This parasha invites us to check a very special process: the one about how a complicated, intricate and twisted person in his relationships straightens out as life confronts him with difficulties.
We are talking about Ya'akov Avinu.
Ya'acov fought in his birth to come to light before his twin brother. Later in life, he deceived him by usurping his birthright in a ruse. Ya'akov also deceived his own father to get his brother’s blessing in his stead.
The deceitful Ya'akov dreams of a ladder where angels are going up and down. Let us ESPECIALLY note that the angels ascend, that is, they are on Earth, with us, with humanity. And they ascend to holiness close to God.
It is as if the angels were seeking to take those things that humanity must amend with them, and take them up with them to a better place, where the divine holiness “cleans” those impurities from the human being. When they are ready the angels go down again, rejoining humanity, in their task of purifying souls and beings.
Nothing less than what I have just described happens to Ya'akov: in his dream, the deceitful and complicated Ya'akov is “cleansed”. His being matures in him and he begins to see life in a different way. And that's when he can fall in love, and give himself body and soul to win his love, working, first seven and then another seven years, and yet six more.
Too long… isn’t it?
It is the time of his internal t'shuvah: the process through which Ya'akov goes from being ignorant and a con man, to being a patriarch whose offspring would proudly bear his name, Bnei Ya'acov, or Bnei Yisrael.
Most of the time, we need a dream or a "ladder" external to us that shows us that we must rethink attitudes or straighten something in our lives or our relationships. But the times of the direct messages of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, or of His clear messages, are behind us.
It is upon each of us to weigh our actions and our lives, understand that what was done wrong has a remedy and can be rectified, and establish more sincere and loving ties with our environment. Respecting differences, accepting disagreements.
May we be the architects of our changes, without the need for angels to help us see things clearly and to mature processes.
That we learn to have less intricate and far-fetched lives, so that our relationships are nourished by the exchange of the upright and simple ones, those who seek to grow with their own and within themselves.
Rabbi Gustavo Geier