Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L
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Yaakov's Payment
Lavan asked Yaakov to specify how much Lavan owed him and he would pay him.
Yaakov replied that when he first started working for him, Lavan only had a small amount of livestock which now has grown tremendously, showing how G-d had blessed him upon Yaakov's arrival. So now, when can Yaakov too provide for the needs of his family and not just have to rely on his children working for to provide for him.
So Lavan asked him what he should give to him? Yaakov replied that Lavan should not give him anything. Rather if he lets him leave as he requested, he will return and pasture and watch over his flocks.
Yaakov goes on to say that as wages, he requests that from now on, Lavan give him all of Lavan's sheep or goats that are spotted with small dotted patches, have wide spots or are reddish brown. And to make sure that it is clear that he will not take any that have these marks on them right then (only the ones who will be born going forward like that), or that the flocks which will have those marks on them in the future were not born from male goats or sheep that had these markers, even if the females did not, Lavan is to have his sons take away all such flocks that are like that first.
Yaakov goes on to say that if Lavan ever suspects Yaakov of taking anything of Lavan's, Lavan can check Yaakov's flock and see that any goats or sheep that have these signs are legitimately Yaakov's, and if there are any that don't, this means that these were stolen by Yaakov.
Lavan agreed to these terms.
So that day, Lavan removed all of the goats and sheep that had the mentioned signs, and gave them to his sons.
Lavan made sure that he was three days distance away from Yaakov and Yaakov took care of Lavan's "leftover" animals. Meaning the weakest ones, which were sick and barren.
Yaakov then took rods of trembling poplar, hazelnut and chestnut and while they were still moist, he peeled them, showing the white on the rods, creating streaks and spots.
Yaakov thrust these peeled rods into the pools which had been made in the ground where the animals would come to drink, opposite the animals.
The animals would come to drink and upon seeing these rods, they would become aroused. The female animals would stumble backwards in bewilderment and the males would mount them, and the females would conceive offspring similar to the spotted stick. According to Rabbi Hoshaya, the females didn't need the males, but rather the water turned into sperm inside of them.
This resulted in the animals giving birth to ringed (ie they had rings around their forelegs and hind legs, which is where they were usually bound to prevent them from running away. It was unusual to have rings in that area), spotted and striped animals.
Yaakov put aside the ringed and speckled sheep for himself and divided them into two separate formations. He then placed the ringed flock at the head of the rest of the flock so that the rest of the flock would see the ringed flock as they followed them, and the entire flock would see Lavan's brown flock, which remained separate.
Whenever those animals which would be more in a rush to conceive would "come into heat", Yaakov would place the rods in the troughs to have these rods arouse them,
Yet he did not do this for those female animals which did not wish to be aroused by the males.
Thus it was that the ones that were more delayed in conceiving were Lavan's while Yaakov's were the ones that were quicker to mate.
Yaakov thus became very rich and had the most fertile animals. He would sell these animals at a high price and purchased maid and manservants and camels and donkeys.
Yaakov overheard Lavan's sons saying that Yaakov had taken everything that belonged to their father and from that amassed all of these riches.
Yaakov noticed on Lavan's face that Lavan was not as happy with him as he had been the day before and the day before that.
G-d told Yaakov to return to the land of his forefathers and his birthplace and that G-d would be there with him. So long as Yaakov was attached to Lavan, His presence couldn't rest on Yaakov.
Yaakov sent for Rochel and then Leah to come to his flocks in the field. Yaakov called for Rochel first since she was the main woman of the house and was the reason Yaakov had joined Lavan. Even Leah's children recognized this, as can be seen from when Boaz, who was from the tribe of Yehudah mentioned Rochel first when he said "like Rochel and like Leah, both of whom built etc.." (see Ruth 4:11)
Yaakov told Rochel and Leah that he sees on Lavan's face that Lavan doesn't like him as he did before, however, he continued, the G-d of his father was with him.
Also, Yaakov said, that they knew how he served Lavan with all of his strength and yet Lavan mocked him and changed his pay a hundred times.
Yet G-d did not let Lavan harm Yaakov. If Lavan were to say that Yaakov's pay would be the speckled flock, all the animals would give birth to speckled ones, and if he were to say that his pay would be the ringed ones, the animals would give birth to ringed ones.
Yaakov related to them that at one time, when the animals came into heat, Yaakov lifted up his eyes and saw in a dream that the he goats mounting the animals were ringed, speckled and striped. Although Lavan had separated the ringed, speckled and striped ones from Yaakov's flock, angels brought them from Lavan's sons' flock to Yaakov's.
Furthermore, Yaakov, related that an angel of G-d said to him in a dream, "Yaakov!", to which he replied, "Here I am". Whereupon the angel told him to look up and see that the goats mounting the animals are ringed, speckled and striped, as the angel has seen everything that Lavan has been doing to him.
G-d introduced Himself to Yaakov as "the G-d of Beth El", where Yaakov had anointed a monument and made a vow to G-d that this will be the house of G-d where Yaakov would offer sacrifices, and Yaakov must honor this vow.
Rochel and Leah told Yaakov that they would not prevent him from leaving as they no longer expect to inherit anything from their father as he treated them like strangers in selling them to Yaakov as wages for his labor and not only that he kept the labor wages for himself.
Thus, they continued, they have nothing from their father other than what G-d separated from Lavan. Therefore, they concluded, Yaakov should do everything that G-d told him.
But all the wealth that God separated from our father is ours and our children's. So now, all that God said to you, do."
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