(10) Yaakov left Ber-sheva, and set out for Haran. (11) He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. (12) He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. (13) And Hashem was standing beside him and He said, “I am Hashem, the God of your father Avraham and the God of Yitzhak: the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring. (14) Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. (15) Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Ascending and descending — It states first ascending and afterwards descending! Those angels who accompanied him in the land of Israel were not permitted to leave the Land: they ascended to Heaven and angels which were to minister outside the Land descended to accompany him.

This foreshadowed the future when the “angels of G’d” the superpowers who had become very powerful in our world would begin their decline and end up at the bottom of the rungs of the ladder. The Lord G’d Who stood above the ladder is the symbol of the promise that G’d will never abandon the Jewish people, as we know from Yirmiyahu “when I utterly destroy all the gentile nations, I will not destroy you.”

He dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth; and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it (Gen. 28:12). R. Samuel the son of Nahman declared: These were the guardian angels of the idolatrous nations. He explained further: This verse teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Jacob, our father, the guardian angel of Babylon ascending seventy rungs of the ladder and descending, the guardian angel of Media ascending fifty-two rungs of the ladder and descending, the guardian angel of Greece ascending one hundred rungs of the ladder and descending, and the guardian angel of Edom ascending the ladder. Jacob did not know how many rungs of the ladder the guardian angel of Edom mounted, and he therefore cried out in terror: Perhaps Edom will never be compelled to descend. The Holy One, blessed be He, then said to him: Fear thou not, O Jacob, My servant; neither be dismayed, O Israel (Jer. 30:10), for even though you see him ascending unto My throne as though that were possible, I will cast him down, as is said: Though thou wert to rise as high as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord (Obad. 4).

והנה סולם מוצב ארצה, “and here a ladder was standing on the ground, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text Yaakov observed that the feet of the ladder stood in Beer Sheva, where he was lying; this is the meaning of the words מוצב ארצה, whereas the meaning of the words: “its head reached heavenwards” refers to the Temple. This is the gateway from which the angels ascend to heaven or descend to earth. When G’d appeared to be standing on top of the ladder, Yaakov realized that the site he was lying on was the gateway to heaven, and that it was an appropriate place for prayer. The Holy Temple is the House of G’d. Yaakov realized that the Holy Temple was of crucial importance in channeling communication from man to G’d and vice versa.

A Midrashic approach sees the dream as hyperbole of the revelation at Mount Sinai in the future. The word סלם, ladder, is equated with סיני, Mount Sinai. The numerical value of the letters in both words are the same, i.e. 130. The words מוצב ארצה, are a reference to the Jewish people who would stand at the bottom of the Mountain at the time of the revelation. ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר

Those who say that the ladder seen by Yaakov refers to a statue, or that it refers to Sinai because it is numerically equivalent to it, are indulging in Midrash.

Rabbi Solomon ibn Gabirol, the Spaniard, says that Jacob’s “ladder” alludes to man’s heavenly soul, and that “the angels of God” signify thoughts of wisdom.

Rabbi Joshua explains the dream of the ladder to mean that Yaakov's prayers ascended the Heavens via the ladder and in response to his supplications salvation was sent down to him. These commentators have apparently not studied the prophecies of Zechariah, Amos and Jeremiah.

The way to interpret Yaakov’s dream is to view it as a parable. It teaches that nothing is hidden from God and that what happens below is contingent on the decree from above. There is thus, as it were, a ladder linking heaven and earth by which angels ascend to inform God what they have seen on earth after going over it. Scripture also states that other angels come down to fulfill God’s commands. The imagery presented is that of a king and his servants.