I. The Hero's Journey
The "hero's journey" is a literary term[1] that describes a narrative pattern common to many stories: a hero sets out on an adventure to an unfamiliar place, where he undergoes a period of initiation and confronts a series of crises and grave dangers. In the end, the hero succeeds in overcoming these challenges and returns home as a new person, with new strengths and abilities that he acquired through his ordeal. Not infrequently, he also acquires something more tangible during his journey, such as a treasure or a beloved wife.
This pattern matches Yaakov's experiences in our parasha remarkably well. The parasha begins with Yaakov's forced departure from home and continues with the difficult challenges he faces in the house of Lavan. In the end, after overcoming these challenges, Yaakov returns to the land of Canaan more whole than he was before, together with his wives and children. Whereas he set out on his journey weak and penniless, he ends it with a large and well-established family, as he himself points out:
For with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two camps. (Bereishit 32:11)
II. Why Did Yaakov Set Out on His Journey?
In this shiur, we will attempt to understand what Yaakov went through over the course of his "hero's journey." But first, we must ask why Yaakov was required to undertake such a journey in the first place. Avraham, the founder of the dynasty, did not embark on a journey of adventure and return, but only moved to another land to establish his family. His son Yitzchak was expressly commanded not to go on journeys outside the land (26:2-3). This command makes sense: that was a time for settlement and consolidation in the land, not for the pursuit of adventures outside the land.
Of course, it could be argued that Yaakov's need to go on a journey occurred by chance, because Esav wanted to kill him (27:41). But aside from the fact that things in the Bible do not happen by chance, this is only part of the reason for his going on a journey. Rivka, indeed, sends Yaakov away to flee from Esav (27:43-44), but from Yitzchak's perspective, his departure serves another purpose:
And Yitzchak called Yaakov, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Betuel your mother's father, and take a wife for yourself from there of the daughters of Lavan your mother's brother. (28:1-2)
Yitzchak sends Yaakov on a "hero's journey" not as a last resort but as a first choice. He must struggle and arrive at a distant place in order to attain the most important thing: a well-matched wife.
This mission is puzzling; after all, Yitzchak himself was not sent on such a mission! Instead, Avraham sent his servant to find Yitzchak a wife from his own family. Why does Yitzchak deviate from his own experience and choose to send Yaakov on a journey to find a wife in Charan? Moreover, Avraham's servant went with camels carrying all kinds of good things for the prospective bride and her family (24:53) – while Yitzchak sends Yaakov away with nothing. How is he to bring back a wife from a worthy family in this manner?[2]
It seems that Yitzchak believes that Yaakov, unlike him, must embark on a challenging journey of maturation, even without financial support. There is something still missing in Yaakov, and he needs to make a change.
Indeed, before the journey, Yaakov appears as a childish character who is not sufficiently developed: while Esav goes out into the open and dares to confront the dangers there, as "a cunning hunter, a man of the field" (25:27), Yaakov prefers to withdraw into the circumscribed area of the tent – "a simple man, dwelling in tents" (ibid.). Yaakov remained a bachelor until a late age, while his twin brother married two wives at the age of forty (26:34) and subsequently added yet another (28:9).
Until his parents tell him to go and take a wife, Yaakov, who is already over forty years old, shows no interest in marrying and establishing a family. It seems that he is content to continue dwelling alone in his tent.[3]
It may also be said that Yaakov presents a somewhat feminine character in the context of ancient society. In the story of the sale of the birthright, Esav comes home from the field and finds Yaakov cooking a pot of lentils (25:29). This is a classic image of a couple in the ancient world: the man returns from the field tired and hungry, and the woman, who has remained in the tent, has prepared a hot meal in the meantime. Yaakov, as it were, assumes a feminine role in the family, of withdrawing into the tent and engaging in cooking.[4] Yaakov's "femininity" is also suggested by his being "a smooth man" in contrast to Esav, who is "a hairy man" (27:11). Yaakov's body remained "feminine," hairless, while Esav, naturally, developed masculine characteristics.
Thus, Yaakov appears as an underdeveloped character, who behaves partly as a woman and partly as a child. He sits at ease in the tent, unable to cope with the challenges of life outside. Yaakov's weakness is also manifest in the story of the blessings, where Rivka completely manipulates him and he is dragged into the deceit of his father against his will (see previous shiur).
In light of the understanding that Yaakov is the blessed child, Yitzchak realizes that all this must come to an end. Yaakov must put a stop to his cooking in the tent and embark on the "hero's journey." He must exert himself to find a wife and start a family on his own, even without any financial assistance.[5] Yaakov thus embarks on a perilous journey, in which he will have to take care of even the most basic necessities of life, bread and clothing:
And Yaakov vowed a vow, saying: If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on… (28:20)
Yaakov was suddenly required to leave his comfortable life and go out into the unknown. The goal was to return to his father's house, but from a new and more mature place.
