Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
“Your friend in Karmiel”
November 28th 2025 -Volume 16 Issue 6 8th of Kislev 5786
Parshat Vayeitzei
Time to Leave?
So when is it time to leave? When is it time to just pack your bags and say enough is enough? The writing is on the wall. It’s time just get out. And I’m not talking about moving from Brooklyn to Miami either, or from Hungary to Poland, or from Spain to Portugal or from London to Paris. That, history has shown us is just pushing off the generally very short term inevitable. My question is when is it finally time to come home?
The truth is, this isn’t my question. I’m already here. The Geula and Mashiach aren’t here yet, We’ve got a long way to go till we get here. Not long in time hopefully, just that lots still has to happen. But I’m already here in the place that it’s meant to and going to happen. It’s just a matter of waiting it out and riding those exciting and sometimes frightening waves until it’s all over, or perhaps more accurately until it all begins. The question is really one that I hear many, many, many of my clients, my friends, my former students and neighbors and my brothers and sisters are asking. Although, my own immediate family don’t for some reason seem to be asking it yet…Maybe they’re counting on me to pull some strings and sneak ’em in here at the last moment. Kind of like the angels grabbing Lot and his wife and kids and pulling them out before the fire and brimstone show begins. But everyone else fantastically and even prophetically and miraculously seem to be starting to have more serious discussions about the topic. Maybe it’s time. Maybe we should do it. Maybe it’s not as crazy and far out as we thought it would be. Can we make it work? Is it time to give it a shot? Is this what Hashem wants us to do? Is the game almost over?
Now there are no angels that are coming down to us today and telling us what to do. There are no prophets. There haven’t been for a long time. Each one of us need to have a Rabbi, a mentor, a spiritual guide who’s advice we cherish. Someone who know each of us and are families and at the same time appreciate what’s going on in our lives, in our communities and in Eretz Yisrael today to give us the direction and guidance of what we should be doing. If you don’t have a person like that in your life, which sadly too many do not, then in general you’re in trouble. But no worries. I’m here for you. I’m taking on new clients. I’m open for business. One tour with me, and I’m your Rabbi for life. The truth is, you don’t even have to take a tour, just sponsor this E-Mail one week, and I’ll help you as well.
But for those that don’t have that Rabbi and aren’t coming on a tour, another fantastic way I’ve found to get guidance in life is to check out the weekly Parsha. The Baal Ha’Tanya would say it is like one’s daily newspaper. It’s speaking to us today and now and it always has. It can even be your own personal horoscope. Each yid has a letter in the Torah and that letter isn’t one of the 22 aleph beis letters. It’s a handwritten letter from Hashem that is meant to guide us. Our job is to just rip open the envelop and start reading it as such.
Well when it comes to the leaving galus question though there is no better parsha than this week’s of Vayeitzei. Yaakov Avinu is that first Jew that is in galus for an extended time as our sages tell us ma’asei avos siman la’banim– his story is ours. His exile embodies all of our future exiles and his return contains all of the elements of when and how we should return and perhaps the struggles that we have with that very question. It’s a parsha that is called Va’yeitzei and he went out. It’s a parsha about going and the question of when to come.
Now before we get to the coming back though, we need to understand the going out from Israel first. If you don’t know why you left, then it’s hard to know when, why, and how we should come back. Yaakov leaves because his parents tell him that he’s in danger for his life. That’s usually a good reason to leave. A clear and present danger and your parents who happen to be prophets tell you it’s time to go. Ther reason for the danger, not so incidentally is because Yaakov steals the blessings. Rather than standing up, as Rivkah kind of originally suggests him to do and to just go on in and Yitzchak with some food and tell him that he wants them. He deserves them. They belong to him. He’s the rightful heir.
Yaakov is too nervous and resorts to Plan B, which is getting them through subterfuge. He dresses up like Esau. He pretends he’s someone he’s not. That he’s politically correct. That he’s a democracy. That he’s a hunter. He may’ve been successful in pulling the wool he put on his arms over Yitzchak’s nearly blinded eyes. But that voice of Yaakov almost always betrays us. It reveals who we really are. And it forces us to go into galus and become the proud Jew that can take that role straight up. That can be Yisrael, who leads and conquers the angel of Esau. That can lift up the world and reveal Hashem, without any qualms or fear of repercussions or of our message being accepted.
