Remember the term, “the new normal”? Our current situation seems to be just that. A temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah (I think their understanding of cease-fire is “you cease, we fire”), which has been broken by Hezbollah many times, a potential ceasefire with Hamas, with more accusations of intentional genocide coming from disgruntled Israeli politicians. What else is new? A new civil war in Syria, and the enemy of my enemy is my... enemy? What’s going on over there? Both more hope and despair with the fate of the hostages, Hashem yeracheim. More positive appointments from the Trump government, but they’re not in power yet. With all the ups and downs we’ve been having, it seems like a never-ending story. What’s going on in these crazy times?
We’ll try to bring an encouraging, and very important lesson from this week’s parshah.
The paragraphs in the Torah are divided up, with either a small break in a line or begining a new paragraph. In the Chumash, these breaks are noted with a letter pei or samech. They define a short or long break. These are all halachah l’Moshe m’Sinai. What’s their purpose?
Rashi at the beginning of sefer Vayikra writes that when Hashem taught the Torah to Moshe Rabbeinu, He taught it to Moshe with these pauses to give Moshe time to think it over, understand, and review the halachah. These are the same breaks that we have written in the Torah, and for the same reason - to know until where to learn, review, and understand what’s being taught. It also represents the end of a topic. When there are no peis or samechs, it would seem that it’s one long topic.
Another use for these peis and samechs is for those who learn Shnayim Mikrah V’echad Targum each week. (It’s a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch, and for doing it you’ll merit a long life!) According to some opinions, you read the pasuk twice, followed by the Targum Onkoles. Other opinions say to read the parshah until the next pei or samech, then stop and reread that parshah, followed by the Targum Onkoles. When there’s a long parshah without any breaks, this becomes pretty challenging.
We have this in parshas Vayeitzei, with no breaks in the entire parshah until the end which is parshas Vayishlach. That means that it’s all one long story, without any need to stop. There’s a lot happening in this parshah. It spans a 20-year period. Well, actually 34, if we include the 14 years that Yaakov Avinu was in the yeshivah of Shem v’Eiver. Then, seven years working for Lavan in order to marry Rachel, and seven more years working for Rachel again after Lavan tricked him and gave him Leah. Then six more years when Yaakov worked to earn his pay for working the previous fourteen years. And from year 8 through 20, he was having children, 11 shevatim.
And throughout this time, Yaakov Avinu is getting unfair treatment, always getting “bullied” and being taken advantage by everyone. He listened to his mother to get the berachos, and then he needed to flee his home to escape Eisav’s wrath. He spent 14 years hiding out in the yeshiva Shem v’Eiver. As soon as he stepped out, he was ambushed by Eliphaz, Eisav’s son, with strict orders to kill Yaakov! However, having grown up in Yitzchak’s house, together with “Uncle Yaakov,” he couldn’t just kill Yaakov. He asked Yaakov what to do, and Yaakov told him that being a pauper is equal to being dead. Take all my money, and then truthfully tell your father that you killed me! Eliphaz is thrilled with this solution, and promptly robbed Yaakov of everything.
Yaakov finally arrives in Charan penniless, where he is hugged/patted-down by Lavan, searching for any valuables. Hearing that Yaakov has none, he begrudgingly allowed him to stay for a month, where Yaakov shepherds Lavan’s sheep. Then Lavan makes him a deal to work for seven years and receive Rachel as his wife. The time passes by, and Lavan becomes wealthy (and has sons) from Yaakov’s hard and honest work. Shepherding was a difficult job. Later on, Yaakov told Lavan (only in response to Lavan’s accusations) about how he froze in the winter and broiled in the summer, and was honest and always took responsibility for everything.
It was finally time for their wedding. Yaakov knew that Lavan would try to trick him, so he made signs with Rachel. Then Rachel, with her great mercy for Leah, gave Leah the signs. After the wedding, Yaakov was angry with Lavan, but Lavan had an excuse and explanation for everything, and Yaakov couldn’t argue. Yaakov agreed to work for another seven years, just that this time he got to marry Rachel first.
Leah had six children, but none for Rachel. They gave Yaakov Bilhah and Zilpah, and they had four more children. Rachel finally had Yosef at the end of a seven year wait.
After 14 years, Yaakov was finally ready to leave. Lavan gave him the opportunity to earn some money for himself. Lavan separated the sheep and gave Yaakov all the weak and sickly ones. Not much potential coming from there. And during this entire time, Lavan switched the deal over 100 times! Over six years, 72 months, that’s changing the terms of the contract more than once a month! If someone else’s contract would be changed more than once a year, they’d probably quit! But Yaakov stuck to it. Hashem gave Yaakov Divine assistance, and Yaakov was able to transform his paltry flock into a majorly desirable breed, from which he grew extremely rich.
Yaakov saw that Lavan and sons had turned jealous and hostile towards him (even though Lavan only had sons and became wealthy because of Yaakov!). He decided to sneak away, and Lavan chased after him with plans to murder everyone. It was only because Hashem threatened Lavan that he didn’t harm Yaakov. But he still arrived full of complaints and threats. In the end, Lavan made a peace treaty with Yaakov, effectively cutting ties between the two forever. Then returns home.
What’s going on here? Why is Yaakov always getting the raw deal?
The Torah is teaching us an extremely important lesson here. The entire story seemed so difficult, but those hardships are themselves what gave Yaakov such success! Had he not gotten the berachos, he would’ve lost everything. Had he not been robbed by Eliphaz, he would’ve come to try to get Rachel and leave. What would be waiting for him? Eisav. (We see that as soon as Yaakov left Charan, Eisav was there right away with a huge army!) Instead, he came with nothing and was forced to stay and work in Charan. He wouldn’t have gotten four wives, with each of them bringing various strengths which they added and passed on to the shevatim. He wouldn’t have become as fabulously wealthy.
When Yaakov finally escaped, it was with his family of four wives, eleven sons, and many daughters (each boy was born with a twin, and also Dena), which he otherwise wouldn’t have had. And Lavan? He ended up defeated and completely cut-off from Yaakov and his family for eternity! Oh, and when Lavan returned home, he found that everything of his was stolen during his absence! Lavan ended up with nothing! And all this lead up to Yaakov meeting Eisav, with Eisav being defeated, and eventually being forced to leave Eretz Yisrael to escape from Yaakov.
It’s all one long story, and we need to wait patiently until the end to be able to look back to see and understand the entire story clearly. In the middle we can’t understand anything! Only at the end. Then all the pieces fall into place, and we will see that the hardships were all essential parts of Hashem’s grand plan, and that everything was necessary and good for us!
May we be merit to see the end of our story very soon, with a spectacular and amazing end!
Adapted from shiurim given by R’ Yisrael Altusky shlita, Yeshivas Torah Ore, Yerushalayim. Shiurim can be heard at the Kol Halashon website.
By Dovi Chaitovsky
