And he dreamed, and behold a ladder was set on the earth and its top reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
English: It was taught: How wide was the ladder? Eight thousand parasangs. For it is written “And behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” — ascending two and descending two, and when they met they were four. And of an angel it is written “and his body was like tarshish,” and it is known that tarshish is two thousand parasangs.
On the daf / in context: Chullin 91b calculates the width of the ladder from the simultaneous ascent and descent of pairs of angels whose individual size is known from Daniel.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (Bavli sugya) — not a formal named middah of the 13. The plural verbs and the size of an angel yield a precise measurement of the ladder’s width.
What Is Learned
The ladder Yaakov saw was eight thousand parasangs wide, broad enough for four angels to pass abreast.