Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat VayetzeiRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Vayetzei · ויצא · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:05Parashat Vayetze. This week's parasha has 1480:10pesukim. This is the parasha of Galut.0:12Yaakov Avinu goes into galut, leaves his home in Eretz Yisrael, and goes to the land of Haran.0:18The Baal HaTurim points out that in this week's parasha, we don't find any breaks.0:21If you look in the Sefer Torah, we don't find any breaks, any parashiyot in this week's parasha,0:25and there's much talk about that by itself.0:27Let's get to the parasha. The topics of this week's parasha are five.0:32We divide the parasha into five parts.0:34First part of the parasha, Torah tells us by Yaakov Avinu by0:38Har Hamoriah. The second part of the parasha is Yaakov Avinu reaching the land of Haran.0:42The third part of the parasha is the marriage and the children of Yaakov Avinu.0:47The fourth part of the parasha tells us about the final years that Yaakov Avinu spent in Lavan's house.0:54And finally, the parasha concludes with Yaakov Avinu running away from Lavan, escaping to go back home.1:02No mitzvot in this week's parasha. The next mitzvah will be in next parasha,1:07Parashat Vayishlach. Let's get to the parasha, a little bit of a longer parasha,1:09so let's try to talk about it and try to conclude, be'ezrat Hashem, in a few minutes that we have.1:15Yaakov Avinu by Har Hamoriah is the first part of this week's parasha,1:18and the Torah tells us how Yaakov Avinu came to1:21Har Hamoriah. Now, hachamim have to add in a little bit.1:24In last week's parasha, Yitzhak commanded his son Yaakov to go to Lavan's house and to marry his daughters,1:30because he wanted him to marry girls that are not from1:34Eretz Hittim. So when Yaakov Avinu goes, hachamim tell us in Masechet Megillah1:37that before he went to Lavan's house, he went to study in the yeshiva of Shem vaEver for 14 years.1:43After those 14 years, Yaakov Avinu, who had with him a lot of wealth,1:49goes, and before coming, before going to Lavan's house, he's attacked by Eliphaz, the son of1:55Esav, who takes away all of his money. And Yaakov Avinu now is penniless.2:01He has nothing with him besides a stick, and he goes on to Lavan's house.2:04In Lavan's house, before getting to Lavan's house, Yaakov Avinu gets to2:10Har HaMoriah. Now really, he didn't go to Har HaMoriah itself.2:13Har HaMoriah is the mountain where Akedat Yitzchak took place.2:16That's the place where Beit HaMikdash is going to be.2:17Rashi tells us that what happened is he passed, he already went past2:21Har HaMoriah, and he was already in2:23Beit El. And then he thought, you know, I can't believe I missed the spot.2:26It was on the way. I should have stopped over by2:29Har HaMoriah to pray at the location where my father was brought up as a2:32korban. When he turned back to go back, Rashi explains that the whole mountain picked up and it went to him,2:38and all of a sudden he found that Har HaMoriah was exactly where he was, by the place of2:42Beit El. Once Yaakov Avinu was there in the place of2:48Har HaMoriah, Hashem wanted him to stay there overnight, so he makes the sunset.2:51And Yaakov Avinu sets up a new tefillah that we haven't had till now,2:55the tefillah, the prayer of Arvit, which we pray in the evenings.2:58Yaakov Avinu now wants to go to sleep,3:00and Chachamim point out to us that this is the first time that Yaakov Avinu sleeps lying down.3:05But before he sleeps, he takes twelve stones and he sets them around him as a protection from wild animals.3:11Miraculously, the twelve stones turn into one, and Yaakov Avinu sleeps,3:15and he has a dream.3:17And this is the famous dream where Hashem shows him a ladder.3:20In his dream, he sees this ladder where the feet stand on earth,3:23and the top of the ladder reaches all the way to the heavens.3:26And he sees angels going up and down.3:28And in his dream, Hashem speaks to him, and He promises him that He's going to protect him.3:33He promises him that He's going to give him the blessings that He promised Abraham and3:37Yitzchak, that he will be the one who inherits it.3:40Yaakov Avinu wakes up and realizes this is such a holy place,3:43and he says, If I only knew this was such a holy place, I would never have slept here.3:47So Yaakov Avinu takes the stone that he slept on,3:49he turns it into a3:51mizbeach, and he brings a korban on it,3:53and he makes a vow,3:54and he says, If Hashem protects me.3:58Not that if, of course Hashem is protecting me3:59to say, if I'm protected spiritually,4:02if I'm able to come back the same way I left,4:05and he makes a neder, a vow,4:07that everything that he possesses,4:09he will separate a fifth to give it to Hashem.4:12Aser, aserenu, a double maaser. Two maaser,4:14a fifth will be given to Hashem.4:18And from here we move on to the second part of the4:20parashah, Yaakov Avinu coming to