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The following is a sharing
of translation of the weekly Torah study into understandable English.
Words and names have a meaning that is missed when they are left
un-translated unless you understand Hebrew very well. These studies are
for those who are not proficient in the Hebrew language. It is suggested
that when you read these studies that you read along with a version that
is familiar to you. Please share your insight, ask questions or dispute
this translation by replying to channahwolf@gmail.com
Parashah
Vayishlach
Torah Portion: Bereshit (Gen) 32:4 - 36:43
1: 32:4-13 (10 verses)
2: 32:14-30 (17 verses)
3: 32:31-33:5 (8 verses)
4: 33:6-20 (15 verses)
5: 34:1-35:11 (42 verses)
6: 35:12-36:19 (37 verses)
7: 36:20-43 (24 verses)
Haftarah for Sephardim: Obadiah 1:1 - 1:21
Reading One
Chapter
32
4
And Supplanter sent messengers before him to Hairy his brother, to
Redfield in
Rough
Land
.
5
And he commanded them, saying: 'You shall say this to my master, Hairy:
This is what your servant Supplanter says: I have abided with Whitey and
stayed until now.
6
And I have oxen, and asses and flocks, and men-servants and
maid-servants; and I have sent messengers to tell this to my master, so
that I may find favor in your sight.'
7
And the messengers returned to Supplanter, saying: 'We came to your
brother Hairy, and moreover, he comes to meet you with four hundred
men.'
8
Then Supplanter was greatly afraid and was distressed. And he divided
the people that were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the
camels, into two camps.
9
And he said: 'If Hairy comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the
camp which is left shall escape.'
10
And Supplanter said: 'O Mighty of my father, Father of Nations, and
Mighty of my father Laughter, O ETERNAL, who said to me: Return to your
country, and to your relatives, and I will do well for you;
11
I am not worthy of all the mercies, and of all the faithfulness, which
You have shown to Your servant; for with nothing but my staff I passed
over this Descender; and now I have become two camps.
12
Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Hairy;
for I fear him, lest he come and kill me and the mothers along with the
children.
13
And You said: I will surely do well for you and make your seed as the
sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'
Reading
Two
14
And he lodged there that night; and took a present for Hairy his brother
from that which he had with him:
15
two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty
rams and
16
thirty camels and their nursing colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty
female-asses and ten foals.
17
And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, each drove by
itself; and said to his servants: 'Pass over before me, and put a space
between drove and drove.'
18
And he commanded the first, saying: 'When Hairy my brother meets you,
and asks you, saying: Who do you belong to and where are you going? To
whom do these animals belong?
19
Then you shall say: They belong to your servant Supplanter, who has
said; ‘These are a present sent to my master, Hairy’, and now
behold, he also is behind us.'
20
And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed
the droves, saying: 'In this manner shall you speak to Hairy, when you
find him;
21
and you shall say: ‘Moreover, look, your servant Supplanter is behind
us.' For he said: 'I will appease him with the present that goes before
me, afterward I will see his face and perhaps he will accept me.'
22
So the gift of animals passed over before him; and he himself lodged
that night in the camp.
23
And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two slave
girls, and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of the Pouring
forth.
24
And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that
which he had.
25
And Supplanter was left alone; and there wrestled with an individual
until the coming of dawn.
26
And when he saw that he could not over power Supplanter, he touched the
joint of his thigh; and the joint of Supplanter's thigh was dislocated,
as he wrestled with him.
27
And he said: 'Let me go, for the dawn has come.' And Supplanter said: 'I
will not let you go, except you bless me.'
28
And he said to him: 'What is your name?' And he said: 'Supplanter.'
29
And he said: 'Your name shall be called no more Supplanter, but
Persevere as Mighty (
Israel); for you have contended with a Mighty and with men, and have
prevailed.'
30
And Supplanter asked him, and said: 'Tell me, I pray you, your name.'
And he said: 'Why is it that you ask my name?' And he blessed him there.
