Genesis 28:11

ויפגע במקום AND HE LIGHTED UPON THE PLACE — Scripture does not mention which place, but by writing בַּמָקוֹם the place it refers to the place mentioned already in another passage, viz., Mount Moriah of which it is stated (Genesis 22:4) “And he saw the place (המקום) afar off”. ויפגע AND HE LIGHTED — similar are (Joshua 16:7) “and it reached (ופגע) unto Jericho”, and (Joshua 19:11) “and reached (ופגע) to Dabesheth”. Our Rabbis explained it in the sense of “praying”, just as (Jeremiah 7:16) “Neither make intercession (תפגע) to me”. Thus we may learn that Jacob originated the custom of Evening Prayer. Scripture purposely changed the usual word for “praying”, not writing יתפלל, “And he prayed” (which would have been the more appropriate word, but ויפגע which means to hit upon a place unexpectedly), to teach you also that the ground shrunk before him (the journey was miraculously shortened) as it is explained in the Chapter גיד הנשה (Chullin 91b). כי בא השמש BECAUSE THE SUN WAS SET — It should have written, “The sun set and he tarried there all night”, but the words “he tarried there all night because the sun set”, imply that the sun set unexpectedly — not at its proper time — just in order that he should tarry there over night). וישם מראשתיו AND PUT THEM FOR A RESTING PLACE FOR HIS HEAD — He arranged them in the form of a drain-pipe around his head for he was afraid of wild beasts (Genesis Rabbah 68:11). They (the stones) began quarrelling with one another. One said, “Upon me let this righteous man rest his head”, and another said “Upon me let him rest it”. Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, straightway made them into one stone! This explains what is written (Genesis 28:18), “And he took the stone that he had put under his head” (Chullin 91b). וישכב במקום ההוא AND [HE] LAY DOWN IN THAT PLACE —The word ההוא, that, has a limitative force: in that place he lay down to sleep, but during the previous fourteen years when he sat under his teachers in the School of Eber he never slept at night for he was incessantly engaged in the study of the Torah (Genesis Rabbah 68:11).

וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּק֜וֹם וַיָּ֤לֶן שָׁם֙ כִּי־בָ֣א הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח֙ מֵאַבְנֵ֣י הַמָּק֔וֹם וַיָּ֖שֶׂם מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב בַּמָּק֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃

And he lighted on a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.