Missing out on the Righteous (Vayetze)
Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long after they have departed. -Jim Rohn
Jacob had escaped his brother Esau’s wrath and exiled himself to Haran, to live and work with his uncle Laban. Upon meeting his cousin Rachel, Jacob falls in love at first sight and offers Laban that he will work seven years for Rachel as the price of marriage. Laban famously switches Rachel for her sister Leah on the wedding night and then scams Jacob into working another seven years for Rachel. Jacob agrees. Later on, when Jacob tries to get paid for additional work, Laban keeps switching the deal on him.
Laban was by all accounts a cheating, lying, avaricious, double-crossing scoundrel. Jacob had his own history of deceit. Jacob had pretended to be his brother Esau and snatched Esau’s blessing from their blind father, Isaac. Esau’s anger is what prompted Jacob’s exile in the first place. Nonetheless, in Haran, Jacob proved himself to be an industrious, loyal, honest and hardworking employee and son-in-law.
Eventually, Jacob, with God’s prompting, decides that enough is enough. When Laban is away shearing his own flock, Jacob takes advantage, packs up the whole family and all their possessions and without any notice leaves Haran and heads back to Canaan, back home.
Laban gets wind of Jacob’s hasty and unannounced departure, chases after him, chastises him, eventually comes to some sort of understanding and even a “pact” and then they each go their own way.
The Meshech Chochma on Genesis 32:1 wonders as to phraseology of the verse: And Laban went and returned to his place; and Jacob continued on his path.
He explains that typically, when one is in the presence of a righteous person, they learn from them, they are affected by them, they pick up some of their positive traits, some of their wisdom. However, Laban did not take advantage of having Jacob in his household and when they separated Laban “returned to his place,” he returned to his bad ways, to his negative traits and avarice.
Jacob, on the other hand, “continued on his way,” he continued to grow, he continued to ascend in his path of goodness. And that leads Jacob to the very next phrase of the verse, “and the angels of God met him.”
May we take advantage of the presence of good people in our lives, learn from them and continue on the good path, as opposed to returning to our old, bad ways.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ben-Tzion
Dedication
To the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, the one abolishing slavery. It was made into law 154 years ago, this week.
