ספר בראשית

Genesis 35,13. “G’d rose from over him from the site at ‎which He had spoken with him.” Rashi comments that he ‎does not know what the words “from the site He had spoken with ‎him” are to teach us. [We would have known that G’d rose ‎from that site without these words. Ed.]‎It would appear that we can gain an insight from the words of ‎‎Bereshit Rabbah 47,6 on Genesis 17,22 when a similar term is ‎used for G’d returning to the celestial spheres after speaking with ‎Avraham. The Midrash there understands the word ‎ויעל ‏‎, as ‎a hint that the patriarchs were the carriers, support of the Divine ‎chariot, Avraham having been the first one. If so, our verse would ‎indicate that Yaakov had by now also qualified to be another such ‎support of G’d’s chariot. Our sages stated that in order to ‎function as such “supports,” the patriarchs had to be on holy ‎soil, in the Land of Israel. When G’d had told Yaakov to return to ‎the land of his fathers, He had implied that once he did so, he too ‎would qualify as one of the supports of the ‎מרכבה‎, “the Divine ‎chariot.” (Compare Rashi on 31,3)‎