summary

Parashat Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3) is such a full portion that I could not hope to do these classic stories, both supernatural and most natural, justice. I urge you to have a read but…if you do not have time:

Having received his father’s blessing by deception, Jacob now flees his brother, Esau. His destination is Haran and his mother’s brother, Laban. As he leaves the land of Israel, Jacob comes to a certain place (ha’makom – later interpreted ed as one of God’s names) and dreams of a ladder with angels going up and down it. God blesses Jacob there and promises to guard over him and ultimately to return him safely to his family. Jacob erects and anoints a monument and calls it Beth El – House of God. He then makes a vow that if God will do all that God had promised, then Jacob will follow God.

When Jacob approaches Haran, he sees a well and there meets Rachel. Thus, he enters Laban’s household. Laban tricks him into marrying Leah after working for Rachel and then forces him to work further to gain Rachel’s hand as well. The conflict between Leah and Rachel is played out through the ability and inability to give birth. It is in this atmosphere that the pregenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel are born. The whole enactment is told as the workings of God’s plan.

Jacob’s departure from Haran is full of the kind of deceptions that Jacob had utilised in last week’s parasha to usurp his brother’s birthright and blessing. Although the short-term result is that all the parties involved leave in peace, the longer-term ramifications will be played out next week through Rachel’s death giving birth to Benjamin.

commentary

Jacob them made this vow: “If God is with me and watches over me on this path that I am taking and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s house, then the Eternal One will be my God; and this stone that I have set up as a monument shall be a house of God. And of all that You give me, I will dedicate a tenth to You. (Gen 28:20-22)”

This formal promise or vow (neder) is conditional. Indeed, the seeming chutzpah and bargaining employed by Jacob so stunned one ancient commentator, Rabbi Jonathan, that he concluded that the text must somehow be in disarray!

However, this is a young Jacob with many more stages of maturity to come. His prayer to God is therefore not a “proper prayer,” but, as Rabbi Gunther Plaut observes, “He prays realistically, from the heart.” How many times have we prayed in this, most human of ways? A midrash suggests that, “Praying at any place is like standing at the very foot of God’s throne of glory, for the gate of heaven is there and the door is open for prayer to be heard (Pirke d’Rabi Eliezer 35).”

This place though, is Beth El. The place where Abraham (described in God’s previous blessing as Jacob’s father, rather than Isaac) built an altar (Gen 12:8; 13:3-4). And it is here that Jacob’s name will be changed to Israel. Prayer may come naturally and validly from our hearts in any place, most often in times of need as illustrated by Jacob, Leah and Rachel in this portion. Interestingly, we often find that in those times of need we return to specific places, Ha’makom, to places familiar to us, to our past experiences, either known or intuited.

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