Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
In This Week’s Parashah: מָה בַּפָּרָשָׁה
Full Parashah Reading: Bereishit 32:4-36:43
- Yaakov sends messengers to his brother, Esav, letting Esav know that Yaakov and his family are returning to אֶרֶץ כְּנַעָן (Eretz Canaan, the land of Canaan).
- Yaakov is scared to learn that Esav is coming to greet him with 400 men. 20 years earlier, Yaakov ran away when Esav promised to kill him. Yaakov divides his family into two camps for protection, prays to God, and sends hundreds of animals as a gift to Esav.
- An angel wrestles with Yaakov all night long, and blesses Yaakov that his new name will be Yisrael.
- Yaakov was injured in his גִּיד הַנָּשֶׁה (gid ha-nasheh, a part of the hip called the sciatic nerve) from the wrestling. Therefore, the gid ha-nasheh of an animal is not kosher to eat.
- The next day, Yaakov continues with his family to meet Esav, and bows before him. Esav runs toward Yaakov and kisses him, and they cry.
- Yaakov’s daughter, Dinah, is kidnapped, but is saved by her brothers, led by Shimon and Levi.
- Rahel dies in childbirth, on the road to Beit Lehem, and is buried there. The child born is Binyamin.
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