Haran.4:22Coming to Haran, Yaakov Avinu meets three people.4:25The first are the shepherds,4:27the second is4:30Rachel Imenu, and the third is4:32Lavan. Now, when meeting the shepherds,4:34Yaakov Avinu meets them by the well.4:35There was a well that the Torah tells us4:37that he goes to a certain well,4:38and over there he sees the shepherds,4:40and he sees all the shepherds are lying4:42and bringing their flock,4:43and they're sitting there waiting.4:44And there was a huge stone on top of the well.4:48So Yaakov asks them,4:49Where are you from?4:50They say, They're from Haran.4:51He says, Beautiful. Do you know about a man,4:52Lavan? They say, Do we know about4:54Lavan? Yes, we know about4:55Lavan. And in fact, there's his daughter coming with the sheep.4:59Yaakov Avinu now goes on5:01to introduce himself to5:03Rachel, and he explains who he is,5:04that he is the son of Rivka,5:06their cousins,5:08and Torah tells us that he kisses Rachel and he cries.5:10And there are many explanations why he kissed her5:12and why he cried.5:13In short, Yaakov Avinu knew that he was going to be5:16the one who's going to marry5:18Rachel, and he cried because5:22he saw that she will not be buried with him.5:25From there, Rachel goes home5:27and she tells her father about who came to town,5:30none other than our cousin Yaakov Avinu,5:32the son of Rivka.5:33And Lavan knows that Rivka married a very wealthy family,5:36and he figured that if the slave came here with so much wealth,5:39must be Yaakov came with much more wealth.5:42However, Lavan was very disappointed.5:44When he comes to Yaakov,5:45he sees that he doesn't have anything on him,5:47so he hugs him. Maybe he's carrying some money,5:48and he kisses him. Maybe he's hiding something in his mouth,5:50but he realizes that his nephew comes5:54empty-handed. He had nothing with him.5:55So Lavan tells him,5:57Come, you're invited.5:57You're family.5:58You're invited to stay by us for a month.6:01But of course. That month wasn't free.6:03He had to work for that month.6:05Yaakov had to work, I guess, what we call rent.6:08He worked for his rent for that month.6:10From there, we move on to the third part of the6:13parashah, and here, after the month,6:15Lavan approaches Yaakov,6:18and he tells Yaakov, Lavan approaches Yaakov6:20and he tells him,6:21Okay, you're here for a month already.6:22Tell me, what would you like me to pay you?6:25Now, this is only after a month. Lavan woke up6:27and he decided,6:28you know, maybe I should start giving him a salary.6:30Yaakov doesn't ask for much.6:32He says, I'm asking you for one thing.6:34I came here to get married.6:36I would like to get married to Rachel, your daughter.6:38And of course, a simple thing.6:40Yes, we're cousins.6:41You can marry my daughter, for sure.6:42Just work for me for seven years, Lavan's answer was.6:44So Yaakov was very careful to make sure6:47to give him precise details of who he wants to marry,6:50but that didn't6:51help him, because after the seven years,6:52Lavan was able to trick Yaakov6:54Avinu, and he was able to substitute Leah for6:57Rachel. Yaakov ends up marrying Leah instead of7:00Rachel. Only in the morning, after the wedding,7:01did Yaakov realize that it was Leah that he married.7:05And of course, Lavan says7:06the minhag is different.7:07We have a different custom over here,7:08and therefore,7:10you must marry the older girl before the younger girl.7:12But I'll do you a7:13favor. I'll give you the younger girl as well.7:15I'll give you Rachel as well.7:17First finish off the week of7:19sheva brachot, and only after the week you can marry7:21Rachel, and then you can work for her another seven years.7:24And that's exactly what happens.7:25Yaakov Avinu marries Rachel a week after he marries Leah,7:29and then he spends the next seven years7:32working to pay off, I guess, what we call7:35the debt of marrying7:37Rachel. And Nachmanides tells us7:38that in these seven years7:39are the time when Yaakov7:42Avinu had the eleven shevatim and Dinah.7:44Binyamin was not born till much later,7:46but the eleven shevatim were born within these seven years.7:49Now we're going to tell you now.7:51The order of the way the Shvatim were born,7:53who were they born from,7:55and we're going to also tell you the birthday,7:58which Hebrew date it was.8:00The birthday comes from a book called Seder HaDorot, a very old book which records all the history of the Jewish people,8:06and over there he brings the dates of when the Shabbatim were born.8:09Leah was the first one to have kids. She had four kids, and they were Reuven, who was born on Yud Daled Kislev,8:16Shimon on Chaf Chet Tevet, Levi on Tet Zayin Nisan, and the fourth of the Yehuda on Tet Vav Nisan.8:23Next, Rachel gives over her maidservant Bilhah to Yaakov8:28Avinu, and he has two children. Yaakov Avinu has two children from Bilhah: Dan and Naftali.8:33Dan was born on Tet Elul, and Naftali was born on8:37Hey Tishrei. So then Leah gives over her