In Genesis 28, we read about a very interesting vision that the Patriarch Jacob dreams while camping out on the road to Haran. “He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.” God is there, too. As Jacob explains, “Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I, I did not know it…How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!” (Genesis 28.16-17)
The Hebrew, however, is a little ambiguous about God’s exact position. The text says that God is standing alav, but the Hebrew word alav can mean either on top of or next to. Is God standing next to Jacob, or is God standing on top of Jacob?
A similar but slightly amusing question comes when this same word, alav, is used in the Talmudic instructions for Gerut/Conversion. The officiant is instructed to be in the mikvah (ritual bath) and stand alav the convert. Does this mean that the officiating Rabbi should be standing on the Convert’s back, holding him down in the water? Certainly not! Water safety and prudence suggest that the Talmud means standing next to. This is also probably the meaning of the Biblical narrator—which is why the modern Jewish Publication Society translation renders the phrase as, “The Lord was standing beside him.” Nonetheless, the thought that God is literally on top of Jacob can be psychologically and spiritually instructive.
When someone is on a task, he/she is focused on it. When someone feels that another is on him/her, there is a feeling of attention being paid. Whether for good (protection) or for bad (waiting for a misstep), the consciousness of being watched can be palpable. It is like the old country expression, like white on rice, suggesting a presence that is much more than coverage. The observer’s presence is so on top of someone that it becomes part of the observed’s identity.
If we read the passage literally—that God is on Jacob—like white on rice, perhaps this could be a way of describing what some modern mystics call God Consciousness—an attitude in which one is intently and continually aware of God’s Presence and attention. Christians hear this way of thinking in the 1905 hymn, “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” Combining thoughts from Psalm 32.8 and Matthew (6.26 and 10.29-31), Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel wrote a beautiful expression of God’s intense and continuing interest in each creature. “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”
Moving a few centuries back in time, we can find a similar sensibility in the thinking and practice of Jewish Mysticism. In order to develop an awareness of God’s Presence, the Kabbalists developed many techniques—once of which is meditating on the “Shiviti,” a spiritual formulation that begins with “Shiviti Adonai l’negdi tamid / I have set the Lord always before me,” from Psalm 16.8. Whatever life brings, let me look for God’s Presence and God’s possibilities because God is always here. Whether experiencing a blessing or facing a difficulty, how can I make sure that my vision includes the Divine? When we live with God Consciousness, our goal is to find a reaction or response that incorporates an awareness of God—God who is here and with me and paying attention! As our father Jacob learned, “God is in this place…and on us.”