Awakening the creative letters through prayer

ויפגע במקום תיקן תפלת ערבית.

"And he encountered the place" (Bereishis 28:11) — he instituted the tefillas arvis (the evening prayer).

Chazal read Yaakov's "encounter" at the place as an act of prayer; he established the nighttime davening.

ויקח מאבני המקום אבנים הם אותיות שהתעורר על ידי התפלה.

"And he took from the stones of the place" — the stones (avanim) are letters (osiyos) that were awakened through the prayer.

Playing on the closeness of avanim (stones) and osiyos (letters), the Sefas Emes says Yaakov's tefillah aroused the holy letters embedded in that place.

שם אותם בראשו ולבו.

He placed them at his head and his heart.

He drew those awakened letters into his own mind and heart, internalizing them.

לכך ויחלום.

Therefore, "and he dreamed."

Because he had internalized those holy letters, he merited the prophetic dream of the ladder.

כדאיתא במדרש כמה לך בשרי כו'.

As it is taught in the Midrash: "How [the place longed for you], my flesh..." etc.

The Midrash describes how that place yearned for Yaakov, drawing on the pasuk "my flesh longed for You" (Tehillim 63:2) — the place itself craved his holy presence.

ונתקיים בו בהתהלכך תנחה אותך בשכבך תשמור כו' והקיצות היא תשיחך.

And there was fulfilled in him: "When you walk it shall lead you, when you lie down it shall guard you... and when you wake it shall converse with you" (Mishlei 6:22).

The Torah he had internalized accompanied Yaakov in every state — walking, sleeping, and waking — exactly as the pasuk promises.

כמ"ש ודברת בם בשבתך בלכתך בשכבך כו'.

As it is written: "And you shall speak of them, when you sit and when you walk, when you lie down [and when you rise]" (Devarim 6:7).

Constant engagement with the words of Torah — in every situation — is what binds them to a person at all times.

והנה בכל מקום יש אותיות התורה.

Now, in every place there are letters of the Torah.

The holy letters of Torah are concealed within every place in creation.

שבעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם.

For the world was created with ten utterances (asarah maamaros).

Since Hashem created the world through speech, the divine "letters" are the very substance of every created thing.

וע"י יגיעה בפה בתורה ותפלה מתעוררין כח האותיות שנברא בהם שמים וארץ.

And through toil of the mouth in Torah and tefillah, the power of the letters with which heaven and earth were created is awakened.

When a person labors with his mouth in Torah and prayer, he reactivates the very creative letters embedded in heaven and earth.

[וז"ש שצדיקים מקיימים העולם שנברא בעשרה מאמרות כי קיום הוא כמו קיום חתימת עדים כן הצדיקים מכירים ומעידין חותם המלך שהקב"ה טבע בחותמו ית' כל הבריאה].

[And this is the meaning of "the tzaddikim sustain the world that was created with ten utterances" — for "sustaining" (kiyum) is like the kiyum (validation) of the signatures of witnesses: so too the tzaddikim recognize and testify to the seal of the King, with which the Holy One, blessed be He, imprinted all of creation.]

"Sustaining the world" carries the legal sense of validating a document by confirming its witnesses' signatures: the tzaddikim recognize and bear witness that all of creation bears Hashem's signature, and by this testimony they uphold it.

ולכך נשתנה אצלו הטבע שקפצה לו הארץ ושקעה לו חמה דיש עולם שנה נפש.

Therefore nature was altered for him — the earth "leaped" toward him (kefitzas ha-derech) and the sun set early for him — for there is olam, shanah, nefesh (world, year, soul).

Because Yaakov reached the root letters of creation, the dimensions of space (olam), time (shanah/the early sunset), and self (nefesh) all bent to him; the categories of creation themselves yielded before him.

ובכח נפש איש ישראל לעורר הקדושה בעולם ובזמן ונתבטלו אל הצדיק:

And it is within the power of the soul of a Jew to awaken the kedushah in space and in time, so that they become nullified (bittul) before the tzaddik.

A Jew's soul can rouse the latent holiness within both place and time, so that the physical world subordinates itself in bittul to the tzaddik who reveals its inner divine root.

Summary: Yaakov's encounter at "the place," where he instituted arvis, turned the stones (avanim) into letters (osiyos) awakened by prayer, which he drew into his head and heart — earning him the prophetic dream. Since the world was created through ten utterances, the creative letters of Torah are hidden in every place; through toil of the mouth in Torah and tefillah a person reawakens them. The tzaddikim "sustain" creation by testifying to Hashem's seal upon it, and so for Yaakov the very dimensions of space, time, and self — olam, shanah, nefesh — bent in bittul before him.