Reading
Three
31
And Supplanter called the name of the place Facing Mighty: 'for I have
seen Mighty face to face, and my life is preserved.'
32
And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Facing Mighty, and he limped
because of his thigh.
33
Therefore the children of Persevere as Mighty do not eat the tendon of
the sciatic nerve which is upon the joint of the thigh, to this day;
because he touched the hollow of Supplanter's thigh, even in the tendon
of the thigh-joint.
Chapter
33
1
And Supplanter lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Hairy came,
and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children to Weary, and
to Ewe, and to the two slave girls.
2
And he put the slave girls and their children foremost, and Weary and
her children after, and Ewe and ETERNAL Has Added last.
3
And he himself passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground
seven times, as he was coming near to his brother.
4
And Hairy ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him; and they wept.
5
And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said:
'Who are these with you?' And he said: 'The children whom Mighty has
graciously given your servant.'
Reading
Four
6
Then the slave girls came near, they and their children, and they bowed
down.
7
And Weary also and her children came near, and bowed down; and after
came ETERNAL Has Added and Ewe came near and they bowed down.
8
And he said: 'What do you mean by all this camp which I met?' And he
said: 'To find favor in the sight of my master.'
9
And Hairy said: 'I have enough; my brother, let that which you have
remain yours.'
10
And Supplanter said: 'No, I pray you, if I have now found favor in your
sight, then receive my present at my hand; forasmuch as I have seen your
face, as one sees the face of Mighty, and you were pleased with me.
11
Take, I pray you, my gift that is brought to you; because Mighty has
dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.' And he urged him,
and he took it.
12
And he said: 'Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go
before you.'
13
And he said to him: 'My master, you know that the children are of a
tender age, and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me;
and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
14
Let my master, please, pass over before his servant; and I will journey
on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and
according to the pace of the children, until I come to my master in
Rough
Land
.'
15
And Hairy said: 'Let me now leave with you some of the folk that are
with me? ' And he said: We do not need it. Let me find favor in the
sight of my master.'
16
So Hairy returned that day on his way to
Rough
Land
.
17
And Supplanter journeyed to Booths, and built him a house, and made
shelter booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called
Booths.
18
And Supplanter came in peace to
Ridge
City
, which is in the Lowlands, when he came from Fields of the
Highlands
; and encamped before that city.
19
And he bought a portion of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the
hand of the children of He-Ass, Strong Back's father, for a hundred
pieces of silver.
20
And he erected there an altar and called it ‘Mighty, the Mighty of the
one who-Perseveres as Mighty.
Reading
Five
Chapter
34
1 And Judgment the
daughter of Weary, whom she had borne to Supplanter, went out to see the
daughters of the land.
2
And Strong Back, the son of He-Ass, the Villagers, the prince of the
land, saw her and he took her, and lay with her and humbled her.
3
And he clung to Judgment, the daughter of Supplanter, and he loved the
girl, and spoke comfortingly to the girl.
4
And Strong Back spoke to his father He-Ass, saying: 'Get me this girl to
be my woman.'
5
Now Supplanter heard that he had defiled Judgment, his daughter; and his
sons were with his cattle in the field; and Supplanter held his peace
until they came.
6
And He-Ass, the father of Strong Back went out to Supplanter to speak
with him.
7
And the sons of Supplanter came in from the field when they heard it;
and the men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done
a vile deed in the presence of Persevere as Mighty by lying with
Supplanter's daughter; for such a thing should not be done.
8
And He-Ass spoke with them, saying, ‘My son Strong Back, longs for
your daughter. I pray you give her to him to be his woman.
9
And you make arrangements with us; give your daughters to us and take
our daughters to you.
10
And you shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you; you may
dwell and trade you therein and gain possessions in the land.'
11
And Strong Back said to the father of Judgment and to her brothers: 'Let
me find favor in your eyes and what you shall ask of me I will give.
