פרשת ויצא תש"ח - עבודת יעקב אצל לבן

הכי אחי אתה This is a question: — IS IT BECAUSE THOU ART MY BROTHER THAT THOU SHOULDST SERVE ME FOR NOUGHT?

הכי קרא שמו IS IT BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN CALLED [JACOB]—This is a question, like (29:15) “Is it because (הכי) thou art my brother?” Perhaps that is why they have given him the name Jacob — in reference to what was to happen in the future — that he would some time or other supplant me (יעקבני)? (Tanchuma). Why did Isaac tremble? He thought: Perhaps I have sinned in blessing the younger before the elder, thus changing the order of relationship between them. But when Esau began to cry out, “for he hath supplanted me these two times”, his father asked him, “What did he do to you?” He replied, “He took away my birth-right”. Isaac thereupon said, “It was on account of this that I was grieved and trembled: perhaps I had overstepped the line of strict justice. Now, however, I have really blessed the first-born — ‘And he shall indeed be blessed’”.

ועבדתני is the same in sense as ותעבדני THAT THOU SHOULDST SERVE ME. So, too, in the case of every verb in the past tense, if one adds as prefix a ו it may change the verb to the future.

רכות TENDER — She thought she would have to fall to the lot of Esau and she therefore wept continually, because everyone said, “Rebekah has two sons, Laban has two daughters — the elder daughter for the elder son, the younger daughter for the younger son” (Genesis Rabbah 70:16).

And Jacob loved Rachel; and he said: ‘I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.’

And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

And Jacob said unto Laban: ‘Give me my wife, for my days are filled, that I may go in unto her.’

מלאו ימי MY DAYS ARE FULFILLED — which my mother told me to remain with you. And another explanation is: MY DAYS ARE FULFILLED for I am now eighty-four years old and when shall I beget twelve tribes? That is what he meant by adding “that I may go in unto her”; for surely even the commonest of people would not use such an expression. But he said this because his mind was intent upon having issue (to fulfil his mission of rearing children who would carry on the religious traditions of his fathers) (Genesis Rabbah 70:18).

ואבאה אליה, let us make the consummation of the wedding immediately after the betrothal, i.e. the chuppah. He wanted to skip as many of the formalities in order to achieve his purpose of building a family with her.

And Laban said: ‘It is not so done in our place, to give the younger before the first-born.

And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

ויאהב גם את רחל, he not only slept also with her, but also loved her more than he loved Leah. On most occasions in Scripture when the word גם appears in an inverted fashion, such as here, the meaning is similar. In Exodus 12,32 when Pharaoh said to Moses וברכתם גם אותי, the meaning is: “also bless me.” In Numbers 22,33 when the angel said to Bileam: גם אותך הרגתי, he meant: “I would also have killed you, seeing that I first squeezed your foot and you are already lame. Now I would have killed you if not for your ass lying down.”