Further Vayeitzei Thoughts
First, a roundup from years past.
(1) From parshablog, a roundup of about 60 prior years posts, from 2012 until 2002. Since then on parshablog, in 2013, Yaakov using the Divine Name to hover 10 tefachim above the ground, thus gaining the ability to legally travel on Shabbat. And whether the duadaim were in season helping us in identifying its species. And literal kevitzat haderech, in the sense of Hashem literally folding up the ground under Yaakov.
(2) I often tell my Algorithms students that there is a hint to everything in the Torah. So Backtracking min haTorah minayin? From the beginning of Vayeitzei and the Rashi there, that Yaakov went to Charan. Yet the next event is encountering a place along the way. See my parshablog analysis of the grammar, of the midrash, and various meforshim.
The explanation made famous by Rashi is that he reached Charan, realized he hadn’t prayed at the place of the Akeida and turned to go back to correct his mistake. Then, vayifga bamakom and he bumped into the place.
Thus, he Backtracked.
(3) From a Jewish Link article (see on Scribal Error paywalled here, or the Scribal Error summary here, or on the Jewish Link website here). It begins:
There’s a story about a prominent rosh yeshiva who, in his youth, attended summer camp. Once, a Chassidishe rebbe, who was somewhat overweight, came to visit the boys. The rebbe sat down on a wicker chair but, alas, it couldn’t hold him, and it collapsed. All the boys laughed except our hero. The rebbe was impressed with the boy’s character, and asked why he hadn’t laughed. The boy explained that when he saw this happen, he thought that the rebbe was just like Yaakov Avinu. Prompted to elaborate, the boy explained that in Vayeitzei, Yaakov put several stones around his head but each stone said עָלַי יָנִיחַ צַדִּיק אֶת רֹאשׁוֹ, “Upon me the tzaddik should rest his head!” So they all miraculously joined together to form one big stone. Just so, when the rebbe sat on the wicker chair, each hole proclaimed עָלַי יָנִיחַ צַדִּיק! So they formed one big hole.
(4) This post:
(5) So, we see that in secular sources, they interpreted Yaakov’s kiss as a romantic one. That is also the straightforward reading of a censored / obscured Radak that I discussed yesterday:
Personally, I think that Radak is wrong. Much like Seinfeld’s discussion of the kiss-hello,
this was clearly a kiss relatives share when greeting one another, especially when not seeing each other in a long time. This is clear from Yaakov crying right after. Compare other Biblical kisses (as I survey in this parshablog post), where the participant weeps.
Even though I disagree with Radak, I took exception to the added words of English commentary which utterly transformed what Radak said.