Parshas Vayeitzei
Yaakov is told by his mother Rivkah to seek refuge in the house of her brother Lavan in the town of Charan (Bereishis 27:43).
Lavan is known to us as Lavan Ha’Arami (Devarim 26:5). The word “arami” means “ramai,” a cheat (see Kli Yakar there). So Yaakov, the Ish Tam, the honest man, is forced to live and do business with a fraudster.
There are two ways to go about that. One way is to cut corners and become a fraudster oneself. The other way is to outwit the fraudster legally. With the crooked, be cunning (Tehillim 18:26). That takes longer. It requires studying the Choshen Mishpat that gives you the legal tools to deal with cheats. For example, if your adversary denies ever having borrowed the money that you were charitable enough to lend him, ask him to swear a shevuat heiset, an oath of denial. Or, if you know that you have repaid a loan recorded in a note of indebtedness, but the lender surreptitiously kept the note and now sues you for payment a second time, ask him to swear that he has not been repaid (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 82:2). That way you can legally force the fraudster to tell the truth rather than incur the severe punishment for swearing falsely. But studying the Choshen Mishpat to the point that you can cross swords with a cheat takes years. So Yaakov could not go directly to Charan. He had to go Charan, in the direction of Charan. On the way, he had to stop off at the Yeshivah of Shem and Ever for 14 years to study the Choshen Mishpat until he knew it well enough to legally protect himself against Lavan (Rashi 28:11).
Having become an expert in the laws of Choshen Mishpat, Yaakov now felt ready to duel with Lavan. So he proceeded directly to Charan, without stopping off on the way at Mount Moriah to pray where Avraham had prayed before him and where his descendants would pray in the Beis HaMikdash after him. Then it hit him. Am I that sure of myself that I don’t need G-d’s help? Does anything work without prayer? So he made up his mind to go back to Eretz Yisrael and pray at Beit El. And two miracles occurred. First the distance between Charan and Beth El contracted so that “vayifgah bamakom,” he came suddenly upon the place. Second, as soon as he reached it, even though it was still day time, the sun suddenly set (Chullin 91a).
And he had a dream about prayer. He dreamt about a ladder planted firmly on earth which reached the heavens. And angels were ascending the ladder bearing the requests of our prayers heavenwards and descending to earth with G-d’s answers. He understood that the connection between heaven and earth is prayer.
The words “sulam” and “Sinai” have the same numerical value of 130. The connection between heaven and earth is also the Torah. Why is the Torah the connection between heaven and earth? Why not the Beis HaMikdash which was to be built on the ground where Yaakov was dreaming? The answer is that the Beis HaMikdash is temporary. It would be destroyed and scattered like the stones that Yaakov found around him when he reached Har HaMoriah. But the Torah remains forever and is our ladder to heaven even in the Diaspora.
And Yaakov awakens and realizes the magic of prayer. “G-d is truly in this place but I did not know it.” G-d is not confined to the Beis HaMikdash. He is in every place that we sanctify with His Torah, even in a secular business center like Luz. We can transform a Luz into a Beit Kel. It is up to us.
And what does Yaakov pray for? Just the basics: protection, food and clothing (28:20). He also prays for peace. It is only if one is focused on the basics and does not crave luxuries that one can enjoy peace (Avos 6:4).
But after Yaakov prospers in the house of Lavan, he no longer dreams about basics. He dreams about wealth (31:12). And so an angel interrupts his dream and tells him, I can see how Lavan has influenced you. “Atah [with an ayin],” now, it is time for you to return home and reacquaint yourself with the values of Yitzchak.
Indeed, Yaakov himself later admits (32:5) “Im Lavan garti, va’eichar ad atah,” I tarried too long in the house of Lavan, until the time when the angel had to tell me: “Atah,” now get up and leave.
Leah had tearful and sensitive eyes. She empathized deeply with the plight of others. She cried when others suffered. And for her empathy she was rewarded with descendants who were priests and kings (Rashba, Bava Basra 123a). Kings like King David, who cried along with all those in pain and wrote the book of Tehillim to bring comfort and dry the tears of the suffering.
Correction: Last week, Parshas Toldos, the sentence that reads “Rivka was born only three years after the Akeidah,” should have read “Rivkah was marriageable only three years after the Akeidah.”