Parsha for Kids: Vayetze 2022
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Vayetze 2022.
You can listen to the podcast on Spotify (link to this week’s episode), Apple, Audible, iHeartRadio and a variety of other places. (Some of these might only update with the new episode content tomorrow.)
Please give it a listen and share it with the kids in your life. Additionally, I would very much appreciate it if you would be willing to subscribe, rate the podcast on the app where you listen to it, and leave a review.
Episode 7:
Hello! My name is Chana, and this is Parsha for Kids. The Parsha of the week is Vayetze. Vayetze means “And he went out.”
Who went out? And where did he go?
It was Yaakov! He embarked on a journey to Charan so that he could take a bride from Lavan’s family. On the way to Charan, the sun set, so Yaakov needed to find a place to sleep. He took some stones and placed them beneath his head.
Then, he dreamed a dream of a ladder standing on the ground and reaching all the way up to the heavens. Angels of God were climbing up the ladder and also going down the ladder.
God was standing over Yaakov to guard him. God spoke to Yaakov in his dream and told him that He was the God of Avraham and Yitzchok. God promised that Yaakov would inherit Eretz Yisrael and that Yaakov’s children would be as many as the dust of the earth. All the families of the earth would be blessed through Yaakov and his children. God told Yaakov that He would guard him and take care of him.
Yaakov woke up and said, “God is in this place and I did not know it!” He was frightened and said that this was Beit Elohim, the House of God, and Shaar HaShamayim, the Gate of Heaven.
Yaakov decided to make a promise to God. Yaakov said that if God would protect him, give him bread to eat and clothing to wear and allow him to ultimately return home to his father’s house, he would give 1/10th of everything he owned to God. Yaakov took the stone that had been under his head and set it up as a matzevah, which means a monument. A monument is a symbolic object that reminds a person of something important. In this case, this stone would remind him of the promise he had made.
TRANSITION SOUND
Yaakov continued on his journey to Charan. He approached a well and noticed three flocks of sheep lying beside it. He also saw that there was a huge rock covering the top of the well. The shepherds of that place would all gather together, unite their strength, and roll the rock off the well when it was time to water the sheep. Then, after the sheep had drunk their fill, they would place the rock back on top of the well.
Yaakov asked the shepherds where they were from. They told him they were from Charan. “Do you know Lavan son of Nachor?” Yaakov asked eagerly. “We know him,” they replied. “Are things going well by him?” Yaakov asked. “Things are going well by him,” they replied, “and in fact his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.”
When Rachel approached, and Yaakov saw her, he was possessed by sudden strength. Singlehandedly, he rolled the rock off of the well. Then he did more than that, watering the sheep of Lavan.
You may have noticed this parallels the story of how Rivka became betrothed to Yitzchak. Avraham’s servant was at the well, and Rivka watered all of the servant’s camels, after which the servant gave her a nose ring and two bracelets because he knew she was the right one for his master Yitzchak to marry. Here, it’s Yaakov who is possessed of sudden strength, able to lift the rock that normally all the shepherds had to lift together. And it is Yaakov who waters the sheep that belong to Lavan that Rachel is watching.
Yaakov kissed Rachel, knowing he would one day marry her, and then he cried. Why did Yaakov cry?
Rashi addresses this by quoting the Midrash. Rashi explains that Eliphaz, the son of Esav, had actually pursued Yaakov. This was because Esav had ordered him to kill him, since you remember Esav was angry that Yaakov had stolen his blessings. At the crucial moment, having been raised as part of Yitzchak’s household, Eliphaz didn’t want to kill Yaakov. Instead, Yaakov suggested that Eliphaz should take everything that Yaakov possessed since a poor person is compared to a dead person. That is what Eliphaz did, and thus he would be able to tell his father he had left Yaakov as a dead man.
If any of you have ever watched Snow White, the huntsman who is sent by the wicked queen to pursue Snow White in the Disney movie has a similar scene. He is supposed to kill Snow White but he decides not to, slaughtering an animal instead and bringing the animal’s heart home in a box to show the queen.
Yaakov cried in this scene because he wanted to shower Rachel with jewels- just like the servant had given his mother Rivkah a nose ring and bracelets. Unfortunately, since all of his belongings had been taken by Eliphaz, he had nothing to give her and arrived empty-handed, like a beggar.