12
Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as you
shall say to me; but give me the girl to be my woman.'
13
And the sons of Supplanter answered Strong Back and He-Ass his father
with guile, and spoke, because he had defiled Judgment, their sister,
14
and said to them: 'We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one
that is uncircumcised; for that is a disgrace to us.
15
Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will be as we are,
that every male of you be circumcised;
16
then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters
to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
17
But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised; then we will take
our daughter and we will be gone.'
18
And their words pleased He-Ass, and Strong Back, He-Ass's son.
19
And the young man agreed to be circumcised because he had delight in
Supplanter's daughter. And he was honored above all the house of his
father.
20
And He-Ass and Strong Back, his son came to the gate of their city, and
spoke with the men of their city, saying:
21
'These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land
and trade; for, look, the land is large enough for them; let us take
their daughters to us to be our women and let us give them our
daughters.
22
Only on this condition will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to
become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are
circumcised.
23
Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours?
Now let us consent to them and they will dwell with us.'
24
And to He-Ass and to Strong Back, his son; all that went out of the gate
of his city listened; and every male was circumcised, all that went out
of the gate of his city.
25
And it happened on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of
the sons of Supplanter, Hearing and Attached, Judgment's brothers, each
took his sword, and came upon the city safely, and killed all the males.
26
And they killed He-Ass and Strong Back, his son with the edge of the
sword, and took Judgment out of Strong Back's house and left.
27
The sons of Supplanter came upon the slain, and spoiled the city,
because they had defiled their sister.
28
They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that which
was in the city and that which was in the fields,
29
all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, took they
captive and spoiled, everything that was within.
30
And Supplanter said to Hearing and Attached: 'You have troubled me, to
make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, even to the Zealots and
the Villagers; and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves
together against me and kill me; and I shall be destroyed, both me and
my house.'
31
And they said: 'Should one deal with our sister as with a prostitute?'
Chapter
35
1
And Mighty said to Supplanter: 'Arise, go up to The House of the Mighty,
and dwell there; and make there an altar to Mighty, who appeared to you
when you fled from the face of Hairy, your brother.'
2
Then Supplanter said to his household, and to all that were with him:
'Put away the strange mighty ones that are among you, and purify
yourselves, and change your garments;
3
let us arise, and go up to The House of the Mighty; and I will make
there an altar to MIGHTY, who answered me in the day of my distress, and
was with me in the way which I went.'
4
And they gave to Supplanter all the ‘foreign mighty ones’ which were
in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Supplanter
hid them under the Great Oak which was by Strong Back.
5
And they journeyed; and a fear of MIGHTY was upon the cities that were
round them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Supplanter.
6
So Supplanter came to
Almond-tree, which is in the
Lowlands
(the place called The House of the Mighty) he and all the people that
were with him.
7
And he built there an altar, and called the place ‘The Mighty House of
the Mighty’, because there MIGHTY was revealed to him, when he fled
from the face of his brother.
8
And Daze's nurse, Bee, died and she was buried beneath The House of the
Mighty under the oak; and the name of it was called Weeping Oak.
9
And the MIGHTY one appeared to Supplanter again, when he came from High
Field, and blessed him.
10
And the MIGHTY said to him: 'Your name is Supplanter: your name shall
not be called any more Supplanter, but ‘Persevere as Mighty’ shall
be your name”; and He called his name Persevere as Mighty.
11
And the MIGHTY said to him: 'I am the MIGHTY, AlMighty. Be fruitful and
multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings
shall come out of your loins;
Reading
Six
12
and
the land which I gave to Father of Nations and Laughter, to you I will
give it, and to your seed after you will I give the land.'
13
And the MIGHTY went up from him in the place where He spoke with him.
14
And Supplanter set up a memorial in the place where He spoke with him, a
memorial of stone, and he poured out a drink-offering thereon, and
poured oil thereon.
15
And Supplanter called the name of the place where the MIGHTY spoke with
him, The House of the Mighty.
