The Torah portion for this week starts with the story in which Jacob leaves his hometown of Beersheba and journeys to Charan, a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia (today’s southeastern Turkey.) On this supposedly pretty long journey he encounters a certain place and sleeps there dreaming of a ladder connecting heaven and earth with angels
In this week’s Torah portion Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Canaan. They come back forty days later, bringing an enormous assortment of grapes, pomegranates and figs to prove the richness and abundance of the land they traveled across. However, ten of the spies warn everyone that the inhabitants of that land are giants and warriors “stronger