This shiur compares God's promises to Yaakov in his dream, to Yaakov's oath in response to the dream. It seems that Yaakov fails to make the connection between the individual promise and the general one. His oath is that of a man in trouble, who prays for deliverance and for success on his way.
Yaakov's deviations from God's promises obviously arouse our surprise: why does Yaakov have a problem with accepting the Divine promise in full? Even more problematically – why does Yaakov need to make a promise, given to him directly from God by prophecy, into a conditional oath? Clearly, a person who is in trouble promises to bring a sacrifice, etc., because he cannot be assured of God's help. But surely someone who has received God's word has no need for all of this?!
It seems that these questions require that we re-think the essence of Yaakov's dream. By fulfilling his promise and oath, Yaakov makes God – for all future generations – not only the God of the Land of Israel, but also the God of Am Yisrael, wherever they may find themselves.