16
And they journeyed from The House of the Mighty; and there was still
some way to come to Fruitfulness; and Ewe was distressed and she had
hard labor.
17
And it happened that, when she was in hard labor, her helper said to
her: 'Fear not; for this also is a son for you.'
18
And it came to pass, as her breath was in departing (for there she died)
that she called his name Son of Sorrows; but his father called him (in
Hebrew, Benyamin or) Son of the Right.
19
And Ewe died, and was buried in the way to Fruitfulness (or called Beth-lehem
meaning house of bread).
20
And Supplanter set up a memorial upon her grave; the same is the
memorial of Ewe's grave to this day.
21
And Persevere as Mighty journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the Flock
Overlook.
22
And it came to pass, while Persevere as Mighty dwelled in that land,
that Behold a Son went and lay with Troubled, his father's concubine;
and Persevere as Mighty heard of it. Now the sons of Supplanter were
twelve:
23
the sons of Weary: Behold a Son, Supplanter's first-born, and Hearing,
and Attached, and Praised, and Recompense, and Exalted;
24
the sons of Ewe: ETERNAL Has Added and Son of the Right;
25
and the sons of Troubled, Ewe's slave girl: Judge and Struggle;
26
and the sons of Droplets of Myrrh, Weary's slave girl: Troop and Happy.
These are the sons of Supplanter that were born to him in High Field.
27
And Supplanter came to Laughter his father to Strength, to
Square
City
(the same is Association--where Father of Nations and Laughter had
sojourned.
28
And the days of Laughter were a hundred and eighty years.
29
And Laughter died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days;
and Hairy and Supplanter his sons buried him.
Chapter
36
1
Now these are the generations of Hairy--the same is known as Red.
2
Hairy took his wives of the daughters of
Lowlands
; Ornament, the daughter of Oak Grove the Terrorist, and Conspicuous
Height, the daughter of Answer, the daughter of Colored, of the
Villagers,
3
and Spice the daughter of The Mighty Hears, the sister of Heights.
4
And Ornament bore to Hairy, My Mighty Is of Fine Gold; and Spice bore
Friend of Mighty;
5
and Conspicuous Height bore, ‘Quick to Aid’, and Concealed, and
Shaven. These are the sons of Hairy that were born to him in the
Lowlands
.
6
And Hairy took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the
souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his
possessions, which he had gathered in the
Lowlands
; and went into a land, away from his brother, Supplanter.
7
For their substance was too great for them to dwell together; and the
land of their abiding could not support them because of their cattle.
8
And Hairy dwelled in the mountains of
Rough
Land
(Hairy is also known as Red).
9
And these are the generations of Hairy, the father of the Reds in the
mountains of Rough-Land.
10
These are the names of Hairy's sons: My Mighty is Fine Gold, the son of
Ornament, the woman of Hairy, Friend of Mighty, the son of Spice, also
woman of Hairy.
11
And the sons of ‘My Mighty is Fine Gold’ were South, Eloquent,
Watchman, and
Charred
Valley
, as well as Hunter.
12
And Restrained was concubine to My Mighty is Fine Gold, Hairy's son; and
she bore to My Mighty is Fine Gold, Valley Dweller. These are the sons
of Ornament, Hairy's woman.
13
And these are the sons of Friend of Mighty: Quiet, and Rising Light,
Ruin, and Fear. These were the sons of Hairy's woman Spice.
14
And these were the sons of Conspicuous Height the daughter of Answer,
the daughter of Colored, one of Hairy's women; and she gave birth to
Quick to Aid, and Concealed, and Shaven.
15
These are the chiefs of the sons of Hairy: the sons of ‘My Mighty is
Fine Gold’ the first-born of Hairy: the chief of South, the chief of
Eloquent, the chief of Watchman, the chief of Hunter,
16
the chief of Shaven, the chief of
Charred
Valley
, the chief of Valley Dweller. These are the chiefs that came of My
Mighty is Fine Gold in the
land
of
Red.
