This week's parsha, Vayetze, describes Yaakov's journey to the house of Lavan, his mother's brother, in Charan, and his building of a family.
The parsha begins with the words, "Vayetze Yaakov miBe'er Sheva." "And Yaakov left the city of Be'er Sheva: The rabbis ask: Did only Yaakov leave the city? Were there not many other people who left the city on that day? The rabbis answer that when a righteous person lives in a city, he or she is the city's glory and its excellence. When the righteous person leaves, it makes an impression, because the city's glory and its excellence also depart.
Yaakov meets Lavan's two daughters, Leah and Rachel. The Torah says that the eyes of the older daughter, Leah, were "rakos", sensitive. Why was this true? The answer given is that people in the community had said that Lavan had two daughters and Rivka had two sons, so in the future the older son would marry the older daughter and the younger son would marry the younger daughter. This meant that Leah, the older daughter, would marry Eisav, the older son. The prospect of marrying Eisav was traumatic to Leah, and she shed tears when she thought about it. Her crying caused her eyes to become "rakos."
Yaakov loved Rachel, and he made an agreement with Lavan to work seven years in order to win the right to marry her. Lavan, however, believed that Leah should be married first because she was older. He made a party in honor of the wedding, but substituted Leah for Rachel as the wife of Yaakov. The Torah says that following the wedding night, Yaakov awoke and was surprised to discover that he had married Leah and not Rachel. Why was Yaakov surprised? The midrash explains that Yaakov had expected some trick by Lavan, so he had given Rachel signs that she would give to Yaakov so he would know that it was she he had married. But when Lavan substituted Leah on the wedding night, Rachel feared that when Leah did not know the signs and Yaakov realized that it wasn't Rachel he had married, it would humiliate her older sister. So Rachel gave the signs to a veiled Leah, who showed them to Yaakov on the wedding night. And for this reason Yaakov was surprised the next morning to discover that it was Leah, and not Rachel, that he had married.
The parsha continues. Yaakov agrees to work for Lavan for an additional seven years in order to also marry Rachel, after which, he leaves Lavan's house and
Charan, with his wives and his family. The next parsha, Vayishlach, tells of the "reunion" of the two brothers.
The haftorah for Vayetze is from the prophet Hoshea (12:13-14:10). It begins with a reference to Yaakov's flight to the land of Aram (also called Charan) and concludes with a well-known saying: "The paths of the Lord are straight, and the righteous will walk on them and sinners will stumble on them.
