Bereishit (Genesis) 28:10-32:3 5783
Summary
Yaakov (Jacob) flees from Esav (Esau) who is furious that his blessing was stolen. First night he sees a ladder with angels going up and down, doing the work of HaShem. He names it the House of HaShem or Bethel. Sets a stone, anoints it with oil, and promises to give offerings.
He travels on, sees a group at a well. Interesting that Itzhak’s wife was first encountered by the servant of Avraham at a well, likely this well. He learns that these are the people of Laban. Rachel approaches and Yaakov is drawn to her beauty. He tends her sheep, tells her who he is, and she goes back to tell Laban. Laban rushes out to greet Yaakov and he is invited back to his tent. Staying with Laban, he is drawn to Rachel. He offers to tend Laban’s flocks for seven years to marry her.
After seven years, the wedding is set. Yaakov thinks he is marrying Rachel, but it is the older sister Leah who weds him, wearing a veil. The next morning, he wakes up and discovers the deceit. Laban says it’s the custom to marry off the elder first, but he can marry Rachel after the obligatory seven day waiting period, provided he agrees to stay and work another seven years. Leah came with her servant Zilpah and Rachel with her servant Bilhah.
Thus begins the birthing competition. Leah bears Reuben (The Lord has seen my affliction. Now Yaakov will love me.) Then Simeon (Lord knows I am unloved; He has heard me.) Next came Levi (This time the Lord has heard me; Yaakov will be attached to me). The fourth child is Yehudah (Judah) (Praise the Lord).
Rachel, frustrated by her inability to give birth, offers her servant Bilhah who bears a son she names Dan (She has been vindicated). Then another son Naphtali (A contest for HaShem; got divine favor).
Leah then offers her servant Zilpah as concubine. She bears Gad (What luck) and Asher (Happy). So Reuben is in the field one day and he finds mandrakes, the roots of which were known to have a narcotic effect, sleep inducing and painkiller, and believed by many to have aphrodisiac properties. Rachel asks Leah for the mandrakes, agreeing to send Yaakov to her tent that night. As a result, Leah bears Issachar (affirmation of belief) and then after that Zebulun (give or raise up). After that a daughter Dinah is born. No explanation for her name.
Then Rachel gives birth to Yosef (Joseph) meaning to look back with anguish of past mistakes but look forward with hope. Thus ends the birth narratives, beginning with the name of HaShem and ending with the same.
Yaakov asks Laban to leave, but instead a deal is reached where he will stay on. Yaakov agrees to take all dark sheep and spotted and speckled goats to be kept by his sons 3 days distant. It appears Yaakov is about to repay trickery by Laban with trickery of his own. Yaakov tends Laban’s animals. He strips the bark from poplar, almond, and plane branches, placing them for in front of the water troughs where the goats mated. For the sheep, he faced them towards the dark animals. He then brought the stronger animals to mate in front of the rods. His herd increases and the number in his camp grows.
Strife grows between Laban and Yaakov. HaShem tells him it is time to return to his people. He discusses it with his wives, and they agree, leaving while Laban is out with his animals. As they leave, Rachel steals her father’s idols, unbeknownst to Yaakov. Laban returns and rides out with his men to catch up with Yaakov. He no doubt intended harm, as HaShem warned him to do neither good nor harm to HaShem. Yaakov explains he feared Laban would not let him take his wives with him, thus the secrecy. Laban laments he would not have been able to say farewell to Rachel and Leah, and why did they take his idols. Yaakov insists they did not and invites him to search saying if one of his took the idols, they must die. First his tent, then Leah’s and next Rachel’s. Rachel had hidden the idols in a camel cushion and sitting on it said she could not get up as it was her time of the month. After quarreling some more, they declare a non-aggression pact and stand a stone to mark the occasion. They feast that night, and part ways the next morning. Traveling, Yaakov sees angels, declares it as HaShem’s camp, naming it Mahanaim.
So, our parsha begins with Yaakov fleeing after tricking his brother and father out of both Esav’s birthright and blessing. He flees to his mom’s brother Laban. He meets and falls in love with Sarah, at the very well that Rivka (Rebecca) had met the servant of Avraham to negotiate a marriage to Itzhak. He meets Laban with whom he agrees to work seven years to marry Rachel. He in a sort of cosmic justice, karma if you please, works seven years, but Laban the trickster pulls a switch and clad with veil, Yaakov marries Leah. Then another seven-year obligation to marry Rachel as well.
I am fascinated with the way our stories develop, as with Avraham and Itzhak with their interactions with Gerar covered in previous parshat, the meeting at the well of Laban’s land, repetition that provides a certain continuity to the larger story. Sharon Brous of IKAR in her Dvar only yesterday led me down a rabbit hole of my own. She spoke of the competition between Leah the unloved and Rachel the loved in their efforts to have children. Two sisters in serious competition with each other over the attention of Yaakov. Their baby naming, prayers of a sort over their own feelings of uncertainty or inadequacy. I could not help but note that it was Yehuda (Judah), Leah’s fourth son where she named him simply in praise of HaShem, who’s tribe would eventually dominate Israel and for whom we Jews are named.
But back to sibling rivalry. In our last parsha, the rivalry was between two twin brothers, where we learned popular belief in Biblical times involved the idea that twins possessed traits which together created the whole person. As if jealousy and rivalry come from the desire of the one to have that the other possesses. Now here we are with two sisters, one desiring the love given to the other, the other desiring the family given to her sister. I in our time think that if only each could have accepted themselves as the creation they are, without the fear and jealousy of the other, how much better their lives. But of course, the ramifications of our stories are far greater, the story of the creation of a people. Unlike the creation mythologies of our day, such as the founding of America, where the founders are all imbued with a façade of legend and unlikely perfection, our founders were real humans with imperfections, character faults, stumbling through life and yet who’s actions are retold year after year millennia later. There is a price for words spoken and actions taken. Soon to come in a future parsha, Rachel dies giving childbirth. Likely for Yaakov’s proclamation that whoever took the idols will die. Of course, we all must die sometime. But do we despite our imperfection, create a life story that goes on beyond our short lives here? If only stories that would survive so long. For we all are a part of our own creation story. It’s up to us what we do with it.
One final thought. Since forever, primogeniture has been a thing. But time after time, we see those rules violated, favor to the first born, by HaShem. It’s an interesting thread that appears repeatedly. Perhaps more simply stated, HaShem will choose whoever HaShem will choose.
Baruch HaShem.
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