1. (31:17-21) Without telling Laban, Jacob gathers his herds and flocks and leaves. Rachel takes Laban’s teraphim (household idols).
2. (31:22-32:3) Laban pursues and overtakes Jacob. In an impassioned speech, Jacob rebukes Laban for his devious ways. Laban and Jacob make a covenant of peace.
Leah, Judah, & Thanksgiving: The Meaning Behind The Ritual
During the Fall season, we read the Book of Genesis – a spirited narrative recounting the experiences of our ancestors. In Parashat Vayetze, we find the Patriarch Jacob working in the home of his uncle Laban, laboring tirelessly to win the hand of his beloved Rachel. As we all know, he ends up with two wives, Rachel and her sister Leah. Understanding that Jacob prefers Rachel, God seeks to compensate Leah by “opening her womb,” allowing her to bear four sons. Regarding the fourth son, we read: “She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, ‘This time I will thank (odeh) the Lord.’ Therefore she named him Yehudah (English: Judah).” (Gen. 29:35) Yehudah, from the same root as todah, thanks.
It is not surprising that we, as a people, Yehudim, have come to be identified by the name of this son, Yehudah. For one of the hallmarks of the Jewish nation has been our ongoing commitment to praise the Almighty and to thank God for demonstrating a continued interest in our national destiny.
Still, when Leah chose, in naming her son, to thank God for granting her the gift of children, she demonstrated a keen awareness that God’s role is not limited to intervention in our collective affairs. Rather, it can be felt by each of us in our own lives. Leah was not simply thanking the Lord on behalf of her people — she was uttering a personal prayer of thanksgiving. Louis and Ken Goldrich (www.uscj.org)
A Psalm of thanksgiving: Raise a shout for the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Acknowledge that the Lord is God; He made us and we are His. His people, the flock He tends. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; his loving kindness is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures to all generations. Psalm 100
George Washington’s Proclamation of a Day of National Thanksgiving, October 3, 1789
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national
government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789. (www.wikepedia.org, George Washington Papers at Library of Congress.)