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Exile and Presence

According to the tradition there is a gap of 14 years between the end of last week’s Torah reading, when Ya’akov leaves his parents’ home, and the beginning of this one, when he goes to Charan. The Rabbis tell us that he spent that time studying in the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever. Ya’akov had grown up in the house of Yitzchak, and had spent the first 63 years of his life immersed in study, as the verse states, “Ya’akov was a wholesome man, abiding in tents” (Genesis 25; 27). Yet he realised that his was not adequate preparation before going to face Lavan, the arch enemy of the Jewish people (As the verse says, “An Aramean [Lavan] tried to destroy my father” Deuteronomy 26; 5). In fact his study in this Yeshiva was so intense that he didn’t sleep a proper night’s sleep for the entire time that he was there.
So it seems strange that despite all this preparation Ya’akov makes a deal with G-d after he has the dream of the ladder and the angels. “Then Ya’akov took a vow saying, ‘If G-d will be with me, will guard me on this way? and I return in peace to my father’s house, then G-d (A-donai) will be a G-d (Elokim) to me.’” (Genesis 28; 20-21). What would the alternative have been? Can we deduce that had things not worked out so well Ya’akov would not have accepted G-d, despite all those years of study and preparation?

For the rest of the dvar torah, go to www.parshatshavua.blogspot.com.