possible clue to the hotel-dieu/maison-dieu question

smleite

Genesis 28, 10 – 18: “Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying (…). When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.”

Beit-El means the House (or Housing) of God, being also an allusion to the temple in Jerusalem. Beit-El, or Beith-El, becomes Beith-lehem, "house of bread", the birthplace of the Christ (bread of life - John 6:32-34). It is an incredibly important place, an axis-mundi, a symbolic centre of the world. Here, God appeared to Jacob in a manner much alike to the way He appeared to Moses.

Exodus 3, 1-5: “Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
 

Fulgour

Thank You

Silvia,

What incredible possibilities this allows
one to imagine. I'm going to include
a reference to this also on another
thread ~ about the other gates.

Fulgour