Parshat HaShavua
Yeshivat Har Etzion

Parashat VaYishlach is dominated by two dramatic confrontations of Yaacov, once with Eisav (the person and the angel) and once with Shechem (the person and the city). I would, however, like to discuss a short incident, which follows the two major ones, the return of Yaacov to Beit-El. This takes place basically "on the road," as Yaacov travels from Shechem, and continues onward towards Efrata (Beit Lechem) (35,16) and Migdal Eider (35,21), finally arriving "home" at Chevron (27). While it is true that Yaacov builds both a matzeiva and an altar there, and receives a divine vision and promise, we have gotten so used to God reiterating the promise of the Land to the avot that we are likely to skip over this section without proper attention. I propose that we stop and spend some more time at this "roadstop."

After the conclusion of the Dina episode in Shechem, God tells Yaacov to go up to Beit-El and build there an altar "to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing before Eisav your brother" (35,1). Yaacov, after first instructing his household to get rid of all idolatrous articles, which they might have, travels to Beit-El and builds the altar (5-7). Subsequently, God appears to Yaacov (9-13) and then he raises a matzeiva (14), and, apparently, immediately departs, continuing his journey south in the direction of Chevron (16).

Yaacov arrives in Eretz Yisrael twice. Once when he comes to Shechem - "Yaacov came whole to the city Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram, and he camped opposite the city" (33,18), and once when he comes to Beit-El - "Yaacov came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, which is Beit-El" (35,6). The expression "which is in the land of Canaan" is a clear indication that this is Yaacov's point of arrival in a new land. This is confirmed by the expression (in the first case), "when he came from Padan Aram." Yaacov entered Shechem WHEN HE CAME FROM ARAM. Now when Yaacov arrives in Beit-El we do not have this additional phrase, but, just a few verses later, we find, "God appeared to Yaacov again, WHEN HE CAME FROM PADAN ARAM, and blessed him" (9). Since we know that this took place in Beit-El - "Yaacov called the name of the place where God spoke to him Beit-El" (15) - it turns out that this second confirmation that Beit-El is an arrival point is confirmed.

This point is, I think, greatly emphasized by the name-switch of Beit-El in the story. God tells Yaacov to go to Beit-El. Yaacov tells his family that they are going to Beit-El. Yet, when they finally get there, we are told that Yaacov has arrived in Luz - which is Beit-El. In other words, the goal is clearly Beit-El, a location saturated with kedusha, with the name that Yaacov gave it to commemorate his meeting with God and his vision of the gate of heaven. However, until Yaacov gets there, the place is actually the Canaanite city of Luz. The Torah has to tell us that this place is the same place called Beit-El beforehand; hence the phrase "Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, which is Beit-El." The conclusion is an editorial comment, for those who forgot that Luz is the same place as Beit-El and therefore are likely to be confused. But the uncommented narrative reads, "Yaacov came to Luz in the land of Canaan." In other words, before this point, Yaacov is not in the environment we associate with Eretz Yisrael, a land of holiness, a land where there is a place which is "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Despite the geographical border of Canaan, which Yaacov has crossed some time earlier on his way to Shechem, Yaacov has not actually returned yet to the land of his fathers. Only after Yaacov builds the altar does the narrative refer to the place as Beit-El.

The reason is that, at this point in the Biblical narrative, at least as concerns Yaacov, the Land of Israel is a reflection of the life of Yaacov. Israel is the land where the forefathers carry out the Divine design of building the Jewish nation. Yaacov has been "out on vacation" from that project for all the years that he has been in Lavan's house. He has to re-inaugurate his career and his status as an "av," and only from that point on will he be back on the course, and, as a corollary result, back in Eretz Yisrael.

The place for this inaugural is Beit-El. The reason is spelled out in the command of God: "Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled before Eisav your brother." Beit-El was the place that Yaacov LEFT Eretz Yisrael. (The midrash which states that from Beit-El Yaacov proceeded directly to Aram with "kefitzat haderekh," a miraculous warp of space, makes this true literally). The vision in the beginning of Vayeitze is Yaacov's farewell to Israel, to the land of holiness and the presence of God. The content of God's message there is that he will protect Yaacov and be with him in exile and return him home. In other words, Yaacov "dropped out" there, and that is the place that he returns to his destiny.

Yaacov understands this, and therefore cleanses his family from the dust of idolatry that might have come with them from Aram. Habits that were appropriate in Aram, leniencies that were acceptable, must be done away with before commencing the great push onward in Jewish history. It is not a question here of avoiding sin. The emphasis is, as Yaacov states, "and purify yourselves and change your clothes." Yaacov is declaring a new beginning. Both God and Yaacov therefore call this journey "rising and going up." The reference, of course, is not merely to the altitude of Beit-El. "Rise up" means to raise oneself, to stir and gather one's powers, to ascend spiritually. God is telling Yaacov to make aliya. The altar that he commands Yaacov to build there is not the fulfillment of Yaacov's vow but an altar of consecration, reminiscent of the altar that Avraham built when he entered the land of Israel (12,7 - in Avraham's caseit was in Shechem!, and later in Beit-El; 12,8).

