Jacob's ladder is Jacob himself!
It is the will of Hashem, that a Jew be engaged in this physical world, and, in it, find a way to remain sanctified to Hashem.
Rav Elya Lopian comments:’The explanation of this is: man needs to know that he is like ‘a ladder set earthward with its top reaching heavenward’, because he is comprised of body and soul together, as it says:(27)’And G-d formed man of dust from the ground; and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul.’
From the portion of his soul, he reaches heavenward, and is a ‘heavenly creature’, but from his body portion, he is ‘a ladder set earthward’; and, as with any ladder, the feet which stand on the earth, get dirty from the soil, and impure things happen to it there.
‘So too, is man in his physical portion - but his head reaches heavenward, and heavenly angels ascend and descend on it, on the man who is this ladder.
‘Our Sages ( Avot 4:11) say:’Whoever does one mitzvah, acquires for himself one advocate’ -an angel; from every mitzvah, and these are the ‘angels of G-d..ascending and descending..
‘Thus, by our good deeds, they ascend from the earth upwards, and then they return from Above, and descend on it, from Above, and bring with them blessings back to earth.
But so, too, in the opposite manner: ‘They ‘descend upon it’ - as our Sages say there: ‘whoever transgresses one transgression, acquires for himself an accuser’: meaning: that by the transgression he committed, an accusing angel is created, who testifies against him Above.’
The Malbim elucidates:’The Torah here relates, that Yaakov Avinu revealed his fear of Esav, in that he left the land of Israel to escape his wrath, and also showed his fear in the manner in which he arrayed the stones around his head, as protection from animals, at night.
‘Against this fear, he was shown in his dream, that he himself was the ladder connecting the worlds, his feet set earthward, from his physical portion, whilst his head reached heavenward, from his soul. He was further shown, in his dream, that he was the chariot of the shechina, and that the divine providence was by the angels who were dependent on him - according to his deeds and activities, these angels ascended and descended.
‘According to his deeds - that ascend upwards - is the awakening and descent of blessings from above; thus, first the angels of his Torah and mizvot ascend, and afterwards, the angels of blessings and bounty descend to earth.
‘The Midrash says: ‘the bottom creations ascend, and the higher ones descend’, and that Hashem is standing over him, over Yaakov - all is conducted according to the ascents and descents of the angels of Yaakov.’
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl first asks:’What was the reason for Yaakov’s dream? And: is there any connection between the fourteen years of Torah study which Yaakov Avinu had just completed - in the yeshiva of Eber - and that which was revealed to him, in the dream? As best we can understand the prophetic dream, its message to Yaakov would seem to be: first, Hashem shows him, in this dream, that in the world of ascension there are many levels: many steps. True, you, Yaakov, have in these fourteen years in the yeshiva of Eber, indeed ascended greatly - but there is no limit to the number of steps: ‘ascending upon it’, all the time.
‘Second: Hashem shows him, that, as well as ascents, there are also descents: ‘descending upon it’: there is the possibility to also descend, from any level that you may have, by you toil, ascended to - and with greater ease, because, to ascend, requires effort, but to lose that which you have attained, does not require any effort.
‘But much more than this is shown to Yaakov: he is shown that that whole of creation ascends or - רחמנא לצלן - descends, with him; even ‘angels of G-d, ascend and descend, on the ladder that is man, because all of creation revolves around the deeds of man.
‘We therefore find that ‘the angels of G-d ascending and descending‘ are ‘upon’ him: upon Yaakov- all depends on him and his deeds. We find that Yaakov Avinu well understood the message of his dream, as, immediately thereafter, after all the blessings and great tidings promised in his dream, the first thing he does, upon awakening, is not rejoicing in the bounty he has now been promised, but (28:17)’And he became frightened and said: ‘How awesome is this place’, and he offered vows to Hashem.
‘Because the righteous man - always demands more and more from himself, in his avodat Hashem, fearing that he may not be worthy of the promises from Hashem - and he strives to ascend higher on the ladder of the ascension heavenward.’
The Netivot Shalom gives us a ‘broader’ exposition of this, wondrous dream, first bringing the Midrash, that Yaakov saw the world before him, like a wall that he could not penetrate, explaining:’Till he left his home, for Haran, his whole world was that of Torah and sanctity, in the house of the righteous Yitzchak and the yeshiva of Eber; now he has to leave this holy world, and enter this mundane world to build his own household, to raise a family, and to earn a living.
This ‘new’ world was like an impenetrable wall to Yaakov, a world which he could not see how he could enter, a world so alien, one in which he felt that he did not belong, and, most of all, because the place to which he had to go, was filled with impurity, the household of Laban.
‘This is what he was shown in his dream of the ladder whose foot is earthward and whose top is heavenward, that it is the will of Hashem, that a Jew be engaged in this physical world, and, in it, find a way to remain sanctified to Hashem; that even in the periods when, inevitably, there would be ‘descents’, he should still be ‘on this’ connecting ‘ladder’.
