Parashat Vayetze (Engl.)

B"H

First I would like to mention the chronology of events: Yaakov and Esav were 15 years old when Esav gave his birthright to his brother. Both of them were 63 years old when they received their father's blessing.

Parashat Vayetze tells us about Yaakov leaving Beersheva for Haran. At that time, Yaakov was 77 years old. Says Rashi that for the past 14 years, Yaakov was hiding in the school of Ever who was the son of Shem. Esav, on the other hand, had gone to live with Ishmael and married one of his daughters.
Why was Yaakov in the school of Ever ? In order to learn Torah and getting spiritually prepared for living outside Eretz Israel (Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky).
Of course, evil Esav never gave up his plan to kill his brother. It was just a matter of time. Eventually Yaakov had to escape to his uncle Lavan. Lavan himself is described as a crook, a magician and evil. Ever, therefore, prepared Yaakov to resist the evil environment of Lavan and to stick to the Torah. G-d wanted Yaakov to realize his Jewishness in a foreign country and to start from scratch.
Later on, his son Yosef had to do the same, and even today, how many times in our lives do we have to start from scratch.

When Yaakov fled, he took, as previously Eliezer did, presents for Lavan with him. How then did he arrive at Lavan's house empty handed ? The kabbalistic Midrash Seder HaDorot says that when Esav heard that his brother had fled, he sent his 13 - year - old son Eliphaz after him. Eliphaz and his 10 companions stole the presents from Yaakov but did not kill him, as Esav had requested.

One of the most famous scenes in the Parasha is Jacob's ladder which took place on Mount Moriah (Gemara in Talmud Tractate Chulin 91b). There are plenty of interpretations about the meaning of the dream. The most popular explanation is that the ladder with the ascending and descending angels refers to the four future kingdoms (Babylon, Midian - Persia, Greece, Edom - Rome). The meaning of the angels going up and down the ladder is the rise and fall of those four kingdoms (Rabbeinu Yonatan among many other commentators).
Another explanation which I personally like very much is that Yaakov saw the Third Temple in his dream (Rabbi Moshe Alshich). The ladder connects the future temple with heaven, and soon we will hopefully see the Third Temple with the coming of the Meshiach.
Also Rabbi Moshe Feinstein sees the ladder as a connection. Our prayers connect us to heaven.

Finally Yaakov arrives at Lavan's house were he stays for 22 years. The Torah tells us about the crook Lavan who cheated him. The Gemara in the Talmud Tractate Megillah 13b teaches that Rachel saw that her father Lavan really planned to substitute Leah for Rachel at the famous wedding night. In order not to put Leah to shame, Rachel told her sister the password which she had formerly arranged with Yaakov.
Rabbi Aharon Kotler comments that on the wedding night, Yaakov recognized spiritually that he was with the partner who was destined for him (Leah) and detected nothing wrong.
And Leah had agreed to Lavan's plan because she saw it as a divine intervention. Lavan's plan could not have worked out if G-d had not agreed. Yaakov himself understood the message the next morning.

Leah bore him six sons (Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Issachar, Zevulon) and one daughter (Dinah). Rachel only bore him two sons (Yosef and Benjamin). Their handmaidens had born him another four sons. Silpah bore Gad and Asher and Bilha bore Dan and Naftali.

Another famous scene is Rachel's theft of Lavan's Teraphim. Teraphim are little statues used for idol - worship. Why did Rachel steal the Teraphim from her father ? Rashi's interpretation is that she wanted her father to leave idol - worship.
However, the kabbalistic Book of Splendor, The Zohar, says that Rachel feared that Lavan would counsel the Teraphim doing mischief to Yaakov. The Teraphim were a male and a female image, and they would speak after performing certain ceremonies. Rabbi Yehuda says: Lavan prepared himself in two ways: he equipped himself with all magical arts and also with ordinary weapons in order to destroy Yaakov.

Yaakov then made a tragic mistake by saying that whoever stole the Teraphim should die. Not knowing that his beloved Rachel did it. A little later she died on the journey.

Yaakov always intended to go back to Eretz Israel. Everybody living abroad today should take him as an example and never give up the idea of making Aliyah.

Shabbat Shalom

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Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Itzchaki, 1040 - 1105. Famous Talmud and Torah commentator. Lived in France.

Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky: born in 1890 in Russia, died in 1986 in New York. Talmudist and Rosh Yeshiva. Studied for 21 years in the Slabodka yeshiva where he met his friend Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rosh Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn / NY.

Rabbeinu Yonatan: Jonathan Eybeschutz (Eibeschuetz), born 1690 in Krakow / Poland and died 1764 in Altona / Germany. Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist and Dayan of Prague. Later Rabbi in Hamburg. Also wrote "Luchot HaBrit - The Tablets of Testimony".

Rabbi Moshe Alshich: born 1508 in Turkey and died 1593 in Safed / Israel. Rabbi and biblical commentator, he was a student of Rabbi Yosef Caro and Rabbi Alshich's famous student was Chaim Vital.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: born in 1895 in Russia and died in 1986 in New York. Litvish (Midnaged) orthod. rabbi and scholar, expert in Halacha.

Rabbi Aharon Kotler: 1891 - 1962, prominent leader of orthod. Judaism in Lithuania and later in the USA, where he built one of the first American yeshivas. Born in Svislovitz / Poland, he later studied in the Slabodka yeshiva under Rabbi Nosson Zvi Finkel. During World War II, he went to the US. Many of his former students died in the Holocaust. Rabbi Kotler died 1962 in New York.