There is one further difference between Yaacov before Beit-El and after. By accepting his destiny, by re-inaugurating his career as an "av" - and remember, Yaacov is the final av, the one who is followed by a nation and not individuals - Yaacov transforms his family from a "house" (bayit) into a "people" (am). In Aram he was the father of a family, albeit a large one. Once we see him as an av in Eretz Yisrael, he is the leader of a people. By the time he gets to Beit-El, he has become "Yaacov and the people who are with him" (v. 6).

I have answered all the questions I raised, except that about Devora, Rivka's nursemaid. I am not sure about this, but I suspect that she represents the world of Aram. I pointed out last week that Yaacov divorces himself from Aram at Galeid. Devora is the last remnant of that world. As a nursemaid, she signifies the nurturing that Rivka received in her father's house. That connection is now cut completely; that chapter in Yaacov's life closed. Yaacov is completely a man of Israel and Eretz Yisrael.

The second part of our story begins when God appears to Yaacov and blesses him, changing his name. God then says:

Does this blessing sound familiar? It is practically word-for-word the blessing which Yitzchak gave Yaacov when he left to flee to Aram, even to the name of God:

It is as though the twenty years that Yaacov spent in Aram (and fourteen more, according to Chazal, that he spent in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever) are merely a dream. God picks up EXACTLY where the story left off when Yaacov left. The birkat Avraham, Yaacov's career as an av, has been in suspended animation, frozen in time. Yaacov is now returning to the point where he left, both geographically (Beit-El), and spiritually. Yaacov's years in Aram should be placed in parentheses.

In fact, that is what Yaacov does. He places those years within parentheses, a matzeiva on each end. When he left for Aram he raised a matzeiva and prayed for protection on his journey out of Eretz Yisrael, in other words, on his exit from national history. When he returned, when he realized that he had completely returned "from Padan Aram," had reached "the land of Canaan," and had resumed his role as forefather, where not children but "nations and community of nations will come from him," he then erected another matzeiva, in the same place, at the same point, thereby bracketing the years of personal development and drawing the straight line from his blessing at the hands of his father so many years before and the continuation of the role implicit in those blessings now. The two matzeivot are brackets around the years that Yaacov's career was suspended, the years that he was out of Eretz Yisrael.

God is giving Yaacov a new name, and granting him the exact same blessing that Yitzchak had given him years earlier. The blessing is the continuation of the blessing of Avraham (and indeed is quite similar to God's blessing to Avraham when He changed Avram's name – 17,5-6 – "I shall multiply you exceedingly and make nations of you; and kings will come out of you"). The entire episode is based on the idea that this point, Beit-El, the place where Yaacov took his leave of Eretz Yisrael, is the place where he can return to his role as an av. This is on the one hand the place which serves as the entry-point to Eretz Yisrael for Yaacov, when we consider him in his historical role (rather than as an individual) – that is what we saw in the first half of the story – and, on the other hand, the place where God confirms his new identity, as Yisrael, father of a nation. That this revelation of God is not connected to Yaacov's circumstances after the incident in Shechem, but to his return from Aram to Eretz Yisrael is quite explicit in the description the Torah gives. "God appeared to Yaacov AGAIN when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him" (35,9). This revelation is dated "when Yaacov comes from Padan Aram," although we know he has been in Shechem for some time. But even more explicit – God is appearing to Yaacov AGAIN – a clear reference to the dream of the ladder. This revelation continues that one.

This explains a curious phrase that repeats itself three times at the end of our story. -

Rashi (13 – in printed Chumashim the comment appears on v.14, but it should be on v.13) comments "I do not know what this is teaching us." I would like to suggest that the emphasized phrase does not refer to the place where God spoke to him NOW, but to where He spoke to him 35 years before, on the night of the dream of the ladder. The first verse states that God ascended from the spot where He had spoken before; in other words, this now is the conclusion of that prior revelation. Everything that took place in the while can be skipped, or blocked out. Similarly, Yaacov erects the new monument not in the spot where God spoke now, to commemorate a special occasion, but in the spot that God spoke THEN, as a parallel to the previous monument. The name Beit-El, we already know, refers to the first revelation, which has been continued now as though there were no interruption, and that is why Yaacov reconfirms the name of the place. The whole purpose of the story is to bring us, literally, to the point where we left off at the beginning of Parashat Toldot. We are back at "the place He spoke to him."

Further study:

1. Rachel dies shortly after this incident. One opinion in Chazal says that in Eretz Yisrael, the prohibition of marrying two sisters came into effect. Why, then, did she die now?
2. According to Chazal, Rivka died at the same time as Devora (see Ramban). Is there any connection between Rivka dying and the revelation to Yaacov?
3. There are three points of separation between Yaacov and Aram; Galeid, which, as I pointed out last week is "on the mountain," Shechem, where Yaacov buys a field, and Beit-El, the house of God. This should remind you of a famous midrash....

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