פָּרָשַׁת וַיִּשְׁלַח

Parshat Vayishlach tells us about Yaakov's return to the land and the trials that meet him there. Yaakov sends messengers to Esav and learns that his brother is coming with four hundred men. Afraid, he divides his camp, prays to Hashem, and sends a large gift ahead. Alone at night by the Yabok he wrestles with a man until dawn, is struck in the hip, and receives the name Yisrael, because he struggled with G-d and with men and prevailed; from this the children of Yisrael do not eat the gid hanasheh. In the morning Esav runs to him, embraces him, and they weep; Esav accepts the gift, and the brothers part in peace, Esav to Seir and Yaakov to Sukkot and then to Shechem, where he buys land and builds an altar.

In Shechem, Dinah is taken and violated by the prince of the city. Her brothers answer the offer of marriage with a condition — that every male be circumcised — and on the third day Shimon and Levi kill all the men of the city and take Dinah back; Yaakov rebukes them for endangering the family. Hashem sends Yaakov up to Beit El, where he buries the foreign gods, builds an altar, and Hashem again names him Yisrael and confirms the blessing of Avraham and Yitzchak. On the road to Efrat, Rachel dies giving birth to Binyamin and is buried at Beit Lechem. Yaakov reaches his father in Chevron; Yitzchak dies at 180 and both sons bury him. The parsha ends with the generations of Esav, the chiefs and kings of Edom, before the Torah turns to the family of Yaakov.