III. Misplaced Excitement
God sees the great difficulty Yaakov is facing and therefore appears to him in a dream at Beit El, encouraging him and promising him protection along the way (28:14). Yaakov is apparently heartened by this, and he manages to reach Charan without any special delays. But here begins the real challenge of his journey.
The first scene in Charan is Yaakov's moving encounter with Rachel and the rolling of the stone from the well's mouth. This scene appears to be a romantic episode of falling in love at first sight. However, if we examine the text, we find that Yaakov's excitement was not about Rachel herself, but about her being Lavan's daughter:
And it came to pass, when Yaakov saw Rachel the daughter of Lavan his mother's brother,
and the sheep of Lavan his mother's brother,
that Yaakov went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth,
and watered the flock of Lavan his mother's brother. (29:10)
This verse, written somewhat poetically, repeats the phrase "Lavan his mother's brother" three times. Clearly, the repetition is superfluous – it is enough to say once that Lavan is "his mother's brother." In fact, even one mention is unnecessary, as we know from Parashat Chayei Sara that Lavan is "his mother's brother." It seems that the Torah is emphasizing the central factor that aroused Yaakov's excitement, to the point of moving him to rolling away the heavy stone – the long-awaited encounter with a figure connected to his mother.
It was not Rachel who interested Yaakov at the moment; his love for her would appear later.[6] Neither was Lavan himself of any interest to him, but only the fact that he was meeting with "his mother's brother."
Recall that Yaakov was attached to his mother, who loved him in particular. It is easy to imagine the close bond between them from the long days he spent in the tent, as a child who has not yet grown up. We saw in the story of the blessings that he was bound to her and did her bidding, even when it did not seem right to him. It is no wonder that Yaakov has not been interested in marriage until now, for his relationship with his mother has been sufficient for him. But all of this was abruptly cut off when he set out on his journey. Yaakov was suddenly torn from his mother. Therefore, all the way to Charan he yearned to reconnect with some figure associated with her.
When Yaakov sees Rachel, he is excited because she is "the daughter of Lavan, his mother's brother," and he runs to roll the stone away so that he can quickly tend the flock "of Lavan, his mother's brother." The rolling of the stone has nothing to do with his excitement over Rachel – she appears between two statements about the sheep. Yaakov rushes to water the flocks of "his mother's brother," to connect in some way with something that reminds him of his beloved mother.
Yaakov's haste at that moment is also reflected in his behavior toward Rachel immediately afterward:
And Yaakov kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Yaakov told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rivka's son; and she ran and told her father. (29:11-12)
A surprising sequence: Yaakov tells Rachel who he is only after he kisses her?![7]
From his perspective, the kiss is understandable, since they are relatives,[8] but he only bothers to tell Rachel later that he is her cousin. From Rachel's perspective, it is a situation in which a strange and unfamiliar man approaches and kisses her without her consent.
It seems that Yaakov is in a state of emotional turmoil, sparked by encountering someone connected to his mother. Because of this turmoil, he acts outside of logical order, rushing to give Rachel a kiss full of longing for his home.[9]
Yaakov's eagerness to feel a connection to Lavan, "his mother's brother," is also hinted at in the way he introduces himself:
And Yaakov told Rachel that he was her father's brother. (29:12)
Yaakov, of course, is not "her father's brother." It is possible that Yaakov here slips in his wording due to the rush of emotion at reconnecting with his family. Without ever having met Lavan, he is so eager to connect with him that he feels like his brother. Yaakov unwittingly runs headlong into the arms of Lavan, the great swindler, out of a desire for familial connection.
IV. Yaakov in the House of Lavan
Yaakov enters the house of Lavan with the naive intention of settling down in the warmth of family. He wants to finish his journey, avoid further challenges, and return to being "a simple man." But this state of mind very quickly turns him into the ultimate victim for Lavan.
Lavan slowly and subtly weaves his web around Yaakov. At first, he appeals precisely to Yaakov's sensitive spot, bringing him, as it were, into the family: "You are my own flesh and blood" (29:14). It quickly becomes clear, however, that Yaakov cannot simply join the family; he will have to work.
In an act of supposed generosity, Lavan lets Yaakov set his own wage. Yaakov chooses to work for Rachel and offers seven years' labor in exchange (29:18), which seems like a grossly inflated price. Yaakov again seems to be acting naively, without understanding the intricacies of negotiation with a shrewd man like Lavan. His eagerness is expressed in the fact that the seven years seem to him "like a few days" (29:20).
After seven years, Lavan completes the web that will bring Yaakov down and deceive him in the most cynical and despicable manner, when he gives him Leah instead of Rachel.
