Friday, December 6, 2019

D'var for Vayeitei

Sorry I forgot to do last week (Toldot) while on Thanksgiving break! Woops!


Anyway, here’s this week’s d’var:
In this week’s parsha, Vayeitzei, Jacob is on the run after having stolen his brother’s blessing. He slept on a stone for a pillow and dreamed of angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. They told him that the land where he slept would be where his descendants will live. Jacob awoke and named the place Bethel. Jacob then met Rachel, (who I think was his cousin-once-removed or something) her father Laban. Jacob loves Rachel, so Jacob promises to work for seven years for Laban in exchange for marriage to her. However, Laban tricks Jacob and has him marry Rachel’s older sister, Leah. Laban explains that the custom in the area is to marry the older daughter before the younger one, so he had no other choice. Jacob agrees to work for Laban another seven years in exchange for marrying Rachel in addition to Leah. Jacob marries a few other women and has a bunch of children.
After Jacob has finished his work for Laban, God says that God has not left Jacob and God tells him to go back to the land of his fathers. Jacob does so secretly, taking his family, servants, and possessions (and some of Laban’s possessions) with him while Laban is out working. Rachel also takes some of her father’s idols. Laban follows them, but only wants to say goodbye. However, he wanted to know who stole his idols. He was unable to find them, and he makes a covenant with Jacob. Laban says goodbye and leaves.

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