Yaakov told Rachel that her father, Lavan, was his mother Rivka’s brother. Rachel ran home to tell her father.
When Lavan heard that Yaakov had come to town, he ran towards him, hugged him and kissed him. On the surface, these seem like nice things to do. But you will remember from our previous parshiot that Lavan was a tricky person. He was interested in wealth and money. The reason he ran to greet the servant originally was because he saw the jewels that his sister came home with, and thought maybe there would be more gifts he could take.
Because of this, Rashi interprets this scene in a negative way. Rashi says that Lavan ran to Yaakov because he assumed Yaakov had lots of money and gifts with him. Lavan hugged him because he wanted to feel whether Yaakov was wearing a money pouch or purse tucked against his chest. And he kissed him to see whether maybe Yaakov had pearls hidden in his mouth.
Yaakov explained that he had come because he needed to run away from Esav who was seeking to kill him. Lavan replied, “Ach atzmi u’vesari ata” which means “Indeed, you are my bone and flesh.” This sounds generous but Rashi says it isn’t. What Lavan was saying was that he didn’t really have a reason to put Yaakov up at his house given that Yaakov had arrived empty-handed. However, since Yaakov was his blood relative, he was willing to let him stay for a while. During that time, Yaakov served as a shepherd for Lavan’s sheep.
TRANSITION
A month later, perhaps struck by a fit of conscience, Lavan said, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for me for free? Tell me how you would like to be paid.”
Yaakov replied that he would work for Lavan for seven years in order to marry Rachel, Lavan’s younger daughter.
Now Lavan had an older daughter as well, whose name was Leah. But Yaakov loved Rachel and he was interested in marrying her, not Leah.
Lavan agreed to Yaakov’s terms, saying it would be better to marry Rachel to Yaakov than to marry her to a different man.
It’s important to note that this conversation took place between Yaakov and Lavan only. This means it is possible and even probable that Leah and Rachel were not informed of the terms of the agreement. All they knew was that their cousin was in their home shepherding the sheep.
And Yaakov worked for Rachel for seven years but it only seemed like a few days to him because he loved her so much. The wording of this pasuk seems odd, because wouldn’t it seem like a long time to him since he loved her and wanted to spend time with her? One idea I had about what this might mean is that perhaps Yaakov took on the role of serving as a shepherd for Rachel so that she wouldn’t need to work so hard. After all, Rachel had been shepherding the sheep when she met him at the well. Maybe Yaakov replaced her in this role, and his happiness at the fact that she would no longer have to do this and be exposed to the elements made even a long and thankless job seem easy and quick.
After seven years were completed, Yaakov asked Lavan to give him his wife. Lavan made a feast and he brought his daughter to Yaakov and married him to her. The daughter was wrapped in a thick opaque veil. Lavan also gave his daughter a present- a maidservant named Zilpah.
Yaakov went to sleep with his new wife in the dark of the night. When he woke up in the morning he was shocked to see that the woman he had married was Leah! But Yaakov did not say a word to Leah- he did not get angry with her or shout at her. After all, remember that this was not her fault- she did not know the terms of the agreement Yaakov had made with her father. Instead, Yaakov went to Lavan and said, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not work for you for Rachel? Why have you deceived me?”
Lavan answered, “In our land, we don’t marry the younger daughter before we marry off the older daughter. Complete the wedding week with Leah, and then I will marry you to Rachel, for whom you will work another seven years.”
It was wrong of Lavan to trick Yaakov into marrying his older daughter. But, as you have probably noticed, there are similarities here to what Yaakov did to his father Yitzchak. Even though Yaakov and Rivka had good intentions, in the end they still deceived Yitzchak, making him think that it was Esav who had come to get the blessings. Yaakov experienced a middah kneged middah consequence- which means measure for measure. Just as Yaakov deceived Yitzchak and pretended to be Esav, so Lavan deceived him and presented Leah as though she were Rachel.
In the end, Yaakov married Rachel as well. He was now married to both sisters- Leah and Rachel- although he had not planned this outcome.
TRANSITION
It had become clear to Leah that her husband did not love her the same way he loved Rachel. She was in pain because of this. God comforted her by giving her children. Leah’s first child was called Reuvein, which means “See, a son.” What she meant was that God had seen her pain and given her a son, so now, she hoped, Yaakov would love her.