This event is strange and difficult to understand – how could Yaakov not have noticed that he was being given a different woman to marry? The minimal expectation of a groom is to know with whom he is spending his wedding night![10]
This story presents Yaakov in a rather embarrassing and even mocking light.[11] After working seven hard years for Rachel, on account of her being "of beautiful form and fair to look upon" (29:17), he finds himself inadvertently consorting with her sister, who lacks those very qualities for which he longed. We seem to be witnessing here Yaakov's moment of crisis in the process of his "hero's journey." He is not yet ready to begin to confront the real difficulties that the journey has in store for him. This is the moment that shows that Yaakov is still in the grip of childish naiveté, to the extent that he can be easily manipulated even in the most intimate and personal of spaces.
V. Yaakov's Servitude
Yaakov's suffering in Lavan's house was not limited to the great wedding deception. Toward the end of the parasha, Yaakov offers us a glimpse into his wretched life with Lavan:
Thus I was: by day, drought consumed me, and frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. This has been twenty years for me in your house: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. (31:40-41)
Yaakov describes twenty years of grueling toil, without basic rights, with his wages constantly changing.[12] This portrayal may suggest that Yaakov was not exactly Lavan's "worker," but more akin to a "slave." A worker has a clearly defined and predetermined salary, whereas a slave works against his will without a defined wage. This hypothesis is strengthened by Yaakov's appeal to Lavan when he wants to return home:
Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go. (30:26)
Why should Yaakov have to beg for his wives and children, as if they belong to Lavan? If he is indeed a kind of slave of Lavan, we can find the answer in the laws of slavery in Parashat Mishpatim:
If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. (Shemot 21:4)
Yaakov seems to be in a similar situation – he received wives from his "master," Lavan, and fathered children from them. Lavan treats him as a slave and therefore has the right, according to the law of slaves, to keep the wives and children while Yaakov leaves alone.[13]
Lavan himself sees Yaakov's wives, children, and property as his own private property, as is evident from his words at the end of the parasha:
And Lavan answered and said to Yaakov: The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. (Bereishit 31:43)
Moreover, the story of Yaakov's flight from Lavan parallels the later story of the exodus from Egypt. Yaakov flees from Lavan, just as the people of Israel flee from Egypt. In both cases, the escape is exposed and a decision is made to pursue the fugitives:
And it was told to Lavan… that Yaakov had fled… And he pursued after him. (31:22-23)
And it was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled… and he pursued after the children of Israel. (Shemot 14:5-8)
The fugitives in both cases also leave with great wealth, taken from the masters from whom they fled – Yaakov has become rich from Lavan's flocks, and the people of Israel take much wealth from the Egyptians. This parallel reinforces the sense that Yaakov was a slave to Lavan and that his flight is in fact a departure from slavery to freedom, as would later be the case with his descendants in Egypt. This parallel seems to have led the authors of the Pesach Haggada to compare Lavan to Pharaoh:
Go forth and learn what Lavan the Aramean sought to do, for Pharaoh decreed only against the males, whereas Lavan sought to uproot all. (Haggada)
Beyond the fact that Lavan "sought to uproot all," he is also a far more cunning enemy. Whereas Pharaoh engaged in an open struggle against the people of Israel, Lavan used deceit and subterfuge against Yaakov, who suddenly found himself a slave, against his will.
But his slavery arose from both directions – from Lavan's cunning, but also from Yaakov's naiveté and his eagerness to return to the warm days of childhood in the bosom of his family.
VI. Going Free
From the depths of Yaakov's crisis and slavery, he slowly begins to assume responsibility, to assert himself and to confront Lavan. He demands his family and begins to work for himself. Thus he begins to enrich himself at Lavan's expense, through a sophisticated manipulation of the breeding of Lavan's flocks (30:31-43).
The parasha dwells at length on Yaakov's preoccupation with increasing his wealth, apparently as part of the transformation of his personality. After increasing his wealth, he becomes even more daring and initiates his escape from Lavan (31:17-18). He is not yet able to confront him directly, but at least he manages to escape from slavery.
In the next stage, at the end of the parasha, he even manages to stand up directly to Lavan, to confront him head-on and finally vent all the frustrations that had been building over the years:
And Yaakov was angry, and quarreled with Lavan. And Yaakov answered and said to Lavan: What is my crime? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?… These twenty years have I been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not lost their young… Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes… God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and He gave judgment last night. (31:36-42)
For the first time, we see Yaakov in his greatness. He is no longer a small boy, clinging to his mother and stealing his brother's blessing in secret. No longer impetuous and easily duped, marrying without realizing to whom. No longer a slave without basic rights. Finally, Yaakov becomes the leader of a family, capable of defending it and standing up to those who threaten it. Suddenly Lavan becomes the weaker party, asking to make a covenant with Yaakov (31:44).
