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Parshat Vayeytze
2001
Genesis 30:37-43
37. Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots. 38. The rods that he had peeled he set up in front of the goats in the troughs, the water receptacles that the goats came to drink from. Their mating occurred when they came to drink, 39. and since the goats mated by the rods, the goats brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young. 40. But Jacob dealt separately with the sheep; he made these animals face the streaked or wholly dark-colored animals in Laban's flock. And so he produced special flocks for himself, which he did not put with Laban's flocks. 41. Moreover, when the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they mated by the rods; 42 but with the feebler animals he would not place them there. Thus the feeble ones went to Laban and the sturdy to Jacob. 43 So the man grew exceedingly prosperous, and came to own large flocks, maidservants and menservants, camels and asses.
To make the offspring of the remainder of the flock mottled, Jacob has the animals drink before striped and mottled tree limbs. Consequently, the flocks gave birth to mottled and striped sheep and goats. Having thus increased his fortune, Jacob and his family set off on their own.
Your animal husbandry navigator:
1. This parasha spends a great number of verses on breeding techniques, and by extension, the laws of genetics. Why are so many verses devoted to this when fewer verses are devoted to other subjects that are seemingly more important?
2. Jacob knows that Laban has once again tricked him by taking the sheep and goats they had agreed would be Jacob's. Why does Jacob choose to regain what is rightfully his through breeding instead of trying to reclaim the animals that were taken?
3. Does Jacob believe that putting the rods and sticks in front of the flocks will influence the way their offspring look?
A Word
There is a shaggy dog story about a man who refuses to leave his house when his town is taken over by a flood. At first, a police car comes by, warning and then urging the townspeople to find safe harbor. As the water gets higher, a rescue boat comes and urges the man to leave his home. As water fills the first floor and he is forced to take refuge on the second floor of his home, the police boat comes around again. Finally, with the water coming so high as to fill his entire home, the man takes refuge on the roof. When a rescue helicopter arrives, he again refuses the help. Each time, he tells his rescuers not to worry, God will help him. As the story ends, the entire house is engulfed in water and the flood carries the man to his death. As he meets God he says that he had faith that God would help him, and suggests that his death is proof that God has failed him. God responds, "I sent two cars, two boats and a helicopter, what did you expect?"
Jacob understood that God was responsible for providing him with an inheritance as he told Rachel: "God rescued your father's cattle and gave them to me" (Genesis 31: 9). However, he also understood that he had to work to make his inheritance real.
There are two famous quotes that speak to this point:
"I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." -Thomas Jefferson,
"Praying to win the lottery only works when you first buy a
ticket!"
These verses do not come to teach us difficult scientific lessons about heredity and dominant and recessive genes but rather serve to remind us of a simple, but very important lesson: that we are partners in creation with God. In this way they are both humbling and empowering.
Prepared by Rabbi Toby Manewith, Director of Hillel's She'arim - Gateways Initiative.
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