maidservant Zilpah to Yaakov Avinu to marry, and he also has two children from her, Gad and then Asher.8:44Gad was born on Yud Cheshvan, and Asher was born on8:48Daled Shevat. Then Leah has also another three children, two boys and a girl. Yissachar, first, he is born on Yud8:54Av, and Zevulun, who was born on8:58Zayin Tishrei. And finally she had Dinah, and there's machloket if Dinah was born before or after Yosef.9:04In any case, the Ibn Ezra says something interesting, that Dinah was actually a twin with9:10Zevulun, which means she was born on9:12Zayin Tishrei. Finally, Rachel has her son Yosef, who was born on9:16Chaf Zayin Tammuz. And Yosef, the last child born in this week's parasha, according to some opinions, was born when Yaakov Avinu was 91 years old.9:25And now we move on to the fourth part of parasha, the final years of Yaakov Avinu in Lavan's house.9:30Yaakov Avinu approaches Lavan after he had Yosef. He says, You know what? I have to go back home already.9:35I have to worry about my own family. I worked for you. I paid off my debt. I want to go back home.9:39But Lavan makes a request from his son-in-law. He says to him, Please, I beg you, stay over.9:43I realize that since you came, I've been blessed tremendously, so I ask you to please stay over.9:49So Yaakov says, Okay, but I would like to get a real salary. I'd like to get some money.9:53So Lavan says, Okay, you tell me what your salary is, and I'll give you.9:58Yaakov Avinu says, Fine.10:00My salary is, I want to have spotted and speckled goats.10:06Speckled means the dotted, the dotted spots on the goats, and the brownish sheep.10:13This is what I ask of you.10:15And therefore Lavan says, Okay, that's what you want, you can have them.10:18But not the ones now. Anything that's born from now on,10:21from the goats that will be spotted and will have dots on their skin,10:26that's ones I want, and the brownish sheep.10:28So Lavan goes, he picks up from his, everything from all the animals that he has.10:33He takes all the ringed and spotted goats,10:35and all the sheep that had any white spots, and all the brownish sheep,10:38he takes them all away completely to a different location.10:41In fact, he had to walk three days to get to the location where Lavan's animals were.10:46And Yaakov is happy that he did that.10:47This way, Yaakov knew how to be able to make the animals breed a certain type of animal,10:55a certain look, and therefore he didn't want Lavan to accuse him of stealing any of his animals.11:01So now Lavan's animals were completely gone.11:04The only animals that were left for Yaakov Avinu were the sickly and barren animals.11:08Yaakov Avinu takes these animals,11:10and Torah over there speaks in detail how he was able to do it,11:13how he was able to make the children, meaning to say,11:17the goats and the sheep come out in the color that he needed them to come out,11:21and Yaakov Avinu prospers. He becomes so wealthy.11:24He ends up having so many sheep and goats that he sells them,11:27he buys with them slaves and maidservants,11:29and within these six years that he works for Lavan,11:32the last six years, Yaakov Avinu, I guess if you could compare, he wins11:37the lottery. He becomes a very, very wealthy man.11:39From his hard work, he becomes a wealthy man.11:42And there we move on to the last part of this week's parasha,11:44Yaakov Avinu running away from Lavan.11:47Yaakov Avinu, after becoming very wealthy, all of a sudden decides to leave.11:50There are two reasons that we find in the Torah why Yaakov Avinu should leave.11:54Number one, and the main reason is, Hashem tells Yaakov11:57Avinu, okay, time to go back home. That's it.11:59Now you've done what you had to do here in Galut.12:01You have to go back to Eretz Yisrael, to your parents.12:03Also, we find that Yaakov Avinu starts noticing that his12:08brothers-in-laws, which are the children of Lavan,12:09start accusing Yaakov Avinu of stealing their father's money.12:13Yaakov became so wealthy, and they felt that he was taking all that from Lavan.12:17Meanwhile, Yaakov was not, but still, the accusation alone,12:22Yaakov Avinu decides, we cannot be here. It's a chilul Hashem.12:25People are thinking that I'm stealing. We have to leave.12:27Yaakov calls over Rachel and Leah to the field,12:29and he informs them what they have to do,12:30and their response was, hey, you know, we have nothing to lose.12:34Anyway, everything that we owned, even things that belonged to us,12:37were taken away from our father,12:39and especially that Hashem has commanded you,12:40we're with you all the way, and let's go.12:43Yaakov Avinu picks up his family, his wives, his kids,12:46all of his possessions, and they wake up in the morning12:50without informing Lavan, and they go heading towards Eretz Yisrael to go back home.12:55Rachel, meanwhile, when she took the opportunity that when her father wasn't home,13:00she took the terafim, which is a certain type of