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Reuven went out in the days of the wheat harvest, and he found dudaim in the field…Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s dudaim.” But, she said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? And to take my son’s dudaim as well?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he shall be with you tonight in exchange for your son’s dudaim.” (30:14, 15)

There is a reason that one must learn Torah from a rebbe and that without the interpretation of the commentators, the Torah remains a closed book. We often come across instances, attitudes and actions that seem strange, atypical and questionable. We are struck by glaring reactions, which are obvious to one who is seeking a way to question the Torah. There is no shortage of bona fide commentators who elucidate and not only make sense of the circumstances, but also illuminate for us a perspective which indicates that this was specifically the only approach to ameliorate a potentially volatile situation….

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Lavan had two daughters. The name of the older one was Leah, and the name of the younger one was Rachel. (29:16)

When Boaz married Rus, the elders and the assemblage conferred upon them the following blessing: “May Hashem make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and like Leah, both of whom built up the house of Yisrael” (Rus 4:11). The word shteihem, “both of them,” seems redundant, since, if we are mentioning only Rachel and Leah, obviously there are two/both of them. Horav Aryeh Leib Heyman, zl, cites a number of places in Tanach which have a similar redundancy, whereby names and a total number are mentioned. We find this especially significant concerning the two he-goats used for…

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He encountered the place and spent the night there…He took from the stones of the place which he arranged around his head, and lay down in that place. (28:11)

Yaakov Avinu left for Charan without any assurances. The road was dangerous. His brother, Eisav, who had sworn to do him bodily harm, was after him. He was on the way to the home of Lavan, the corrupt swindler, to a house filled with idols. One wonders what motivated him to go to Charan. Did Hashem promise him safe passage? No! Hashem was allowing him to go to Charan, but had made no promises. Yaakov was basically on his “own,” or as much on his own that anyone ever is. One is never on his own – only in his mind….

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And Yaakov went out from Beer Sheva. (28:10)

When Yaakov Avinu fled his father’s home, he was sixty-three years old. He was a wholesome, G-d-fearing Torah scholar whose entire  life was devoted to  studying Torah. Yet, prior to arriving in Lavan’s home, he had chopped arein, grabbed, another fourteen years of Torah study in the yeshivah of Shem and Eiver. Rashi writes that during those fourteen years our Patriarch was glued to the sefer. He did not lie down in bed to go to sleep the entire time he was there. Why? He was preparing himself for his entrance into the outside world. Imagine, if this was Yaakov Avinu’s…

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