ארצה בני קדם, “to the land of Aram,” as we know from Isaiah 9,11.

וירא והנה באר בשדה, “when he looked, see there was a well in the field.” This whole paragraph, up to and including the line: “he rolled aside the rock,” (in verse 10) has been recorded only in order to teach us about the physical strength of Yaakov.

רובצים עליה, “were lying upon it;” in expectation of being watered.

פי הבאר והאבן גדולה על, “and the rock covering the opening of the well was large;” this was in order to prevent anything falling into the well which would contaminate its water or interfere with its free flow. It was also meant to prevent individual strangers to make use of its water.

לבן בן נחור, Lavan’s father Bethuel, was some kind of an outcast, as opposed to his grandfather. This is why the Torah here mentions only Nachor. When Lavan had moved to Charan, his father had already died, and no one there had known him. The local inhabitants welcomed Lavan on account of his well known grandfather Nachor.

לא עת האסף המקנה, “it is not yet time to bring the cattle home.” The use of the word: האסף in this context also occurs in Judges 19,18: ואין איש מאסף אותי הביתה, “and no one is willing to give me shelter in his house.”

השקו הצאן ולכו ורעו, “water the flock and proceed to let them graze.” Why would a stranger like Yaakov dare to order these shepherds around as if they were his employees? He was afraid that Rachel would join the shepherds, whereas he was interested in having a private conversation with her.

ורחל באה עם הצאן אשר לאביה כי רועה היא, “and Rachel arrived with the flocks that belonged to her father;” the reason that her older sister did not tend the flocks was that due to her sensitive eyes the air on the field was harmful for her condition. Besides, it was one way of honouring her status as being the older one that she did not have to leave the house to go to work. (according to Pessikta zutrata she was already of marriageable age.)

ויגד יעקב לרחל, “Yaakov told Rachel;” He must have identified himself already previously, or he would not have dared kiss her as is reported in verse 11. Now he told her more details about himself. כי אחי אביה הוא, “that he was a brother of her father.” After having told her this, he kissed her. Another exegesis of this sequence: Yaakov first told Rachel that he was the brother of her father in order that she should not feel insulted that he had been fresh enough to kiss her. ותגד לאביה, “she told her father.”[This is already the second time that Bethuel is described as alive; I do not understand why our author has claimed that he died before Lavan ever came to Charan, as he did on verse 5. Ed.] When Rivkah had a similar experience with Eliezer, she is reported as relating her encounter to her mother, as she did not know precisely who Eliezer was. Daughters normally keep their mothers’ company, not their father’s.

ויספר ללבן את כל הדברים האלה, “he told Lavan in detail about all these events;” i.e. how he had acquired the birthright and subsequently the blessing, in order that Lavan would agree to give him Rachel in marriage. He also told him that he had been forced to flee from his brother Esau in order to explain why he had arrived emptyhanded.

אך עצמי ובשרי אתה, “Lavan said that legally speaking he should not have given Yaakov shelter, just as his other relatives had not protected him and forced him to flee after he had cheated his brother on two separate occasions. However, “seeing that you are my own flesh and blood,I will make an exception and not kick you out.”

וישב עמו חדש ימים, “he stayed with him for a month.” The Torah uses this opportunity to teach us for how long a person must practice hospitality with his relatives. (Bereshit Rabbah 70,14) An alternate exegesis: When Lavan had heard what Yaakov had done to Esau, he was afraid to hire him until he had at least assured himself of his skills and suitability.

ויאהב יעקב את רחל, “Yaakov loved Rachel;” he already had set his eyes on her with a view to wedding her.

אעבדך, “I will serve you;” the letter ב in this word is vocalised with a chataph kametz, an abbreviated vowel kametz. (Not in our editions of the chumash).

שבע שנים, “for seven years.” He should not have offered to serve Lavan for more than a year or maximum two years. Yaakov felt that Lavan would not give him a beautiful girl such as Rachel for a relatively cheap price. He also wanted Rachel to know how highly he prized her as a wife to be. This is why he volunteered seven years of work.

ברחל בך הקטנה, “for your small daughter Rachel.” The use of the word: “the small” one, instead of “the younger one,” implied that her father did not think very highly of her. This is why she was assigned the duties of a shepherd. He volunteered to perform the duties that she had been assigned previously by being a shepherdess. An alternate exegesis: why did he add the word: ברחל. Who did not know that this was her name? Yaakov reasoned that if he were to marry Lavan’s older daughter, Esau would have another complaint against him by claiming that he had not only stolen his birthright, but also the woman designated for him as the firstborn son of Rivkah. [This seems very weak, as the Torah had already told us that Yaakov was in love with Rachel from the moment he met her. Ed.]