This is the underlying message of the Midrash, that the ladder set earthward is an altar, alluding to the role of a Jew in this world, the altar being the place where the Jew serves Hashem with, as it were, with ‘his blood’, and all this being within the frame of the ladder, which he never completely leaves.
Initially his avodah is ‘set earthward, the humble level from which he is to ascend, step by step, till the level of the head reaching heavenward, till the peak of ‘Hashem standing over him’.
‘’And behold, angels of G-d were ascending and descending upon it’, all that he does is to be ‘within’ the frame of this ladder, and he must never step out of this framework, with all the ascents and descents that befall him.
‘Our Sages say, that ‘the ladder’ alludes to Sinai: the power of the Torah that Hashem gave us, through which we are able to remain close to Hashem even whilst being engaged in this physical world, and even reach the lofty level of ‘Hashem standing over him’.
‘This revelation led Yaakov Avinu to now exclaim:(28:16)’ Hashem is present in this place, and I did not know!’ - even in this new ‘place’, in the mundane activities of this world, one can serve Hashem, as long as one remains within the framework of the ladder: of sanctity, of Torah, of avodat Hashem.
‘We now understand the objective of the dream that Yaakov was shown, of ‘the ladder set earthward..’. We might have thought that its main purpose was for the blessings that Hashem bestowed on him, but then the Torah should have started immediately with ‘Behold Hashem was standing over him …; But, as we have said, this was not the main objective of the dream; it was to teach him the way of service of Hashem, in the form of the ladder with rungs ‘and behold angels were ascending and descending upon it’, that even the inevitable descents should be within the framework of the ladder, connecting earth and heaven, and he was promised therby that always, Hashem will be with him. (28:15).’
A beautiful parting exposition, from Rav Pinchas Friedman, who asks:’What is the objective of the dream that Hashem chose to now reveal to Yaakov, of ‘a ladder set earthward, and its top reaching heavenward’, at this specific time, as Yaakov was running away from the wrath of his brother Esav, after he had taken the brachot from him?
‘We can find the answer in the exposition of the Admo’r Mahari’d of Belz, to explain the sin of the meraglim, who were princes of Israel, yet refused to enter the land. They did so because they felt that it was not possible to learn Torah and to fully serve Hashem anywhere but in the desert, where they were not engaged in any of the mundane affairs of this world; as there all their needs were met miraculously from the hand of Hashem; but, as this would cease when they entered the land; they would then have to be engaged in the pursuit of a living and other mundane matters, and this would inevitably be at the expense of their Torah study and service of Hashem. They therefore sought to prevent the entry of the people into the land.
‘However - expounds the Admo’r - they erred in this, because in fact the will of Hashem is that man be engaged in the matters of this world, and, in this too, seek to serve Hashem. Hashem created man from a combination of earth from this world, and afterwards, infused into him the spirit of life from the upper world, to teach that man’s main task is to be a union of both these worlds, by raising his earthly solely to Hashem.
‘It is for this very purpose that Hashem brought the people into the land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’, so that they should in it be engaged in the affairs of this world, with the intention of all these endeavors being to serve Hashem.
‘We can now revisit the purpose for which Hashem showed Yaakov, in his dream, ‘a ladder set earthward and its top reached heavenward’.
‘After the long years that Yaakov learned in the yeshiva of Eber - how to serve Hashem in the mundane matters of this lowly world - Eber having retained his righteousness in the generations of pervasive wickedness, he continued towards Haran; but on the way there, Yaakov remembered that he had not yet prayed ar the place of the Bet Hamikdash; and when he decided to return there, he found that miraculously his journey was shortened.
‘To reinforce his new understanding that it was indeed the will of Hashem that he should engage in the mundane affairs of this world, for the sake of heaven, Hashem showed him in his dream, in the place of the Bet Hamikdash, the vision of the ladder and the angels, to teach him that Hashem created the world in the manner of descent from the spiritual heavens to the physical earth, so that we should elevate all the mundane affairs of the earth for the sake of heaven, from the physical to the spiritual.
‘This in the vision of ‘a ladder set earthward and its head heavenward’, signifying that we have to ascend on the ladder, from the physical world, all our mundane activities, for the sake of heaven.
‘’And behold, angels of G-d were ascending and descending upon it’: the angels which were created from the good deeds of the righteous in this world, ascend from below, above, and, in the merit of this, there is an awakening Above, and Hashem sends his spiritual blessings clothed in material form, earthwards, so that the righteous can further elevate these physical blessings to the spiritual realm - these are the angels which ascend from earth heavenward, and then descend from Above, to earth.
‘Hashem emphasizes that this is His will, by telling Yaakov (28:13):’The ground upon which you are lying, to you I will give it and to your descendants’, to totally refute the misguided view of the meraglim, as why would Hashem give Bnei Israel ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’, if His will was that they best serve him in the desert, where they did not need to engage in the mundane affairs of this world?
‘This is conclusive proof that it is Hashem’s will, that we should be engaged in the affairs of this world, and elevate them for the sake of heaven.’
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