Drash Cards for VaYeitzei (5761)

by Marc Mangel

• There are 6 parshiot between Beresheet and Toldot and 6 between VaYeitzei and VaYechi

• That, is half of the book of Genesis is from the creation of the universe to Isaac sending Jacob away and the other half is about Jacob. This is surely worthy of investigation

• Today’s portion is mainly an overview of Jacob, but one specific (where we began the triennial cycle is Ch 28, v 10: this is the first instance of prayer at night (which leads to Maariv)

• Why do we have three Patriarchs?

• Abraham is associated with chesed, and Isaac with gevurah but the world could not be created with either only chesed or with only gevurah.  A blend is needed

• Could this blend be that when we call the lad Jacob chesed dominates gevurah, but when gevurah dominates chesed we call him Israel?

• I leave the last word to the Rebbe: As it is with Jacob, so it is with us. Once we imbibed the cultural heritage of our past, we must accept the challenge of maturity, setting out to follow our destiny and making our unique contribution to bringing our world to its ultimate fulfillment in God’s plan.  Only in this way can we awaken our latent prowess and utilize our God-given talents and potentials to their fullest advantage…only thus can we ensure that the power God gave us to sanctify all facets of mundane reality manifest itself to its fullest, enabling every corner of life to become God’s true home