page_title: Vayetze
section_title: Fourth reading — Genesis 30:14–27
hierarchical_section_title: Vayetze / Readings / Fourth reading — Genesis 30:14–27
caption_attribution_description: English: A Shepherd. Caption: "This is a shepherd leading his sheep. He is carrying a lamb in his arms." Illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us: Containing 400 Illustrations from the Old and New Testaments: With brief descriptions by Charles Foster
context_page_description: Vayetze, Vayeitzei, or Vayetzei is the seventh weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 28:10–32:3. The parashah tells of Jacob's travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parashah recounts Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob's meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob's time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob's children, and the departure of Jacob's family from Laban.
  The parashah is made up of 7,512 Hebrew letters, 2,021 Hebrew words, 148 verses, and 235 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the seventh Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in November or December.
context_section_description: In the fourth reading (עליה, aliyah), Reuben found some mandrakes and brought them to Leah. Rachel asked Leah for the mandrakes, and when Leah resisted, Rachel agreed that Jacob would sleep with Leah that night in exchange for the mandrakes. When Jacob came home that evening, Leah told him that he had to sleep with her because she had hired him with the mandrakes, and he did. God heeded Leah and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son, and called him Issachar, saying that God had given her a reward. Leah bore Jacob a sixth son and called him Zebulun, saying that God had endowed her with a good dowry. And afterwards Leah bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah. God heeded Rachel and she conceived and bore a son and called him Joseph, invoking God to add another son. Then Jacob asked Laban to allow him, his wives, and his children to return to his own country. Laban conceded that God had blessed him for Jacob's sake. The fourth reading (עליה, aliyah) ends here.
caption: A Shepherd (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster)
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