Bᵊeir ShëvꞋa To Khâ•rânꞋ, in Pa•danꞋ A•râmꞋ

Khâ•rânꞋ, in southern Turkey, near the Syrian border.

With his elder twin brother, Ei•sauꞋ, threatening to kill him, Ya•a•qovꞋ left Bᵊeir ShëvꞋa, heading toward Khâ•rânꞋ to live with his uncle, Lâ•vânꞋ, and look for a wife from among his cousins who shared the family religious values and views of his grandfather, Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ, and his father, Yi•tzᵊkhâqꞋ.

Su•lamꞋ Ya•a•qovꞋ

Stone windbreak (best illustration I could find; photo credit: summit of Robinson, in Lake District, High Snockrigg, England)

When he arrived ba-Mâ•qōmꞋ, he spent the night there, because the sun was setting. So he took some stones¹ of ha-Mâ•qōmꞋ and placed them as a windbreak and barrier to predators around his head² and lay down ba-Mâ•qōmꞋ.

Then he dreamed: Look, a su•lamꞋ was positioned with its head in the heavens, stretching earthward. And look, ma•lâkh•eiꞋ Ël•oh•imꞋ ascending, then descending by it. And look, ה' was positioned over it saying,

סֻלַּם יַעֲקֹב—modern Psagot (Jebel et-Tawil) as seen looking south from Beit Eil (modern Arab-occupied al-Bireh)

"I am ה', the Ël•oh•eiꞋ of Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ, your patriarch; and the Ël•oh•eiꞋ of Yi•tzᵊkhâqꞋ. Hâ-ârꞋëtz upon which you're laying shall I give to you and your descendants. Your descendants shall be like the dust of hâ-ârꞋëtz. You shall spread seaward, eastward, northward and southward. And by you, and by your descendants, shall all of the families of ha-a•dâm•âhꞋ be blessed."

So look, I'm with you and will watchguard over you wherever you go; and I will bring you home again to this ha-a•dâm•âhꞋ. For I will not abandon you until I've done what I spoke of.

map Beit Eil (modern Arab-occupied al-Bireh), סֻלַּם יַעֲקֹב / Psagot (Jebel et-Tawil) and potential locations of Ai

Then Ya•a•qovꞋ awoke out of his sleep thinking, "Therefore, ה' is ba-Mâ•qōmꞋ and, by Myself, I didn't realize it!" So he was terrified, saying, "How awesome ha-Mâ•qōmꞋ is! There's nothing else here unless this is Beit Ël•oh•imꞋ—and this is ShaꞋar ha-shâ•maꞋyim!"

When Ya•a•qovꞋ got up the next morning, he took the main windbreaker stone, stood it on-end for a monument, poured shëꞋmën zaꞋyit on top and called ha-Mâ•qōmꞋ "Beit Eil" ³ instead of the original name (Luz City).

סֻלַּם יַעֲקֹב (Jebel et-Tawil) before Psagot was built shows the natural stone "stairs" formation that may have inspired Ya•a•qovꞋ's dream as he camped just across the valley to the north (left in photo) in Beit Eil.

Then Ya•a•qovꞋ made a solemn vow, saying, "If Ël•oh•imꞋ will be with me and watchguard over me in this dërꞋëkh that I'm going by myself, granting me bread to eat and clothes to wear so that I return in peace to my father's house, then ה' shall be my Ël•oh•imꞋ—and this stone that I have stood upright for a monument shall become a Beit Ël•oh•imꞋ. And of everything You give me, I will absolutely apportion a tenth to You."

Ya•a•qovꞋ Arrives In Khâ•rânꞋ

Meets His Future 2^nd Wife: Râ•kheilꞋ

ca. B.C.E. 1986

Cattle resting on their haunches

So Ya•a•qovꞋ put one foot after the other, slogging along north leg of his journey toward the sons of the East.

In early-afternoon of the last day of his journey, as he approached the outskirts of Khâ•rânꞋ in the distance, he looked and, over there! He speckled three tzon of tzon resting in a field with their haunches tucked under them, around the local bᵊeir waiting to be watered. But the covering stone over the mouth of the bᵊeir was too big for only 3 herdsmen to move.

Desert well—the late afternoon place to meet the local single women. (photo: Eckova)

The local bᵊeir is where all of the local tzon accumulated in late afternoons for water. Several of the local herdsmen would roll the stone off of the mouth of the bᵊeir. Strong young (usually single) women congregated at the local bᵊeir in the late afternoons to fetch water for their family's daily needs, which they hauled up by rope in a waterskin and poured into a pottery jug to carry home on their shoulders. Then the herdsmen would draw water and pour it in troughs for their tzon. After watering their tzon, they would roll the stone back onto its place, covering the mouth of the bᵊeir, to protect their precious water supply, essential for their survival, from animals and debris.

So Ya•a•qovꞋ hailed them: "Where are you from, my brothers?"

"We're from Khâ•rânꞋ," they yelled back.

When Ya•a•qovꞋ neared within conversational distance, he asked them, "Do you know Lâ•vânꞋ Bën-NâkhōrꞋ?"

"Yeah, we know him," they replied.

"How's he doing?" Ya•a•qovꞋ inquired.

"He's doing great," the herdsmen replied. "Look," they added, "there's his daughter, Râ•kheilꞋ now, in the distance, bringing his tzon to water."

"What's wrong?" Ya•a•qovꞋ asked, "There's still a lot of daylight left. It's too early for livestock to be brought in from the pasture. Aren't you going to water the tzon and take them back out to graze for the rest of the afternoon?"

Pointing at the bᵊeir, they answered, "We can't water our tzon until enough herdsmen arrive to move that big stone from the mouth of the bᵊeir."

Before he had finished speaking, Râ•kheilꞋ arrived at the bᵊeir with her father's tzon, for she was a herdswoman.

When Ya•a•qovꞋ saw Râ•kheilꞋ Bat-Lâ•vânꞋ, his maternal uncle with the tzon of his maternal uncle, he went over to the bᵊeir, rolled the stone off of the mouth of the bᵊeir and ya•shᵊqᵊ⁴ the tzon of his maternal uncle.

Then Ya•a•qovꞋ yi•shaqꞋ⁵ Râ•kheilꞋ, raised his voice and, sobbing, related to her that her father, Lâ•vânꞋ, was his maternal uncle⁶—that he was Ya•a•qovꞋ, Bën RiꞋvᵊq•âh (her paternal aunt)! Then she ran and related it to her father.

When Lâ•vânꞋ heard the report of Ya•a•qovꞋ, his nephew, he ran to him, hugged him with the conventional Middle Eastern kiss and brought him home with him, where Ya•a•qovꞋ recounted all of these things. Then Lâ•vânꞋ said to him, "Indeed, you are my bone and flesh." So Ya•a•qovꞋ stayed with Lâ•vânꞋ for a month.