Shabbat Parashat Vayeitzei - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Vayeitzei - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Let me pass through your whole flock today. Remove from there every speckled

  or spotted lamb, every brownish lamb among the sheep and the spotted or speckled

  among the goats, that will be my wage. [Bereishit 30:32]

After Lavan asked Yaakov what he wanted for pay, Yaakov proposes an interesting deal. But the text leaves much room for interpretation. He begins by saying that he will pass through the flock 'today'. We see nothing about any continuing wage, only this apparently one-time event, yet throughout the remainder of the section, it is clear that more than 'today' is intended. Yaakov says 'remove', and in verse 35 "so he removed", but it does not say which man did this removing. In verse 43 the Torah tells us that he had lots of sheep and goats, but also slaves and camels and donkeys, but it does not tell us where Yaakov obtained these other assets.

Rashi explains that Yaakov was not to acquire the spotted or otherwise 'defective' patterned animals that Lavan owned at this point. The removal Yaakov asked for was only to prevent any genetic tie to the creation of new patterned animals in the future. Yaakov was to acquire any further such animals that might be born to the pure white ones left in Lavan's flocks. Thus the 'remove' was Yaakov telling Lavan to collect up the existing patterned ones and send them off with Lavan's sons to keep them away from any mixing with the pure white ones.

Rav Hirsch reads it a little differently, that our verse means Yaakov intends to pass through and remove the patterned animals, which he would then keep as his wage. But then in verse 34, Lavan takes over, and in verse 35, it is Lavan who actually does the removals sending all the animals removed off with his sons so they would not go to Yaakov, and thus Yaakov would have little likelihood based on genetics to obtain patterned animals in the future from the pure white animals.

Rashbam agrees with Rashi that the patterned animals in existence in our verse were to be removed to Lavan, not to Yaakov. He says that verse 31 shows Yaakov felt that any wage he had earned thus far was payment for his wives, thus the Torah is discussing future wages in this chapter. Tanchuma points out that Yaakov was only paid in sheep and goats, so he was forced to sell some of the animals in order to afford food, and that from those sales, he also purchased other assets. Yaakov was successful in everything he did, so he became wealthy in many types of property.