A vort from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת ויצא. The beginning of the פרשה, the פרשה says that Yaakov lay down to sleep, ויפגע במקום, he met the place, he came to the place, he davent there and he lay down to sleep, but he had the dream with the ladder, so he realized it's a holy place, so it says ויקץ יעקב משנתו, יעקב woke up from his sleep, ויאמר, and he said, אכן יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי. I see that there is Hashem in this place and I didn't know. And Rashi explains what did he mean that I didn't know: שאם ידעתי, if I would have known, לא ישנתי במקום קדוש כזה, I wouldn't sleep in such a holy place. And the Rebbe asks the shailah, why takeh did the Aibershter make that Yaakov Avinu should sleep in such a holy place? Especially that the way Chazal say that before and after he didn't sleep. Before he got to this place, for 14 years he was in the yeshivah of Shem v'Ever, and there he didn't lay down to sleep because he learned. Afterwards, when he came to Lavan, for 20 years he didn't go to sleep regularly because he was busy with watching his sheep. So Hashem had to make that davka in this place, which is a holy place, he should sleep?

So the Rebbe explains it like this: the difference between a person laying down and a person standing or sitting, when a person stands and sits, the higher parts of the body, his brain, his heart, higher parts of the body are higher than the feet. Here you could see the maalah, the specialty of the higher, upper part of the person's body over the lower part, which represents the idea that you could see the maalah of ענינים עליונים שבאדם, higher parts of the person, over the ענינים תחתונים, the lower parts of the person. On the other hand, when you lay down to sleep, so there the person is flat, so his higher part and lower part are the same height, and you cannot see the specialty of the head over the feet. This situation represents the fact that when it's compared to Hashem, in relationship to Hashem, there is no difference in higher or lower. They're all the same, like we say in Machzor, השוה משוה קטן וגדול, big and small, it's all the same legabei the Aibershter, because there's no erech, no comparison to the Aibershter. So on that level, when you feel that, then there's the תכלית הביטול. When you have your head higher than your feet, for instance, it shows you're not completely batel. You're still a metzius. So this metzius, the metzius of the intellect is greater than the metzius of the feet, which represent a lower madreigah. But if you feel the real bitul to Hashem, then there is no difference, every part of the body is the same, because compared to Hashem, everything's the same. So davka in this holy place, where the kedushah of Hashem is there, davka there Hashem wanted him to lay down, to teach him this inyan, the tachlit habitul that l'gabei Hashem, whatever Hashem wants, high or lower, there's no such thing as higher and lower, everything is the same.

And the Rebbe taytsh, it's interesting that when he said, \"Had I known, I wouldn't have slept here,\" like the pasuk says, \"אכן יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי,\" Hashem is here and I didn't know, so the Rebbe taytsh, \"I didn't know\" means that I didn't realize that here it's higher than daas. Daas, yediah, knowledge, knowing is a madreigah, that's something special. But he realized that this is a place, לא ידעתי, ידיעה doesn't mean anything. There's only one thing, the Aibershter, and you got to be batel to the Aibershter, and your yediah, your knowledge this, at this level doesn't mean anything. And this is why the Aibershter made him sleep and lay down and sleep at this point, because this was an introduction to going to Lavan. And Hashem was trying to show him that, \"Now that you're going to Lavan, you're going to Charan, you're going to a terrible galut, you're going to go through a lot of hardships, so the way to overcome it all is when you have the level of bitul.\" So first He made him lay down here, which represents the inyan of bitul, that you're completely batel to Hashem, there's no such specialty in anything, it's all the same l'gabei Hashem. When you have that bitul, the Aibershter showed him, then you'll be able to overcome all your problems by Lavan. And that's takeh actually what happened, that for the 20 years of Lavan, not only didn't he get affected, but he became even higher and higher to the highest madreigah, and that's where he built the whole Klal Yisrael.