fotoVisions : Jacob's Ladder

"It was the best of times ... it was the worst of times, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

In high school I didn't read much Dickens, but I always remember those opening lines of from his novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

The quote came to mind this Thanksgiving 2025 when everyone collectively paused with family and friends to think of all we are thankful for. But with hurt and fear viscerally affecting so many now across the land, it's hard and perhaps Pollyanna-ish to engage in that exercise. If you hold fast in believing we are truly in the season of darkness, consider this ...

In this same season of 1863, in the midst of the Civil War with Rebel sons sometimes fighting Northern brothers and the Union on life support, President Lincoln proclaimed going forward there would be a national day of thanksgiving.

Crazy, no?

Even during those worst of times Lincoln wanted his countrymen to recognize their blessings. Acknowledging the good motivates the soul to respond with gratitude. The President believed that despite darkness and despair, it is always a season for hope, light, and gratefullness.

Abraham Lincoln was known as a brilliant orator and master storyteller, but as far as I know, he wasn't a Torah scholar. Yet his remarks over 150 years ago echoed the corresponding Torah portion of this past week - the story of Jacob's ladder (Genesis 28: 20-22).

In this passage, we find Jacob on the lam. Previously he schemed with his mother Rachel to take advantage of his father's failing eyesight and steal his older brother Esay's birthright. Realizing the robbery, Esau goes ballistic. He with his men, 400 strong, then set out to get Jacob who has just made a hasty exit from biblical 'Dodge'. Exhausted by his desperate flight, Jacob drops into a deep sleep somewhere in the desert wilderness. During the night he dreams of a ladder ascending the heavens. Jacob's vision can be seen as a way upward to overcome life's challenges and connect with all that is good. But as in Wenceslas Hollar's 17 century artistic depictions of the dream, angels are shown going down as well as up. The ladder is a two-way thoroughfare providing rungs to journey heavenward but also steps to fall back to the uncertain times in the earthly realm.