It seems to me that the complete tzaddik, even as he goes from level to level, must see himself as if he were doing nothing at all: everything comes from Hashem, blessed be He. This is the meaning of “For with You is the source of life; in Your light we see light.”¹ Dovid HaMelech was saying: when I pray for a sick person and he is healed, it is not my doing; it is because “with You is the source of life.” And “in Your light we see light” means: the light that I see is all Your light, which You give in Your great kindness. This is “And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva.” The tzaddik first perfects the six extremities,² and then he is called “seven” (sheva); and, in his own eyes, he went out from these levels. “And went toward Charan”: vayelech, “he went,” is read here as molich, “he leads away,” and charanah (חרנה), “toward Charan,” as charon (חרון), wrath. The tzaddik leads the wrath away from Israel and annuls it. And “he went [toward Charan]” has a second reading: he leads in cheirus (חירות), freedom.

4“And he encountered the place”: vayifga, “he encountered,” speaks of prayer,³ and “the place” is the Omnipresent, HaMakom. Though Yaakov stood on all these levels, he thought that all the prayers he prayed came entirely from the Omnipresent, blessed be He. Or we may explain “he encountered the place” to mean that all his prayers were only for the Shechinah, which is called Makom, “the Place.” “And he lodged there, for the sun had come”: the verse means that the sun had set, but the words are read here as “had come.” Whenever the sun came to him, that is, light and deveikus, cleaving to Hashem, he “lodged” in it: he made it a linah, a night's lodging, that is, night (laylah) and darkness. For he thought: this light has not come to me from myself or because of me; it is all from Him.

5a“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder …” The tzaddik draws down the flow of blessing and livelihood, and livelihood and bread must be to him like a dream. That is, he should have bread only out of necessity, since the world cannot exist without bread. That is why the letters of lechem (לחם), bread, are those of chalam (חלם), dreamed. He must also always keep before his eyes his own lowliness and the greatness of God, blessed be He. Then his prayer rises before Him, and he brings holiness to himself. This follows my explanation, in Parshas Toldos, of the saying that words that come from the heart enter the heart:⁴ words of holiness that come from a person's heart enter the heart of that same person, and add very great holiness to it. And the reverse is true too, Heaven forbid.

5bThis is “And he dreamed” (vayachalom): the flow of bread was to him like a dream. Then “behold a ladder set on the ground”: the ladder hints at prayer, which rises upward. It was “set on the ground”: its beginning was on the ground, for he looked at his own lowliness. “And its top reached the heavens”: this is the greatness of God. Through this he brought about “and behold, angels of God ascending”: these are the prayers and holy words that rise to the upper worlds, for it is they that are called angels. “And descending bo”: bo plainly means “on it,” on the ladder, but here it is read as “in him.” Those same words came down into him, within him, so that holiness was added to him, like the words that come from the heart and enter it. This is easy to understand.