Vayetze
The Sfat Emet on Parashat Vayetze, read on Shabbat Vayetze · Kislev — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
Yaakov flees Esav, sleeps in the open with a stone for a pillow, and dreams. A ladder set on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, and angels — ascending and descending. Sfat Emet, drawing on Chazal, draws our attention to the order. Ascending, then descending. The angels were already with Yaakov on earth; they ascended back to heaven and then came down again to be with him. The teaching is one of the most quietly hopeful in our tradition: the ladder has no top floor. The descent is as much part of the journey as the ascent. Falling is not the end of climbing. It is the next part of climbing. Whatever comes next, whatever falls or feels lost, the ladder is still standing. The angels are still going up and down it.
Tell me about a time one of us 'descended' — felt low, or stuck, or behind — and the descent turned out to be part of an ascent we couldn't yet see.
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.