The Ohr Hachaim explains this Parsha as symbolizing a person’s Neshama and its trip to this world.
The Torah refers to a person as Yaakov, because he has a Yetzer Hara that is tied to his ankles, which drags him wherever he wants. The ankle is called the עקב in Lahon Hakodesh.
The Neshama left the Upper Realms, referred to in the possuk as Be’er Sheva. That is where souls emerge from, called Be’er – a living well of a Sheva – an oath. A soul, as it leaves the Upper Worlds, undertakes an oath from Hashem that it will not transgress the Torah. The name of the Upper Worlds is Be’er Sheva – the source that is only released with an oath.
וַיֵּלֶךְ חָרָנָה – He went to Charan. The Gemara says that the Yetzer Hara enters a person at birth, as soon as he leaves his mother’s womb. A womb is called a רחם – rechem – in Hebrew. The words share two letters.
Afterwards, וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם – He happened upon the place. But the other translation of the word וַיִּפְגַּע is that he prayed. The first thing a person must do when confronted with this Yetzer Hara is to pray to Hashem that he not abandon him.
וַיָּלֶן שָּם כִּי בָּא הַשֶמֶש – He spent the night there since the sun had set. He needs to act in this way until his sun sets. Until the twilight of a person’s life, he must fight his Yetzer Hara and daven to Hashem to be saved from his Yetzer Hara.
After that וַיִּקַּח מֵאַבְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם - He took from the stones of the place. The Ohr Hachaim explains that this is based on the Gemara in Berachos that says that a person must constantly have his Yetzer Tov fight against his Yetzer Hara. If his Yetzer Tov wins, that is wonderful. But if he sees that his Yetzer Tov is not winning, he should continue on to other methods of winning the war, ending up at learning Torah.
He should take from the stones of the place, which hint to Torah. The Torah is the building blocks and stones of the universe, and when he takes those stones he was taking the Torah along with him to fight his Yetzer Hara. Another reason the Torah is called stones is because it can be used to stone, eradicate and annihilate the Yetzer Hara. As Chazal teach us – the Torah saves a person from his Yezer Hara, both when he is learning and when he is not learning.
וַיָּשֶם מְרַאֲשֹׁתָּיו – and put one at his head. The Gemara continues that if a person does not manage to win his Yetzer Hara through learning Torah, he should say Shema. The stones could also fight the Yetzer Hara, through placing them at his head when he lay down, which refers to saying Shema.
וַיִּשְׁכַּב בַּמָּקוֹם הַהוּא - and lay down in that place. This refers to the next step in the fight against the yezer Hara. If a person is unsuccessful in his fight through saying Shema, he should remind himself of the day he will be lying at that place. He will be dead, just like everyone else. He should remember that everyone dies and ends up in the same place.
After using all of these tricks, he is assured that he will win against his Yetzer Hara. He will then merit a vision and dream of Hashem. The Zohar describes the Heavenly visions of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach.
The ladder is the secret of the soul of a person that arises each night and spends it in Heaven. This is not the entire soul, merely a part of the human soul.
וְהִּנֵה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָּה וְרֹׁאשוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּמָּיְמָּה - there was a ladder set upon the ground and its top reached towards the heavens. A sleeping person, whose soul has arisen, will be awoken by a person shaking his body. If his soul had truly left him completely, he would have no connection to his body and he would not be awoken with a shake of the body. The soul is indeed in the sky, but it is connected to the world below.
וְהִּנֵה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלוקים עֹׁלִּים וְיֹׁרְדִּים בוֹ – and, behold, angels of Hashem were going up and down on it. This refers to the good deeds a person attempts to do in this world, with which Heavenly lights arise to the source of his Neshama. Those lights cause the lower realms to awaken and bring blessing to the person who did the Mitzvah. This is alluded to with the angels arising and descending.
When a person reaches this level, he arrives at וְהִּנֵה ה' נִּצָּב עָּלָּיו – And behold Hashem was standing over him. This level can bring a person to true prophecy. This is not through a dream, rather through a true vision of the Shechina. The Rambam indeed writes that every member of Klal Yisroel could merit prophecy, and the method is described in this possuk.
