ספר בראשית

An alternate approach to the paragraph commencing with: ‎וירא והנה באר בשדה‎, “he looked, and here there was a well ‎in the field, etc.;” The Talmud Pessachim 88 draws ‎attention to Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov each using a ‎different simile when trying to condense their concept of G’d. ‎Avraham saw G’d in terms of a ‎הר‎, “mountain,” i.e. something far ‎above our level towering above man. Yitzchok perceived him as ‎שדה‎, a field, covering huge expanses of earth, but sharing earth ‎with man. Yaakov perceived Him as ‎בית‎, i.e. an intimate term, ‎viewing G’d as if He were at home with human beings. A major ‎difference between Yaakov’s concept of G’d and that of his ‎forefathers, is that the former did not view G’d as being “at ‎home” permanently on earth, whereas Yaakov did perceive Him ‎as constantly accompanying man, much as a house is the symbol ‎of a permanent presence. [The scriptural verses this is based on ‎are: Genesis 22,14 ‎בהר ה' יראה‎, “on the Mountain of Hashem, ‎He may be seen.” Genesis 24,63 ‎ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה‎, “Yitzchok ‎went out into the field to meditate.” In Genesis 28,19 the Torah ‎quotes Yaakov as naming the site ‎ביתאל‎, “house of the Lord”. ‎Yaakov felt that the time had come when G’d could have a ‎permanent home on earth. However, this had been a vision ‎brought about by his dream/prophetic insight. After awakening ‎he realized that down on earth, where greed, envy and jealousy ‎were still prevalent, to wit the huge rock making the water of the ‎well inaccessible accept when all the interested parties were ‎assembled simultaneously, that the time was not yet ripe for G’d ‎to feel at home in such an environment. By removing the rock, ‎Yaakov wanted to demonstrate to the shepherds that a better ‎future could be in store for mankind. I have reworded the ‎thought expressed by the author somewhat, and have omitted ‎the comparison to the portion of ‎קן צפור‎ in Deut. 22,6. ‎Ed.]‎