Wikipedia: Judaism
~The classic
Torah commentaries offer several interpretations of Jacob's ladder. According to the
Midrash, the ladder signified the exiles which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the
Messiah. First the angel representing the 70-year exile of Babylonia climbed "up" 70 rungs, and then fell "down". Then the angel representing the exile of Persia went up a number of steps, and fell, as did the angel representing the exile of Greece. Only the fourth angel, which represented the final exile of
Rome/
Edom (whose guardian angel was
Esau himself), kept climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would come falling down.[SUP]
[citation needed]
[/SUP]
Another interpretation of the ladder keys into the fact that the angels first "ascended" and then "descended". The Midrash explains that Jacob, as a holy man, was always accompanied by angels. When he reached the border of the land of
Canaan (the future
land of Israel), the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land went back up to Heaven and the angels assigned to other lands came down to meet Jacob. When Jacob returned to Canaan he was greeted by the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land.
Yet another interpretation is this: The place at which Jacob stopped for the night was in reality
Mount Moriah, the future home of the Temple in Jerusalem.[SUP]
[citation needed][/SUP] The ladder therefore signifies the "bridge" between Heaven and earth, as prayers and sacrifices offered in the Holy Temple soldered a connection between God and the Jewish people. Moreover, the ladder alludes to the giving of the
Torah as another connection between heaven and earth. In this interpretation, it is also significant that the
Hebrew word for ladder,
sulam (סלם) and the name for the mountain on which the Torah was given,
Sinai (סיני) have the same
gematria (numerical value of the letters).
So take your pick I guess. You know already which one I believe.
And I didn't misunderstand anything. The stone is supposed to the one that Jacob anointed.
What I posted previously was right from the Temple Institute site.