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Is the pillar that Jacob stood upright, and poured ablations on in Genesis 28:22 still extant? IE: Can I go visit it?

Would it have been small, like one of Mike Lindell's "My Pillows" or might it have been a huge ziggurat, with a prominent staircase?:

Pillow sized? For tucking under your head:

[Gen 28:10-22 ESV] [10] Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. [11] And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. [12] And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! [13] And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. [14] Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [15] Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." [16] Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." [17] And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." [18] So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. [19] He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. [20] Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, [21] so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, [22] and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you."

Or a huge ziggurat, like in Ur, with prominent staircases?

msh210
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Ruminator
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    In regards to "was it large or small"; seems pretty clear from the passukim that it was small, as you point out – Lo ani Nov 21 '23 at 23:04
  • So the stone was suitable as a pillow, but Jacob dreamed of a ziggurat, so what gives? – Ruminator Nov 21 '23 at 23:30
  • Why did he have to dream about what he was laying on, or what he later anointed? – Lo ani Nov 22 '23 at 00:13
  • I don't answer why questions, unless the intentions of the author have been declared. – Ruminator Nov 22 '23 at 00:25
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    Ok- my intention is that unless there's a reason to think that what Yaakov dreamed about was the same as what he slept on/ anointed, asking how Yaakov's dream-structure was big while his pillow was small is not a question- what does one have to do with the other? – Lo ani Nov 22 '23 at 00:41
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    Stairs in Tanach are usually called "מדרגות" (madregot) or "מעלות" (ma'alot). It doesn't seem to be that a ziggurat would have been climbed with a super-long ladder. In other words, what basis is there to compare a ziggurat to the stone + ladder of the Torah? – Harel13 Nov 22 '23 at 14:52

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It seems that you're conflating the stone that Jacob put under his head (v. 11) and later annointed (v. 18) with the ladder he saw in his dream (v. 12). It seems clear that the former is a real object, while the latter is a figment of his dream.

It also seems clear that the stone was small enough to move around and to fit under Jacob's head, so it was probably too small to survive for thousands of years without special care. I have never heard of a tradition identifying it with an extant structure.

Isaac Moses
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