Parashat Vayetzei and Thanksgiving,

There is no doubt that Thanksgiving is going to look very different this year, which means we will all probably have to work that much harder to connect with loved ones whom we would normally be feasting with around a communal table. It seems particularly fitting that Parashat Vayetzei is falling during the week of Thanksgiving this year, as this parashah is all about complex family dynamics — the good, the bad, and the ugly — and can serve as a model for either how to, or how not to, act as a functioning member of a strong family unit. The parashah opens with Yaakov fleeing from his family home after receiving the birthright blessing from his father Yitzhak — the blessing that he traded his older brother Esav for in exchange for a bowl of lentil soup. Yaakov is off to find a wife and begin a new life for himself, one where his brother cannot easily find him and seek revenge for their uneven trade-off. After a lengthy journey that included Yaakov’s famous dream sequence of angels ascending and descending from a ladder to Heaven, he finally arrives to Paddan-Aram, where he hopes to find a wife among the daughters of his uncle Lavan. 


It is there where he meets Rachel, Lavan’s youngest daughter, and it’s love at first sight. Yaakov agrees to work for Lavan for seven years in order to marry Rachel. Once the seven years are up, Yaakov believes that he will finally get to marry his beloved. However, Lavan switches his daughters before the wedding and sends Leah, his oldest daughter, down the aisle instead. Yaakov, who now knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a deception, agrees to work an additional seven years for the chance to marry Rachel. His efforts finally pay off and he marries the woman he intended to marry so many years before. 


This parashah is born out of a feud between two brothers and ends with two sisters trying to live peacefully under one roof. Even if circumstances were not always ideal, Yaakov, his wives and their combined thirteen children find ways to live and thrive as a cohesive family unit that serves as the origin for the Nation of Israel. This year, maybe more than ever before, it is so important to take what might be less than ideal circumstances and turn them into an opportunity to strengthen our familial bonds. Whether in person or virtually, I pray that we can all find ways to connect with our loved ones and renew the resilience and joy that our family dynamics can bring us. 


Shabbat Shalom!