Holiness drawn down by love

אכן יש ה' במקום הזה.

"Indeed, Hashem is present in this place."

Yaakov realizes upon waking that there is a real revealed Presence of Hashem in this spot — a place where the Divine has, as it were, "settled."

כי הקב"ה נק' אין סוף.

For the Holy One is called Ein Sof (the Infinite One, without limit).

In His essence Hashem is boundless and cannot be confined to any one place.

אבל לחיבת בנ"י צמצם שכינתו בין בדי הארון כביכול בביהמ"ק.

But out of His love for Bnei Yisrael He contracted His Shechinah (Divine Presence) between the staves of the Aron (Ark), as it were, in the Bais Hamikdash.

Through tzimtzum (Divine contraction), Hashem allowed His Presence to be "found" in a fixed place, specifically because of His affection for His people.

לכן במקום זה של ביהמ"ק נמצא בחי' יש ה' כו'.

Therefore in this place of the Bais Hamikdash there is the aspect of "Hashem is present," etc.

The site of the Mikdash — the very spot where Yaakov stood — is where the Infinite becomes graspable as a present, revealed reality.

ואנכי לא ידעתי.

"And I did not know it."

Yaakov is astonished that such overwhelming kedushah (holiness) was here and yet he had not sensed it.

יש ללמוד מזה חסדי המקום ב"ה אשר מזמין לחסידיו מדריגות רבות.

From this we can learn the kindnesses of the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who prepares many lofty levels for His devoted ones.

Hashem in His chesed arranges great spiritual heights for those close to Him, often without their even being aware of it in the moment.

באופן שיבואו עוד לענוה על ידיהן.

In such a way that through these levels they come to even greater humility.

The very greatness Hashem grants a tzaddik becomes a means of deepening his anavah (humility), rather than inflating him.

כי יעקב אע"ה תמה על עצמו האיך לא הרגיש קדושת המקום.

For Yaakov Avinu wondered at himself: how had he not felt the holiness of the place?

Rather than taking pride in the revelation, Yaakov is humbled, faulting himself for not having perceived the kedushah on his own.

אבל באמת אמרו חז"ל כי קפצה לו הארץ ובאמת לא הי' הקדושה במקום הזה.

But in truth Chazal said that the land "jumped" toward him, and in reality the holiness was not inherently in this place.

By the miracle of kefitzas haderech (the land contracting beneath him), the holy place came to him; the kedushah was not a permanent fixture of that ground.

רק על ידי חבתו של יעקב נגלה לשעה עומק הקדושה כמ"ש לעיל:

Rather, only through Yaakov's beloved closeness was the depth of the holiness revealed for that moment, as explained above.

It was Yaakov's own love and yearning for Hashem that drew down the deep kedushah at that hour — the revelation was a response to his inner devotion, not a property of the location.

Summary: Although Hashem is the boundless Ein Sof, out of love for Bnei Yisrael He contracts His Presence into a fixed place such as the Bais Hamikdash. Yaakov's astonishment that he had not sensed the holiness teaches that the heights Hashem grants His devoted ones lead to deeper humility — and that the deep kedushah revealed at that spot was drawn down by Yaakov's own love for Hashem, not by the place itself.