Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
וַיֵּצֵא יַעֲקֹב מִבְּאֵר שָׁבַע וַיֵּלֶךְ חָרָנָה׃
וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם וַיָּלֶן שָׁם כִּי בָא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ…
Yaakov left Be’er Sheva, and went to Haran.
He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set...
The place where Yaakov stops is the place he dreams about angels going up and down a ladder, and where God speaks to him.
But the order of events here is a bit confusing. In the first pasuk, it sounds like Yaakov went to Haran. But then, in the next pasuk, we hear about him stopping at a place along the way to Haran. What’s going on here?
This aggadeta (midrash in the Gemara) explains with a story.
אָמַר ר' יִצְחָק: …כִּי מְטָא לְחָרָן אָמַר אֶפְשָׁר עָבַרְתִּי עַל מָקוֹם שֶׁהִתְפַּלְּלוּ אֲבוֹתַי וַאֲנִי לֹא הִתְפַּלַּלְתִּי?!
כַּד יָהֵיב דַּעְתֵּיהּ לְמִיהֲדָר קָפְצָה לֵיהּ אַרְעָא מִיָּד.
R. Yitzhak said: … Yaakov arrived in Haran and realized: ‘I just passed a place where my ancestors prayed, and I didn’t stop to pray there!’
Since he wanted to return to that place, a miracle happened. The land became smaller, so Yaakov could quickly jump right back to that place.
The miracle that Yaakov experiences has a special name: קְפִיצַת הַדֶּרֶךְ (kefitzat ha-derekh). It literally means “jumping the way,” and it describes a miracle when a path gets shorter in order to speed up long journeys! According to this gemara, Avraham’s servant also experienced kefitzat ha-derekh on his way to find a wife for Yitzhak in Parashat Hayyei Sarah. And this gemara also says the same miracle happened to a warrior named Avishai ben Tzeruya on his way to save King David from a Pelishti giant!
- What might be special about kefitzat ha-derekh? Do you see any clues for why Yaakov got to experience this miracle?
- Think about the reasons that Yaakov left Be’er Sheva. How might he have been feeling on his journey? How would a supernatural experience have affected Yaakov?
- Even though you probably haven’t experienced kefitzat ha-derekh, have you ever felt like you are on a mission, on the way to doing something important, and God is supporting you along the way? How can we notice the small and big ways God helps us?
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