Weekly D'rash Vayetze

Art by Steffi Rubin

“Cease striving and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

Jacob “went out” (Gen. 28:10) not in confidence but in fear—running from Esau, from rejection, from his past, and from the belief that he wasn’t worthy of God’s blessing.

Though God had chosen him before birth (Gen. 25:23), Jacob grew up shaped by painful dynamics: a father who preferred Esau, a mother who controlled him, a brother who threatened him, and later an uncle who exploited him. Jacob learned to survive by scheming and striving.

At Bethel, when Jacob was alone and afraid, heaven opened.

He saw a stairway, angels ascending and descending, and the LORD above it saying:

• “I am with you.”

• “I will keep you.”

• “I will bring you back.”

• “I will not leave you.”

  
  

Yeshua later identifies Himself as this ladder (John 1:51)—the living connection between heaven and earth.

Jacob responds with hesitant, conditional faith: “If God will be with me…” Yet God receives even this wounded faith and begins reshaping him.

Haran, the rabbis note, sounds like חֲרוֹן (wrath). It becomes Jacob’s furnace of transformation—years of labor, deception, rivalry, and hardship. Yet God later says: “I have given you the flock” (Gen. 31:12). Even Jacob’s successes were God’s gifts.

The turning point comes when God says, “Return.” Jacob finally stops striving and begins trusting.

So the God of Bethel says to us: Return. Stop striving. Trust My grace. Come home.

Shabbat Shalom.