Yaakov as root of all souls

ויפגע במקום.

"And he encountered the place" (Bereishis 28:11).

The Sefas Emes takes up the verse describing Yaakov reaching "the place" on his way out of Eretz Yisrael.

פי' מקום המיוחד לו והכיר את מקומו השייך לו.

The meaning is: the place uniquely designated for him, and he recognized his own place that belonged to him.

"The place" is not just any location but the spot specially appointed for Yaakov; he recognized the place that was essentially his.

וזה המקום שורש כל המקומות כמ"ש שהכפיל כל ארץ ישראל תחת זה המקום שהוא מקום ביהמ"ק שורש כל המקומות והוא שייך ליעקב אבינו שהוא כמו כן בנפשות שורש כל הנפשות.

And this place is the root of all places, as Chazal say that Hashem folded up all of Eretz Yisrael beneath this place — which is the site of the Bais Hamikdash, the root of all places — and it belongs to Yaakov Avinu, who likewise is, among souls, the root of all souls.

Chazal teach that the whole Land was folded beneath Yaakov here (Chullin 91b); that spot is the place of the Bais Hamikdash, the source from which all other places draw. Yaakov belongs to it because he is the parallel reality among souls — the root from which all of Bnei Yisrael's neshamos branch out.

ושוב מצאתי כדברים האלה בזוהר חדש:

And afterward I found words like these in the Zohar Chadash.

The Sefas Emes notes that he subsequently discovered this very idea expressed in the Zohar Chadash, confirming his insight.

Summary: When Yaakov "encountered the place," he recognized the spot uniquely his — the site of the Bais Hamikdash, which is the root of all places, just as Yaakov himself is the root of all the souls of Bnei Yisrael; an idea the Sefas Emes later found echoed in the Zohar Chadash.