Her next son was called Shimon from the word Shama meaning that God had heard that she was not loved as much as her sister, and so He had given her a son.
Her next son was named Levi because Leah hoped that Yaakov would be yelaveh, attached to her, now that she had given him three sons.
Finally she had Yehudah, which comes from the phrase Ha’paam odeh et Hashem- this time I will thank the Lord. This is the first child that she names out of joy and appreciation and not out of pain or the hope that Yaakov will care more about her. Maybe this is the reason that later on Yehuda would become a tribe that would be ascendant, rising to prominence.
At this point, Rachel became very sad that she did not have any children. She turned to her husband and said, “Give me children, and if not, I am like a dead person.”
Yaakov got angry at her for speaking in that way. He asked, “Am I instead of God, who has chosen not to give you children?”
Rachel was desperate and unhappy so she decided to do what Sarah had done long ago, and suggest that her husband marry another woman in the hope that those children could be considered like her own. Sarah did this with Hagar, but in the end Yishmael did not really act like Sarah’s son. In this case, Rachel offered Yaakov her maidservant Bilhah. Yaakov did marry Bilhah. When Bilhah gave birth, Rachel was the one who named the children.
Rachel named the first child Dan, meaning “God has judged me and he has given me a son.”
The second child of Bilha’s she called Naftali, meaning “With divine bonds I have been joined to my sister; I have also been able to contribute children to this family.”
When Leah saw what Rachel had done, and that she herself had stopped having children, she asked Yaakov to marry her maidservant as well, Zilpah. Yaakov did so. Leah named Zilpah’s children.
Leah named Zilpah’s first son “Gad,” meaning “Luck has come.”
She named Zilpha’s second son “Asher” referencing her good fortune.
TRANSITION
One day, Leah’s oldest son, Reuven, went outside and found dudaim in the field and brought them to his mother. What were dudaim? They were a kind of flower and some believed that they had the power to help women become pregnant.
When Rachel saw the flowers, she wanted some of them. She asked Leah for them. Why did she ask? Maybe because she too longed for a child of her own, born from her own body, that would bring her flowers. Maybe because she thought that the flowers would help her become pregnant.
Leah said, “You’ve already taken my husband- now you also want to take my son’s dudaim?” Remember that Leah likely did not know that Yaakov was originally supposed to marry Rachel, and thus to her, Rachel had come along and married her husband after she, Leah, had originally married him. She probably felt upset that Rachel had done this.
In the end, Leah and Rachel came to an arrangement and Leah did give Rachel the dudaim. One can only imagine how Reuven felt when he saw that the flowers he had picked and given to his mother instead ended up in his aunt’s tent.
Leah then gave birth to another son whom she named Yissachar, which means “God has given me my reward.”
Then Leah gave birth to a sixth son named Zevulun, meaning “This time my husband will live with me because I have given birth to six sons.”
Then Leah had one more child, a daughter, whom she named Dina.
TRANSITION
At long last, God allowed Rachel to have a child. She gave birth to a son named Yosef, meaning, “May God grant me yet another son.”
At this point, Yaakov had a large family and believed it was time to go home. He had been waiting for years for Rivka to send word and tell him that he could come back and Esav was no longer angry at him, but she had not done so. He considered going home even without her calling him back. So Yaakov told Lavan that he wanted to leave. Lavan asked Yaakov what he wanted to be paid for all the years he had worked for him, since Yaakov had continued working throughout this time.
Yaakov said he wanted to be paid in speckled and spotted lambs. Lavan agreed, but then he went and took all the speckled and spotted lambs and gave them to his own sons so that he would not have to pay them to Yaakov. He left only the sick and weak lambs for Yaakov to watch. Lavan, as we have seen before, was a trickster and he was not willing to be fair and honest.
But Yaakov whittled bark so that it had a pattern of stripes and speckles. The sheep would look at these sticks when they mated and so they gave birth to new lambs that were speckled and spotted. Per the original agreement, Yaakov separated these out for himself.
And Yaakov became wealthy, having sheep, maidservants, manservants and camels and donkeys for himself.