idols that Lavan worshipped.13:05She took it with her because she didn't want her father to worship it,13:07and she also ran away with them.13:10Three days after their escape, word gets back to Lavan13:13that your son-in-law ran away with his whole family.13:16Everything they owned, he ran away.13:18So now Lavan hears this after six days,13:21because three days after he leaves, the messenger comes back to Lavan,13:24and he informs him of this.13:26So now already by the time Lavan sets out to go after Yaakov,13:29Yaakov is already six days ahead of him.13:33Lavan. Pursued Yaakov, and he made it in one day.13:37What took Yaakov Avinu his famous travel seven days,13:40Lavan was able to make in one day.13:41However, right before he came to meet with Yaakov,13:44Hashem came to him in a dream, and He warned him,13:46Don't do anything not good, not bad to Yaakov13:49Avinu. And therefore, Lavan, when he came to speak to Yaakov,13:53already had this in the back of his mind, that God threatened him13:56that he shouldn't start up with Yaakov.13:57When meeting Yaakov, he met him in a place called Har Gilad,14:01and Lavan starts rebuking Yaakov,14:03How could you leave? How could you not tell me,14:04my own family, my own children and grandchildren?14:06I didn't even get to say goodbye to them. I didn't kiss them.14:10And besides that, you took my idols.14:12Yaakov Avinu says, I took your idols?14:13Go search. Whoever you find the idols by them, they should die.14:18Now, Yaakov never knew that Rachel took the idols.14:21And Lavan goes and searches everywhere, and he couldn't find them14:23because Rachel hid them on her seat on top of the camel,14:26and she sat on top of it. And she told her father Lavan,14:31when searching for it, that she couldn't get off the sheep14:33for whatever reasons. And therefore,14:36now Lavan comes out and he says,14:38You're right, my idols are not here. I'm sorry I accused you falsely.14:41And Yaakov now was his turn to confront Lavan,14:43and he tells him, For 20 years I worked for you so honestly.14:46Not one animal died on my watch,14:48and this is how you come and accuse me?14:51Finally, they make a pact between each other.14:53They put up a pile of stones,14:58which Yaakov Avinu calls15:04Gilad, and Lavan calls it Yegar Sahaduta,15:06which is the Aramaic translation of15:09Gilad. Finally, Lavan wakes up in the morning,15:11he goes back with his people,15:13and Yaakov Avinu continues to15:15Eretz Yisrael. On their way home, they meet angels.15:18They meet a group of angels,15:19and that's how the Torah finishes.15:20Yaakov meets the15:22angels, and according to many15:23mefarshim, these were the same angels that he met on the way to Lavan's house.15:28Now these same angels came back at the end of the time15:32that Yaakov Avinu spent in Haran.15:33They came to meet him by the border of Eretz15:36Yisrael. What can we learn from this week's parasha?15:39We can learn the following.15:40We know that Laban was highlighted in this week's parasha for two things.15:44Number one is that he was a tremendous liar,15:47and number two is money was the most important thing for15:50Laban. You could tell from the parasha, he loved money.15:53That's the only thing that mattered to15:55Laban. He wanted money, money, money.15:57Yaakov Avinu went to live in Laban's house. He was—16:00First of all, he was in Galut. He went to live in Lavan's house for 20 years,16:03and he still came out with a family of16:06Yirei Shamayim, and the family that eventually became the 12 tribes, the Shevatim of the Jewish people.16:12How was he able to do it?16:14So there's many different explanations, but one thing we find for sure:16:17Yaakov Avinu did not go into Galut empty-handed. He prepared himself.16:22Fourteen years he spent in the yeshiva of Shem v'Ever before he went to Galut.16:26He knew he has to go out to the world of Lavan. He knew what Lavan was all about.16:28But still, he went to learn in yeshiva 14 years.16:32Why? Because he had to be connected to Torah.16:34He knew, if I'm not connected to the Torah, if I'm not connected to Torah,16:38even in Galut, I'm not going to be able to survive.16:41And that's a lesson that's applicable to us.16:43We live in the world of Lavan, where the world is full of sheker,16:47as Chazal told us, Ha'emet ne'ederet in the times before Mashiach,16:50and we live in a world where money is the most important thing.16:53How is a person supposed to survive such a Galut16:56and to raise such a good and earnest family, a family of17:01Yirei Shamayim? One has to be connected to Torah.17:03No matter where he is, a person has to have a minimum amount of Torah in his day,17:08in his week, in his life, in his family.17:11Wherever we go, we have to understand, like Yaakov17:14Avinu, who represented Torah. He took Torah with him all the way,17:17and that's what made Yaakov Avinu survive the Galut,17:19and that's what's going to make us survive the Galut.17:42Shabbat shalom.