Tricking the Trickster - Parshat Vayeitzei

(28) The maiden ran and told all this to her mother’s household. (29) Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was Lavan. Lavan ran out to the man at the spring— (30) when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on his sister’s arms, and when he heard his sister Rebekah say, “Thus the man spoke to me.” He went up to the man, who was still standing beside the camels at the spring. (31) “Come in, O blessed of the Eternal,” he said, “why do you remain outside, when I have made ready the house and a place for the camels?”

(13) On hearing the news of his sister’s son Jacob, Lavan ran to greet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and took him into his house. He told Lavan all that had happened, (14) and Lavan said to him, “You are truly my bone and flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.

(15) Then Lavan said to Jacob, “Just because you are my brother, should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”

(16) Now Lavan had two daughters; the name of the older one was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. (17) Leah had soft eyes; Rachel was shapely and beautiful. (18) Jacob loved Rachel; so he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

(19) Lavan said, “Better that I give her to you than that I should give her to an outsider. Stay with me.”

(20) So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. (21) Then Jacob said to Lavan, “Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her.”

(22) And Lavan gathered all the people of the place and made a feast. (23) When evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and he cohabited with her.— (24) Lavan had given his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.—

(25) When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Lavan, “What is this you have done to me? I was in your service for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?”

(26) Lavan said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the older. (27) Wait until the bridal week of this one is over and we will give you that one too - provided you serve me another seven years.”

(1) Now he heard the things that Lavan’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from that which was our father’s he has built up all this wealth.” (2) Jacob also saw that Lavan’s manner toward him was not as it had been in the past. (3) Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers where you were born, and I will be with you.” (4) Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field, where his flock was, (5) and said to them, “I see that your father’s manner toward me is not as it has been in the past. But the God of my father has been with me. (6) As you know, I have served your father with all my might; (7) but your father has cheated me, changing my wages time and again. God, however, would not let him do me harm.

(41) Of the twenty years that I spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you changed my wages time and again. (42) Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God took notice of my plight and the toil of my hands, and God gave judgment last night.” (43) Then Lavan spoke up and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine. Yet what can I do now about my daughters or the children they have borne? (44) Come, then, let us make a pact, you and I, that there may be a witness between you and me.” (45) Thereupon Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. (46) And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a mound; and they partook of a meal there by the mound. (47) Lavan named it Yegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Gal-ed. (48) And Lavan declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” That is why it was named Gal-ed; (49) and [it was also called] Mizpah, because he said, “May the Eternal watch between you and me, when we are out of sight of each other. (50) If you ill-treat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters—though no one else be about, remember, God will be witness between you and me.” (51) And Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this mound and here the pillar which I have set up between you and me: (52) this mound shall be witness and this pillar shall be witness that I am not to cross to you past this mound, and that you are not to cross to me past this mound and this pillar, with hostile intent. (53) May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor”—their ancestral deities—“judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.