ויהיו בעיניו כימים אחדים, “these seven years went by for him as if they had been only a few days.” Yaakov considered having to work for seven years in order to marry Rachel, as cheap at the price, as if he had paid only the equivalent of a few days’ wages for her. This reflected how much he was in love with her. If Lavan had demanded a higher price, he would also have been willing to pay it. While engaged actively in labouring, however, he felt the opposite way and could not await the time when he would finally be united with her.

כי מלאו ימי, “for my days of labouring (for her) have been completed.” seven full years had passed. Another exegesis of this line: he hinted that the time had come for him to start his family seeing that he was already 84 years old, and was approaching old age. Use of the term in that sense is found also in Jeremiah 6,11, i.e. זקן ומלא ימים.

את זלפה שפחתו, “his servantmaid Zilpah;” how could the Torah describe them as servantmaids when they were actually Lavan’s daughters? (Compare Bereshit rabbah 74,13) We must therefore assume that the Torah used the terminology of the people at that time who described their daughters born by concubines as their servantmaids.

ויהי בבקר והנה היא לאה, “and when it was morning Yaakov found out that the woman in bed with him had been Leah;” this verse teaches us a great deal about how chaste a person Yaakov was, and that he had hardly exchanged any words with who he thought was his wife while having marital relations with her. Had he been speaking with her, surely he would have known from her voice that he had been deceived. After all, he had lived in her proximity for the last seven years, and she was no stranger to him. If you were to ask that seeing that the so called marriage ceremony was clearly invalid, as the woman under the wedding canopy had not been the one with whom he thought that he had exchanged sacred vows, we would have to answer that as soon as he found this out he had relations with her for the purpose of legalising their marriage.

ונתנה לך גם את זאת, “we will give you this one also;” the plural mode used here shows that Yaakov had not believed that Lavan would not try to trick him and had confirmed his betrothal already then in the presence of and with the consent of the local population. The entire population of Padan Arom had been a party to this deception from the start.

ויתן לו את רחל, “he gave him Rachel;” if you were to ask how Yaakov could legally have lived with two sisters, while both were alive, something forbidden by Jewish law, and according to tradition he kept the entire Torah laws, our sages have said that when a pagan undergoes conversion, all previous family relationships are retroactively cancelled (Yevamot 22), so that as soon as Leah became Yaakov’s wife, Rachel automatically had ceased to be her sister. A convert is considered as if a newly born person. An alternate exegesis: Leah and Rachel had been halfsisters sharing only their father. In Jewish law these family ties are dependent on the mother, not the father. Proof of this can be found in Deuteronomy 7,4; from here it is clear that the word בנך, “your son,” is a term that applies only to a son born by a Jewish mother, otherwise he would have been referred to as “her son.”

ויאהב גם את רחל מלאה, “Yaakov also loved Rachel more than (he loved) Leah.” What is the meaning of the word גם, “also,” in this verse? Normally a man’s first wife occupies a permanent place in his heart, more so than any subsequent wives he will take. The Torah tells us that whenever Yaakov spent time with Rachel, he enjoyed that “quality time,” more than when he spent time with Leah. This was so although his first experience of marital intimacy had been with Leah. This is hinted at by the word גם.

ילוה אישי אלי, “my husband will be more firmly connected to me.” She meant that up until now she would take her two children one with each hand, and did not need to call on her husband’s support. Now she needed to call on his support as she could not take three children by her two hands.

על כן קרא שמו לוי, “this is why he named him Levi, companion. [All the other eleven children of Yaakov were named by their mothers, Yaakov, adding a second name to the youngest whom Rachel had named ben Oni. Ed.] There is some debate about the name of Zevulun; (30,20) some commentators assume that Yaakov did not agree with Leah’s implying that he would now make his permanent residence in Leah’s tent.

ותעמד מלדת, “she was (temporarily) unable to conceive and give birth again. Seeing that several years later Leah did give birth to Dinah, the Torah chose a word (עמידה, temporary standing still) which indicated that her inability to give birth for a while was not due to her having become too old. She was not able to conceive and give birth again until after Asher had been born.