Yaakov did not do this alone: God helped him (31:42) and had appeared to Lavan beforehand in a dream, warning him not to advance on Yaakov (31:24). Yaakov still cannot stand alone against his adversaries, but he is in a completely different place. The "hero's journey" is nearing its end. Yaakov has acquired new abilities that he lacked before.
Now he can proudly continue the covenant God made with Avraham. He can even return to his land and confront Esav, as we will read in the next parasha. Yaakov is no longer just a "simple man"; he is soon to receive a new identity as "Israel" – "for you have wrestled with God [referring to the angel himself] and with men [referring to Lavan] and have prevailed" (32:29). This new status was conferred upon him by virtue of his extraordinary confrontation with Lavan, from which Yaakov emerged as a new man.[14]
(Translated by David Strauss; edited by Sarah Rudolph)
[1] This concept was described by the mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).
[2] The Midrash struggled with this question and therefore recounts a supplementary story: Yaakov did set out with property given to him by his father, but it was stolen by Elifaz, son of Esav, on the way. Rashi (29:11) mentions this story when Yaakov meets Rachel and there is an evident gap between his present state of penury and the meeting of the servant with Rivka, at which point he immediately gave her rings and bracelets. Rashi probably mentions it there specifically because the discrepancy between the stories raises a great difficulty, so that there is no choice but to bring in a supplementary story that is not mentioned in the text.
[3] Before the story of the blessings, the Torah notes that Esav married two wives at the age of forty. Thus, Esav followed the example set by Yitzchak, who married Rivka at the age of forty (25:20). This suggests that Yaakov deviated from his father's example and delayed his marriage even further. Moreover, the story of the blessings seems to have taken place years later, since Yitzchak is already old and his eyes have already dimmed, and so Yaakov may even be much older than forty and still unmarried.
[4] This "couple" image, however, casts a problematic light on Yaakov – for instead of serving a hot meal to his brother who returned weary from the field (presumably to support his family), he sets conditions, exploiting his brother's hunger and selling him the meal at an exorbitant price.
[5] There may be another reason Yitzchak sent Yaakov on this "hero's journey": Yitzchak sees that his own personal path, of staying put and marrying a woman without effort, is not the ideal. In our study of the previous parasha, we discussed Yitzchak's weakness in dealing with the peoples of the region. It may be that Yitzchak realized the next generation to carry on Avraham's legacy would need to be stronger, more stable, and more courageous. Therefore, he sets a path for Yaakov that is different from his own.
[6] Yaakov's love for Rachel appears only after he lived in Lavan's house for a month, not at their first meeting at the well. This is not love at first sight, but rather the product of a somewhat deeper acquaintance (29:18).
[7] The Ibn Ezra was aware of the difficulty and therefore interpreted vayaged as a past perfect, "and he had told her" – prior to the kiss – so that Yaakov first spoke and then kissed Rachel. Nevertheless, the fact that the verse relates the events in this order creates a surprise for the reader and the impression that Yaakov's action was overly hasty.
[8] A public kiss between relatives is a legitimate act, as described in Shir ha-Shirim: "Oh that you were as my brother, that nursed at the breasts of my mother! When I should find you outside, I would kiss you; yea, and none would despise me" (Shir ha-Shirim 8:1).
[9] The use of the word vayishak, "and he kissed," in relation to Rachel immediately after the previous verse's vayishak et ha-tzon, "and he watered the flock," is interesting. Kissing Rachel is connected with watering the flock: it is not a kiss of love; rather, just as he felt a connection to the flock that was reminiscent of his mother's family, such was the connection he felt to Rachel.
[10] It was in order to resolve this difficulty that Chazal developed the story of the exchange of signs between Rachel and Lea (see Rashi 29:25).
[11] Chazal link Lavan's deception of Yaakov to the deception that Yaakov himself perpetrated on Yitzchak when he stole the blessings (Bereishit Rabba 70, 19). Indeed, both stories are puzzling and present extreme portrayals of the victim of the deception. It is hard to understand how Yitzchak failed to recognize that it was Yaakov standing before him, just as it is hard to understand how Yaakov could have lain with Leah by mistake.
[12] The substitution of Leah for Rachel is probably part of the "wage-changing," but it is presumably not the only abuse.
[13] It is true that Parashat Mishpatim appears only later, but it is likely that its laws correspond to a certain extent with rules that were accepted in ancient times, as various studies comparing them with the laws of the region have shown.
[14] The name "Israel," which signifies the ability to wrestle, was already given to him before his encounter with Esav, and thus presumably derives from his difficult but successful struggle with Lavan.
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