So now we know why he’s in galus, the question then becomes though when to leave. Yaakov works for his 14 years and he finally has son number 11. Yosef is born. Yosef, Rashi tells us is the ultimate flame to Esau’s straw man. He has the power to set the whole Edomite kingdom on fire. He will tell Pharaoh unabashedly that Hashem is the only one that can reveal dreams. That it’s all about Hashem. He can do nothing without Him. And let the chips fall where they may. Yaakov feels empowered with that birth and he makes the hard decision to move home. To make Aliya. To bring this 14 years galus to an end and bring the children of Israel to the Holy Land promised to our family for the first time. But then something bizarrely changes. He meets with Lavan and he decides to hang out for another 6 years and make some money first. What is going on? Is it time or not? Is Yaakov selling out for a few bucks. Is parnassa a legitimate excuse to stay in galus. To ride it out for longer. A few more sheep? Some camels? Some more slaves? Another nursing home? An extension on your house? A summer home in the country? Better meat boards and real steak, not that entrecote thing they try to sell you back in Jerusalem.
The truth of the matter is the story seems even more perplexing as we go through it. If Yaakov is in fact sticking around for the money, then what’s pshat with this pretty crazy and ridiculous deal he cuts with Lavan. One doesn’t have to be Donald Trump or even have read “The Art of the Deal” to understand that Yaakov is in a good negotiating position. Lavan seems to have admitted to Yaakov that Hashem blessed him because of him. That the key to his successful cattle empire is all due to Yaakov. He even tells Yaakov to write his own check. “How much do you want and I’ll give it to you” the verse tells us. So why doesn’t Yaakov just ask for a 50/50 cut. For a new car, for easier hours, for profit sharing shares. What’s this whole mishigas with spotted/striped seemingly leftover blemished lambchops?
Moving further on into this story it gets even more bizarre and perplexing. Yaakov takes on his new sheep mating habits job with a vengeance, like only a good smart Jew can do. He comes up with new hi-tech solutions. He develops new artificial genetic modification methods. He’s revolutionizing the industry. He’s reinvesting his dividends. He’s expanding his portfolio. He’s exploding in new found wealth like the best Lakewood guy during Corona. Slaves, camels, Teslas, and private planes. He’s rocking this new world. The man of the tent has come out of the Bais Medrash and has made it big. Listen I’m sure he was sending his kids to Brisk and he avoided lace shaitels and even had a kosher phone and he was supporting Torah like he never did before. But at the end of the day, he probably could’ve hung out there for a lot longer until something changed. Actually two things changed. The first it doesn’t chap right away. The second though, makes it kind of hard to avoid.
The Torah tells us that in three pesukim what changes. The first pasuk of chapter 31 tells us
“And Yaakov heard the words of the children of Lavan saying Yaakov took all that our father has, and it is from what our father has that he has made all of this honor.”
There are two things that are fascinating and telling about this verse. The first is that Yaakov didn’t chap this on his own. It’s only when he read these anti-Semitic canards in the morning newspapers and on the daily blogs and whatsapp groups that he received that he began to see the anti-Semitism that was always out there. “The Jew is getting rich off our system and taking all of our benefits” sentiment he was breeding with his new found wealth just never occurred to him, until “he heard what they were saying“.
The second thing is that even when he did hear that, it didn’t really affect him so much, and convince him that he should be making plans to leave. He probably just wrote it off to a few fringe elements on the right and the left. At the end of the day. Lavan was his father-in-law. He had Jewish grandchildren… (sound familiar?). Yaakov voted for him. He contributed to his campaign. He made him rich. He made him powerful when nobody else backed him up. That changes when the next verse tells us about the next thing that changes.
“And Yaakov saw the face of Lavan and it wasn’t like it was a day or two ago”.
Uh oh. Hamdani is in the Bayit Ha’Lavan. So is that terrorist from Syria. We’re talking two State solution. Maybe Hamas doesn’t need to get destroyed. Tucker’s not such a bad guy. This is not the same person’s face we saw a few days ago. Maybe this is the point Yaakov should pick up and leave. But guess what? He doesn’t. He’s got too many business interests. It may not be right for his kids. Who knows if they will acclimate to the holy land? Maybe things will change with Lavan. Maybe Israel is still too dangerous to move to. And thus we get to the next step.
“And Hashem tells Yaakov ‘Return to the land of his fathers and his birthplace and I will be with you“.
From Holy Land Insights, here.