(RNS) — You have, of course, heard many times the story of Jacob’s dream from this week’s Torah portion in the book of ...

First, Jacob has a vision. He says he saw a “stairway” stretching between heaven and earth, on which angels were ascending and descending. (Some biblical scholars say the old term “ladder ...

Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been fascinated by Jacob’s ladder, scaled by unafraid angels, its top reaching all the way to the sky. As described at the beginning of this week’s parsha ...