Making Sense of the Sedra: Vayetsei

In Vayetsei, we learn that when Jacob first arrived in Haran, he met his cousin Rachel – one of Laban’s two daughters (the other being Leah) – at the well with her father’s flocks. Laban agreed to shelter him for a month, in exchange for Jacob tending to his flocks.

Jacob and Rachel loved each other, and after a month passed Jacob asked Laban for permission to marry her. Laban agreed, but he stipulated that the marriage take place after Jacob would tend his flocks for seven years.

Jacob put tremendous effort into his work, and Laban’s flocks and family prospered and grew. Unbenownst to Jacob, Laban was planning to switch Rachel with her sister Leah at the wedding so that Jacob would be forced into working longer for Rachel’s hand. The wedding was due to take place at night, so Jacob would not see that it was Leah who was brought to him.

Knowing Laban’s deceitful ways, Rachel and Jacob had prepared for this eventuality by agreeing on secret signs that would signify they were who they said they were. When Rachel realised how embarrassed Leah would be when Jacob discovered the deception, however, she told Leah the signs.

Jacob confronted Laban, who said that in Haran, the eldest daughter must get married first. If Jacob still wanted to marry Rachel, he could do so in a week’s time—but he must then tend Laban’s flocks for another seven years.

Following the second round of seven years, Jacob and Laban agreed that Jacob would now work for a share of the newly born animals, with different agreements covering speckled, spotted, striped and brown sheep. Laban would routinely switch the agreement when he felt that Jacob was getting too many animals, but with God’s help, Jacob became immensely wealthy.

Jacob faced adversity throughout his life. His twin brother was strong and a skilful hunter, whereas Jacob was a quiet scholar. Jacob knew that his father loved his brother more than him. He found himself at the mercy of Laban, a possessive, exploitative and deceptive man who took advantage of his vulnerability.

Jacob – as almost all of us do at some time or other – found that life is unfair. Yet he represented the refusal of the weak to accept the hierarchy created by the strong. His acts are born of defiance, an insistence on the dignity of the weak (vis-à-vis Esau), the less loved (by Isaac), and the refugee (in Laban’s house). In this sense he is one element of what, historically, it has been to be a Jew.

But the Jacob we see in these chapters is not the figure whom, ultimately, we are called on to emulate. At each stage, although Jacob wins the battles, he does so by having to eventually flee.

There is one episode where Jacob ultimately wins; he successfully battles with the angel of Esau, earning him the name Israel.  The new identity as Israel is, “because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” As Israel he is unafraid to contend with people face-to-face. He no longer needs to outwit them by clever but ultimately futile stratagems. His children will eventually become the people whose dignity lies in the unbreakable covenant they make with God.

Ultimately, smart manoeuvring might earn a short-term pass, but it is moral courage and qualities of the mind that build an everlasting future.