MODERN MEDRASH
(A story about a story from the Chumash)
Inspired by Marc Geller
What Does Heaven Look Like?
Jacob, who was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, was the kind of person who always wanted to be somewhere else. When he was home, he wanted to be away from home. When he was away from home, he wanted to go home. When he was in a valley, he wanted to be on a mountain, and when he was on a mountain, he wanted to be in a valley. When he was floating down a river, he would be thinking about hiking in the desert. Jacob was just never seemed happy where he was.
One night, after Jacob had left home to go somewhere that he thought would be better, he fell asleep and dreamed an amazing dream. Jacob dreamed that he was at the bottom of a tall ladder with its feet on earth and its top in heaven. Angels were climbing up and down on the ladder, but because the ladder was so old and so narrow, so rickety and so wobbly, the angels could not go up and down the ladder at the same time. First some angels had to go all the way up, and then other angels could come all the way down. An angel at the top would wave an orange flag and shout, "Clear the ladder! Angels coming down!" When angels wanted to climb back up to heaven, an angel at the bottom would wave an orange flag and yell, "Clear the ladder! Angel coming up!" It was a funny system, but it seemed to work.
Jacob saw all this and said to himself, "Heaven is supposed to be a perfect place. I bet I would be happy there. I'm going to climb that ladder and see what heaven looks like." Jacob sneaked up behind a bunch of angels who were waiting who were waiting their turn to climb up the ladder. Then an angel at the bottom of the ladder waved his orange flag and yelled, “Clear the ladder? Angles going up!” Jacob waited for the last angel in line to start climbing up the ladder, then he scrambled up just as fast as he could. The climbing-up angels were moving so fast, Jacob could not keep up with them. Soon, he was all alone on the rickety, old ladder, high in the sky. The ladder was twisting and turning in the wind, and Jacob could hardly hang on.
Jacob looked up and saw that there was an angel above him on the ladder, climbing down. The angel bumped into Jacob, almost knocking off the ladder, and shouted, "What the heck are you doing here? In fact, who the heck are you?"
'"My name is Jacob, and I am a person, and I am climbing this ladder to heaven."
The angel said, "Well, let me tell you something, Mr.-Jacob-person-who-thinks-he-is-climbing-to-heaven. People can't go to heaven until after they die, and then only their souls go, not their bodies. Since you are definitely not dead, you are definitely not getting into heaven today!"
"Oh, please let me see heaven! Please!" Jacob begged the angel. “You have lots of chances to climb down to earth, and this may be my only chance to climb up to heaven."