But Lavan’s sons grumbled, because they felt that Yaakov had taken everything that belonged to their father, and that he had taken the fortunes they would otherwise have inherited.
TRANSITION
After hearing the words of Lavan’s sons and seeing Lavan’s unhappy face, Yaakov knew it was truly time to leave. God came to Yaakov in a dream and told him to go back to his land and said that He, God, would guard him.
Yaakov called Rachel and Leah to a meeting in the field. He explained to them that he saw Lavan was upset with him, and that God was with him. He also said that even though Lavan had consistently changed his wages and acted as a trickster, God did not let Lavan harm Yaakov.
Rachel and Leah agreed that they should leave and return to the land where Yaakov was born. This time, Yaakov did not tell Lavan he wanted to leave- he simply did it. He took his wives and his children and he set out to go home. Lavan was not at home because he had gone out to shear his sheep, which means to cut the wool off of their bodies.
Rachel took something that belonged to her father, called the terafim. There are a number of different interpretations as to what the terafim were. Rashi says they were her father’s idols because she didn’t want him to worship them.
On the third day, Lavan found out that Yaakov had run away. So Lavan followed him, but God warned Lavan in a dream not to harm Yaakov.
When Lavan finally found Yaakov, he asked why Yaakov had run away in such secrecy, as though Rachel and Leah were prisoners captured in a battle. Lavan said that he would have sent Yaakov off with joy and happiness and musical accompaniment. Lavan said he could do harm to Yaakov but God had told him not to, so he wouldn’t. Lavan ended his speech by asking why Yaakov had stolen his gods.
Yaakov explained that he had been afraid to leave because he thought maybe Lavan would take back his daughters and not let them leave with him. Yaakov also declared that the person who stole Lavan’s idols would not live. Yaakov did not know Rachel had taken them.
Lavan looked for the idols but could not find them because Rachel had hidden them in her saddlebag and was sitting on them. She explained that she was not feeling well and could not get up and off of her camel so Lavan did not find them.
Yaakov became angry because Lavan had been searching through all of their tents and feeling through all of their things. Yaakov felt that he did not deserve this kind of treatment because he had been a good, faithful and loyal shepherd for the past 20 years, taking good care of the sheep and never stealing from Lavan. Yaakov sat in the field in the scorching heat, the cold frost and even when he was exhausted, but he remained faithful and completed his task. Even now, if God had not come to Lavan in a dream, Lavan would have sent Yaakov away with nothing- because Lavan was a trickster and a dishonorable person who didn’t feel like he had to keep his word.
Lavan argued that everything Yaakov had was really his- Leah and Rachel belonged to him, and so did their children, and so did the animals. This demonstrates the way Lavan saw the world- unable and unwilling to be generous, and instead claiming that Yaakov didn’t really deserve anything he had because in truth it was his.
Despite this, Lavan and Yaakov made a Brit, a covenant, in which they each promised they would not harm each other. Yaakov also promised he would not marry any other wives other than Lavan’s daughters.
Lavan kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them and left. Yaaakov continued on the road home, and angels of God met him in order to bring him back to Eretz Yisrael. Yaakov named the place where he encountered the angels Machanayim.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week:
God promised Yaakov protection, and in return Yaakov made a promise he would give 1/10th of everything he eventually earned to God.
A poor person is considered like a dead person. The reason Yaakov arrived empty-handed when he came to Lavan was because Eliphaz, Esav’s son, had taken all of his possessions since Esav had wanted Yaakov dead.
Sometimes our actions come back to haunt us. Even though Rivkah and Yaakov had good intentions when they set about taking the brachos from Esav, Yaakov was deceived by Lavan just like he had deceived his father.
We also learn how to act when we are surprised and angry. Yaakov did not take out any of his anger on Leah when he woke up in the morning and saw that he had married her- instead he spoke to her father, Lavan, whose fault it actually was.
We learned about how the children who would eventually form the 12 tribes of Israel were born.
Even though Lavan was tricky and crafty, Yaakov remained honest. He worked 14 years in order to marry both of his wives, and then worked 6 more years to earn the speckled and spotted lambs. Another way to say this is “When they go low, we go high”- just because people around us are acting in a mean, inappropriate or wrong way doesn’t mean we should do the same as them.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids (at) gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!