More to the story than meets the eye

Yayetze
Genesis 28:10-33:3

Précis: As Jacob travels towards the household of his uncle Laban, he dreams of a ladder (some translate it as a ramp) to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. He vows to build a great House for God on the spot. Jacob meets and falls in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel. Laban agrees to the match, provided that Jacob works for him for seven years. Laban switches the older daughter, Leah, for Rachel; Jacob works an additional seven years for her hand. After the 14 years, Jacob works for Laban for an additional six, and acquires great wealth and flocks through shrewd husbandry. During the stay with Laban, most of the children of Jacob are born. At the conclusion of the parasha, after tense negotiations with Laban, Jacob leaves with his possessions and family.

Genesis 29:10 “And it happened when Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban his mother’s brother and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother that he stepped forward and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother.”

We are continually blessed by being part of a Torah commentary discussion stretching back more than 2,000 years. We hear the voices of the Mishnaic Sages, of Maimonides and Rashi, the other great rabbis of all ages, and we enter into a type of communion with them. Thus, it is usual practice in Torah study to state that “Rashi says” (and not “Rashi said") because we are, in effect, continuing a discussion.

The late 20th century provided us with another way of looking at the text which adds to our appreciation of its complexity and meaning: that of literary analysis. One of the leaders of this movement is Robert Alter, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His earlier works, The Art of Biblical Narrative and The Art of Biblical Poetry have been followed by his own translation and commentary on the Torah, titled simply The Five Books of Moses.

This particular verse gives us an opportunity to consider how his analysis can enhance our understanding of the characters, and perhaps lead us to new insights. We can’t think of Jacob in isolation. First, while he was favored by his mother, his father favored his brother Esau (which certainly must have had an impact on him). His brother Esau has threatened his life. While he has earlier been described as a “dweller in tents” (Gen. 25:28), which is suggestive of a quiet, contemplative person, Alter notes that here we see a man of action, displaying a “Homeric” feat of rolling away a stone single-handedly, which the assembled shepherds had been unable to do together. He not only rolls the stone away – he waters the flocks.

Alter notes that the encounter of a maiden at a foreign well and the drawing of water tells us that we are witnesses to a betrothal scene (cf. Abraham’s servant with Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, and Moses with Zipporah). A comparison of these scenes tells us much about Jacob’s character, particularly as the details contrast with Isaac’s scene.

Jacob is present; Isaac was represented by a surrogate. Jacob, and not the maiden, draws the water. Thus, these scenes show that Jacob is strikingly different than Isaac. Isaac is repeatedly shown in the text as a passive object of others’ actions (he is the intended sacrifice in the Akedah; a wife is procured for him; he is deceived in the matter of the blessing). Jacob is shown to be a man of action: he leaves his homeland, he finds a bride (two in fact), he becomes wealthy, he literally wrestles with God, he returns to his homeland and faces down his sibling fears.

What are we to make of the differences we have found? I would submit that the text is telling us that there is no one-size-fits-all way of living a good life, and no one path to ensuring that a heritage is passed safely to the next generation. Isaac and Jacob were equally responsible (and successful) for the transmittal of Abraham’s knowledge and belief. That they were so different from each other suggests that how tradition is transmitted is less important than the transmission itself. Alter’s approach adds to our “tool bag” of ways to understand our heritage and pass it forward to the next generation.