Editing Jacob's Ladder (section)

==Judaism==
{{Location map many | Mediterranean east
|float      = right
| width    = 300px
| caption  =  Sites associated with Jacob's Ladder
| lat1_deg = 36.8775 
| lon1_deg = 39.033889
| label1   = [[Haran (biblical place)|Haran]]
| lat2_deg = 31.942
| lon2_deg = 35.222
| label2   = [[Bethel]]
| lat3_deg = 31.258889
| lon3_deg = 34.799722
| label3   = [[Beersheba]]
|position1 = top
|position3 = left}}
[[File:El sueño de Jacob, por José de Ribera.jpg|right|thumb|''[[Jacob's Dream]]'' (1639) by [[José de Ribera]], at the [[Museo del Prado]], [[Madrid]]]]

The classic [[Torah]] commentaries offer several interpretations of Jacob's Ladder. In ''[[Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer]]'' 35:6-10, the ladder signified the four exiles the [[Jews|Jewish people]] would suffer before the coming of the [[Messiah in Judaism|messiah]]. First, the angel representing the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] climbed "up" 70 rungs and then fell "down": a reference to the 70-year [[Babylonian exile]]. Then, the angel representing the exile of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] went up several steps and fell, as did the angel representing the exile of Greece (the [[Hellenistic period]], [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]], and the [[Seleucid Empire]]). Only the fourth angel, who represented the final exile of the [[Roman Empire]], called "[[Edom]]" (whose guardian angel was [[Esau]] himself), kept climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the [[Jewish eschatology|End of Days]], Edom too would fall.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 35:6-10 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_DeRabbi_Eliezer.35.6-10 |website=www.sefaria.org|quote=}}</ref>

Another interpretation{{cn|date=December 2024}} of the ladder keys into the fact that the angels first "ascended" and then "descended". The [[Midrash]] explains that Jacob, as a [[tsaddik|holy man]], was always accompanied by angels. When he reached the border of the land of [[Canaan]] (the future [[Land of Israel]]), the angels who were assigned to the [[Holy Land]] returned to [[Heaven in Judaism|Heaven]] and the angels assigned to other lands came down to meet Jacob. When Jacob returned to [[Canaan]], he was greeted by the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land.

Yet another interpretation{{cn|date=December 2024}} is that the place at which Jacob stopped for the night was, in reality, [[Moriah]], the future home of the [[Temple in Jerusalem]], which was considered to be the "bridge" between Heaven and Earth.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Temple of Jerusalem {{!}} Judaism|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Temple-of-Jerusalem|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-26}}</ref> The ladder therefore signifies the "bridge" between Heaven and Earth. Moreover, the ladder alludes to the giving of the Torah as another connection between Heaven and Earth. In this interpretation, it is also significant that the word for ''ladder'' ({{Langx|he|סלם|sullām}}) and the name for the mountain on which the Torah was given, {{Transliteration|he|[[Mount Sinai|Sinai]]}} ({{Lang|he|סיני}}) have the same [[Gematria]].

The [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic Jewish]] philosopher [[Philo]], born in [[Alexandria]], ({{abbr|d.|died}} {{Circa|50 CE}}) presents his allegorical interpretation of the ladder in the first book of his {{lang|la|De somniis}}. There, he gives four interpretations, which are not mutually exclusive:<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v024/24.1verman.html |title=''Reincarnation in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosticism'' (review) |last1=Verman |first1=Mark |date=Fall 2005 |journal=[[Shofar (journal)|Shofar]] |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=173–175 |doi=10.1353/sho.2005.0206 |s2cid=170745364 |access-date=14 June 2010|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

* The angels represent [[Soul#Judaism|souls]] descending to and ascending from bodies (some consider this to be Philo's most explicit reference to the doctrine of [[reincarnation]]).
* In the second interpretation, the ladder is the human soul, and the angels are God's ''logoi'', pulling the soul up in distress and descending in compassion.
* In the third view, the dream depicts the ups and downs of the life of the "practiser" (of virtue vs. [[Jewish views on sin|sin]]).
* Finally, the angels represent the continually changing affairs of humankind.

The narrative of Jacob's Ladder was used, shortly after the destruction of the [[Second Temple]] in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)]], as the basis for the [[pseudepigrapha|pseudepigraphic]] ''[[Ladder of Jacob]]''. This writing, preserved only in [[Old Church Slavonic]], interprets the experience of [[Patriarchs (Bible)|Patriarchs]] in the context of [[Merkabah mysticism]].

A hilltop overlooking the Israeli settlement of [[Beit El]] north of Jerusalem, believed by some to be the site of Jacob's dream, is a tourist destination during the holiday of [[Sukkot]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Bresky|first=Ben|title=Sukkot Music Events Abound in Israel|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160400 |access-date=6 October 2012|newspaper=[[Arutz Sheva]]|date=30 September 2012| via= israelnationalnews.com}}</ref>