November 27, 2025
Parashat Vayeseh begins with Yaakov's journey from Eretz Yisrael to Haran, where he would spend twenty years with his uncle, Lavan. The Torah tells, ויפגע במקום – that Yaakov "encountered the place" – which the Gemara explains as a reference to the site where Avraham Avinu bound Yitzhak upon the altar, and which would become the site of the Bet Ha'mikdash . Yaakov prayed at this site, and he then went to sleep and beheld his famous dream of a ladder extending to the heavens. Rashi, based on the Gemara, fills in some more details about Yaakov's journey. Yaakov had traveled all the way to Haran, but then realized that he had passed the holy site without stopping to pray there. He said to himself, "How could I have passed there without praying?!" He immediately turned around and started making his way back toward Yerushalayim. Hashem made a miracle, so as not to inconvenience Yaakov, and the mountain in Yerushalayim where the Bet Ha'mikdash would be built was uprooted from its place and brought to Yaakov, so he could pray there without having to travel all the way back. One of my Rabbis once posed a very good question about this story. If Hashem wanted to help Yaakov Avinu pray at the site of the Bet Ha'mikdash – which He obviously did, so much so that He brought the mountain to Yaakov!!! – then why didn't He find a way to remind Yaakov to pray there when Yaakov passed through that area? Why was it only when Yaakov reached Haran that Hashem helped him by bringing the sacred site