page_title: Vayishlach
section_title: First reading — Genesis 32:4–13
hierarchical_section_title: Vayishlach / Readings / First reading — Genesis 32:4–13
context_page_description: Vayishlach or Vayishlah is the eighth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. In the parashah, Jacob reconciles with Esau after wrestling with a "man". The prince Shechem rapes Dinah, whose brothers sack the city of Shechem in revenge. In the family's subsequent flight, Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies in childbirth.
  The parashah constitutes Genesis 32:4–36:43. The parashah has the most verses of any weekly Torah portion in the Book of Genesis. It is made up of 7,458 Hebrew letters, 1,976 Hebrew words, 153 verses, and 237 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the eighth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in November or December.
context_section_description: In the first reading (עליה‎, aliyah), Jacob sent a message to Esau in Edom that he had stayed with Laban until then, had oxen, donkeys, flocks, and servants, and hoped to find favor in Esau's sight. The messengers returned and greatly frightened Jacob with the report that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. Jacob divided his camp in two, reasoning that if Esau destroyed one of the two, then the other camp could escape. Jacob prayed to God, recalling that God had promised to return him whole to his country, noting his unworthiness for God's transformation of him from a poor man with just a staff to the leader of two camps, and prayed God to deliver him from Esau, as God had promised Jacob good and to make his descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea. The first reading (עליה‎, aliyah) ends here.
caption: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1659 painting by Rembrandt)
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