The angel thought a moment and then said, "Well, you are dreaming all this, which means that your body is still down there on earth, and you are most of the way to heaven already, and climbing down behind you will probably take me more time than letting you climb up the rest of the way.... Oh, all right. I'll let you see heaven. Follow me."
Yippee!" Jacob said breathlessly, climbing higher and higher on the ladder between heaven and earth.
Finally, Jacob made it to heaven. He knew it was heaven for two reasons. Reason 1: It was the place the ladder stopped. And reason 2: There was a big sign that read. THIS IS THE PLACE! WELCOME TO HEAVEN.
Jacob walked over a hill where there was a bright light, and this is when he saw it. Heaven was the most beautiful place he had ever seen in whole entire his life. There were hills and valleys, clean streams and green pastures. Everywhere there were people walking together and talking.
Jacob asked the angel, "Who are all these people?"
"They are the souls of people who have died, and when they get to heaven, they meet all the souls of the people they loved who died before them.'
"Are there any dogs here?" Jacob asked.
"Sure, there are dogs here," the angel said, laughing, "and cats and parrots and gerbils and hamsters. The ponds are full of goldfish that got flushed down the toilet when the kids weren't looking. But here in heaven the dogs don’t chase the cats, the cats don't scratch the furniture, the hamsters don't want to run away, and the goldfish never get flushed."
"Wow," Jacob muttered. Then he said, "I'm hungry from climbing that ladder. Is there anything to eat here in heaven?"
"What's your favorite food?" asked the angel.
"I like wild raspberries," answered Jacob. And—poof—a table with a big bowl of wild raspberries appeared before Jacob. "Neat!" said Jacob as he stuffed his face with the wild raspberries. "All you have to do is wish for something, and you get it right away.”
"That's it," said the angel.
No wonder everybody wants to get in here, thought Jacob. He saw a big mountain in the distance and said, "I wonder what it’s like on top of that mountain. Then-whoosh-Jacob found himself on top of the mountain, looking down on the hills and valleys of heaven.
“In heaven, all you have to do is want to be someplace, and -poof- you’re there right away.”
“That’s why we don’t need cars or trains or planes or bikes up here,” said the angel.
“What games do you have up here?” Jacob asked.
“We have all the games you have down on earth, except there’s no video games where you zap things. Zapping just isn’t allowed in Heaven. There are also no games up here where you can beat someone, of lose to somebody, because winning can make people proud or can make people sad, and God does not want people to either proud or sad in heaven. And, of course, there's no professional wrestling in heaven, because nothing up here is fake."
All Jacob could say was, “Wow!" He said wow a lot that day.
Jacob spent the next few hours wishing himself from place to place, eating lots of wild raspberries, and playing a kind of tennis game with the angel where they both had to hit the ball very softly over the net and there was no keeping score.
After the tennis game, Jacob sat down and put his head in his hands. The angel came over, sat down next to him, and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jacob shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don't know. Everything is really wonderful here in heaven, but I'm just not happy. On earth we have wild raspberries, but they don't just plop into a bowl whenever you want them. You have to find them and pick them. That's the whole fun of eating wild raspberries. On earth we have mountains, but you can’t just wish yourself to the top of them. You have to climb the mountains, and it’s the climbing that makes you feel great when you finally get up to the top.
"On earth we have games, but in those games, you can win or lose, and its fun trying to win, and it's good learning how to lose, because you learn to try harder next time. Trying harder the next time is a big thing on earth. Also, I like dogs that chase cats and... I like Wrestlemania.
I’m sorry. Heaven is very nice, and I am sure that someday I will be happy to be here, but for now heaven can wait until I have lived my whole life on earth. I want to go home now. I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to..."
Jacob awakened from his dream with a start and looked around. He was glad to be awake, and he was very glad to be alive and back on earth. At first, he thought he might still be in heaven, but then he saw a dog run by him chasing a cat, and then he knew that he was back home.
Jacob went to the stream to get some water to splash on his face.
There, behind a rock, he thought he saw an orange flag waving, and he thought he heard someone say, "Clear the ladder! Angels coming up!" But when he went to look closer, there was nothing there.
After his dream, Jacob was different. After his dream, Jacob was happy wherever he was. He was happy in the valleys and happy on the mountains; he was happy floating down a river and happy in the desert. Jacob was happy picking raspberries and happy climbing mountains. Jacob was happy just to be alive, and he was happy to know that after he was not alive anymore, there was a place waiting for him that was very good, even if it didn't have Wrestlemania.
—Bereshis 28:10-12
