Jacob realizes that the danger of staying with Laban is that he will become like him. He knows the best way to avoid this is to leave and return home. It should be remembered that Jacob has goals but he is a realist.

When we begin this week’s portion we see that Jacob is running from his brother who wants to kill him. He meets his uncle who wants to cheat him. Yet he is grateful for the gifts that God has given him.

Rachel steals Laban’s idols because she doesn’t want her father to worship idols. While her motive was good her action was not. We are not allowed to do the wrong thing for the right reason.

In this week’s portion we see Leah accusing Rachel of “stealing” Jacob when it was the other way around. This is to teach that Leah was so unhappy that she mistook their history.

The problem with our standing in the world is that we have to be careful of this who are nice to us to our faces but plot against us behind our backs.

When we first meet Jacob, he is introduced as a man who prefers to study. We think of him as weak and naive. It turns out that he is neither. This is what saves him from the individuals he will have to confront.

Isaac’s love of Esau was a act of willful blindness. He knew that Esau was far from perfect, but he could not bring himself to admit that he was not the leader that we needed.

The Torah describes Jacob of a man of the tents and complete. He was studying the wisdom of the Torah to learn how to build a righteous life. Esau was a total secularist and therefore unfit to be a leader of the Jewish people.

When Esau finds out that Jacob got the blessing of the first born he complains to his father. He neglects to tell his father that he had sold the birthright to Jacob. He was lying by omission.

Esau complains that he was tricked into selling his birthright. This is a false complaint. He knew what he was doing but was greedy for the lentils. He could not go for a short time without eating. He sold his birthright with full knowledge.