Lessons for today, Thursday, 4 Kislev, 5785 - December 5, 2024
Summary of Today's Chumash In the fifth aliyah, Yakov gets his wages for serving Lavan. Yakov proposes that Lavan remove all the streaked and spotted sheep from his flock, and Yakov will take care of the remaining sheep. Whenever one of these remaining sheep gives birth to a streaked or spotted offspring it will be for Yakov as wages. Yakov made striped poles for the sheep to view when they were drinking, and as a result they had streaked and spotted offspring, which became Yakov's. In the end, Yakov became very wealthy this way, and Lavan became poor. There are commentaries that say that when Yakov was dealing with the striped poles it was the spiritual equivalent of fulfilling the mitzvah of tefillin. |