Jacob and the Angel with the Missing Feathers
Gellman, Marc
MARC GELLMAN JACOB AND THE ANGEL WITH THE MISSING FEATHERS Once Jacob, who was the son of Isaac and Rebecca, dreamed a dream while lying on a rock. He dreamed a ladder with its bottom on the Earth...
...shouted the angel at Jacob...
...The angel had some feathers missing from his huge left wing...
...Jacob asked the angel...
...This is an angel ladder, not a person ladder," said the angel, "and Heaven is an angel place, not a person place, so scram off this ladder, get back to where you belong, and wake up...
...Finally the angel twisted Jacob's foot and threw him from the ladder, but as he fell he grabbed the angel's left Marc Gellman is a contributing editor of moment and teaches medical ethics in the Philosophy Department of Northwestern University...
...Suddenly he awakened and saw an angel standing over him...
...Now if you dream the dream of Jacob's ladder, look carefully...
...said Jacob, "I dreamed this ladder and I climbed this ladder, and I am going to see Heaven because I have heard that it is the most beautiful place, so you scram...
...Oh yeah...
...I am not going back down...
...I am going to see the Land of Israel because I have heard that it is the most beautiful place on the Earth...
...You may see them...
...He dreamed a ladder with its bottom on the Earth and its top in Heaven...
...Oh yeah...
...Just as the angel was leaving he twisted Jacob's heel again which made Jacob walk with a limp for the rest of his life...
...Suddenly he saw an angel above him on the ladder who was climbing down...
...Jacob fell slowly, like you fall in dreams, and landed on his...
...Besides, you have wings...
...and an old man who walks with a limp at the bottom of the ladder helping all the angels who are climbing up...
...the angel with the missing feathers in his left wing at the top of the ladder helping all the angels who are climbing down...
...Jacob watched all this from his rock, and as soon as a bunch of angels began climbing up to Heaven, Jacob joined them on the rickety old ladder...
...Soon Jacob was high in the clouds...
...I am climbing this ladder in my dream to Heaven, and you are in my way...
...Jacob and the angel pushed and shoved and hit and pulled high on the ladder in the clouds...
...Just where do you think you're going...
...said Jacob, and then they fought...
...Just where do you think you're going...
...Jacob smiled at the angel and said, "The Land of Israel is indeed a most beautiful place, but Israel is a people place and not an angel place, so scram out of this land and get back where you belong...
...said the angel, "I climbed all the way down that crummy ladder, and I am not going up again until I have seen that place...
...and so they fought again, but this time Jacob won...
...Angels were climbing on the ladder, but it was so old, narrow, and rickety that they had to go up and down in single file...
...wing and pulled out some of the big feathers at the bottom...
...Some years later, when he was returning to the Land of Israel, Jacob was sleeping alone on the banks of the Jabbok River and he was scared of the dark and the noises in the bushes...
...Now you will be called Israel because it is the name of the beautiful place which is your home, and because you are the best angel wrestler I ever met...
...He held on to the angel tightly until the morning when the angel said to him, "You win, I am going back to Heaven, but your name will no longer be Jacob...
...Why don't you fly to Earth...
Vol. 3 • May 1978 • No. 6
