Near the end of Slihot every night, the evocative piyut “Mi She’Ana” (“He Who Answered”) is recited. It recounts Biblical personalities whom God answered and helped in their times of crisis or distress, and turns to God to answer us as well.
Yaakov is on the run, fleeing from his brother who sought to kill him. Rivka had arranged for Yitzhak to send him to Rivka’s family in Haran (outside of Canaan) to find a wife. Yaakov seems to be very much alone on his journey, and takes some of the stones on the ground to use as a pillow. But after a dream in which Divine messengers are ascending and descending a ladder, God tells him that he is with him, will protect him, and will return him to the Land of Canaan.
Yaakov epitomizes the traveler in Psalm 23, and seems to be saying the first "tefillat ha-derekh" (Traveler's Prayer) in Tanakh. Though we may feel alone and on a perilous journey, God will be with us.