Episode Details

 This week’s parsha is parshas Vayeitzei. We are going to
focus on the fascinating journey of the stone that Yaakov Avinu placed beneath
his head when he slept at the site of the future Mikdash. Subsequently, he took
that stone and consecrated it as a monument to become the House of G-d. This
journey begins with the opening pesukim of the parsha (Bereishis 28, 10): 

וַיֵּצֵ֥א יַעֲקֹ֖ב מִבְּאֵ֣ר שָׁ֑בַע וַיֵּ֖לֶךְ חָרָֽנָה׃  

Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran.  

וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּק֜וֹם וַיָּ֤לֶן שָׁם֙ כִּי־בָ֣א
הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח֙ מֵאַבְנֵ֣י הַמָּק֔וֹם וַיָּ֖שֶׂם מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב בַּמָּק֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃  

He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the
night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it
under his head and lay down in that place.  

 Rashi comments: AND PUT THEM FOR A
RESTING PLACE FOR HIS HEAD — He arranged them in the form of a drain-pipe
around his head for he was afraid of wild beasts (Genesis Rabbah 68:11). They
(the stones) began quarrelling with one another. One said, “Upon me let this
righteous man rest his head”, and another said “Upon me let him rest it”.
Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, straightway made them into one stone!
This explains what is written (Genesis 28:18), “And he took the stone that he
had put under his head” (Chullin 91b).  

CHIZKUNI: ויקח מאבני המקום, “he took some of the stones
lying around on that place” (to make some kind of headrest for himself).
According to tradition these stones had been part of the altar on which his
father Yitzchok had been bound on the occasion of the Akeydah. According to
Rashi, during the night these stones fused so that when he awoke there was only
one stone. We have a tradition also that the meaning of this phenomenon was
that Yaakov’s children as opposed to those of his father and grandfather, would
all remain true to their father’s religious outlook. Some commentators
(Rash’bam) claim that Yaakov had taken only a single stone and that this is the
reason why the Torah wrote immediately after these words: (after he awoke) “he
took the stone which he had placed as his headrest.”  

KLI YAKAR: and he took some of the stones of the place and
placed them at his head - After it was known to him that this place would be
the House of Gd which dims the sphere of the sun, therefor he took some of the
stones of the place and set them as a guard to his head in order to show how he
cherished their sanctity as it says “For Your servants desired its stones…”
(Tehillim 102:15) He took twelve stones parallel to the twelve tribes as it
says in the midrash (Bereshit Raba 68:11) that the stones argued, each one
saying ‘let the righteous one rest his head on me!’ until they became one
stone. This was a hint for the future as the writer of the Guide to the
Perplexed wrote, that this is why the Holy One hid this place which would be
the location of the Holy Temple and the King’s palace – in order that there not
be argument between the tribes, each desiring that holy place to be theirs.
Also for the sake of peace, as it says “But only to the place which the Lord
your God shall choose from all your tribes…” (Devarim 12:5) And it is written
“But only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes…” (Devarim
12:14) How is this? When David purchased the threshing floor from Aravna the
Yevusi, he collected the money from all of the tribes, as Rashi explains there
(see Shmuel II 24:24). If this is so, then the argument between the stones
which ended in their becoming one stone was sign for the future, that so too
will be the argument between the crown jewels, the twelve tribes of Gd, that
each tribe will