These are the sons of Ornament.
17
And these are the sons of Friend of Mighty, who is Hairy's son: the
chief of Quiet, the chief of Rising Light, the chief of Ruin, the chief
of Fear. These are the chiefs that came of Friend of Mighty in the
land
of
Red.
These are the sons of Spice Hairy's woman.
18
And these are the sons of Conspicuous Height Hairy's woman: the chief of
Quick to Aid, the chief of Concealed, the chief of Shaven. These are the
chiefs that came of Conspicuous Height the daughter of Answer, Hairy's
woman.
19
These are the sons of Hairy the same is Red, and these are their chiefs.
Reading
Seven
20
These are the sons of Rough Land the Cave Dweller, the inhabitants of
the land: Covering and Overflowing Colored and Answer,
21
and Gazelle and Treasure and Thresher. These are the chiefs of the Cave
Dwellers, the children of
Rough
Land
, in the
land
of
Red.
22
And the children of Covering were Cave Dweller and Exterminator; and
Covering's sister was Restrained.
23
And these are the children of Overflowing: Tail, Rest, Shaven, Bold and
Vigorous.
24
And these are the children of Colored both Falcon and Answer--this is
Answer who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he fed the asses
of his father, Colored.
25
And these are the children of Answer: Thresher and Conspicuous Height
who was the daughter of Answer.
26
And these are the children of Thresher: Desire and Vigorous and
Excellent and Lyre.
27
These are the children of Treasure: Timid and Anxiety and Oppressor.
28
These are the children of Thresher: Woody and Cheerful.
29
These are the chiefs that came of the Cave Dwellers: the chief of
Covering, the chief of Overflowing, the chief of Colored, the chief of
Answer,
30
the chief of Thresher, the chief of Treasure, the chief of Thresher.
These are the chiefs that came of the Cave Dwellers, according to their
chiefs in the
land
of
Rough
Land.
31
And these are the kings that reigned in the
land
of
Red
, before there any king reigned over the children of Persevere as
Mighty.
32
And Destruction, the son of Burning reigned in Red; and the name of his
city was Rendered Judgment.
33
And Destruction died, and Howler the son of Rising Light of Fortress
reigned in his stead.
34
And Howler died, and Hasty of the South land reigned in his stead.
35
And Hasty died, and Commander, the son of Solitary, who cut down Strife
in the field of Son of Incest, reigned in his stead; and the name of his
city was Ruins.
36
And Commander died, and Mantle of Noble Vines reigned in his stead.
37
And Mantle died, and Beggar of Broadway by the River reigned in his
stead.
38
And Beggar died, and Gracious Master, the son of Mouse reigned in his
stead.
39
And Gracious Master, the son of Mouse died, and Honor reigned in his
stead; and the name of the city was Screamer; and his woman's name was
Mighty Pleasing, the daughter of Propulsive, the daughter of Liquid
Gold.
40
And these are the names of the chiefs that came of Hairy, according to
their families, after their places, by their names: the chief of
Restrained, the chief of Evil, the chief of Nail;
41
the chief of Conspicuous Height, the chief of Oak, the chief of
Darkness;
42
the chief of Hunter, the chief of South, the chief of Fortress;
43
the chief of Prince of Mighty, the chief of Urban. These are the chiefs
of Red, according to their habitations in the land of their possession.
This is Hairy the father of the Reds.
Obadiah
Chapter 1
HafTarah
1
The vision of a ‘Servant of ETERNAL’, (or Obadiah in Hebrew). This
is what the ETERNAL Master says concerning Red: We have heard a message
from Mighty, and an ambassador is sent among the nations: 'Arise you,
and let us rise up against her in battle.'
2
Behold, I make you small among the nations; you are greatly despised.
3
The pride of your heart has beguiled you, O you that dwell in the clefts
of the rock, your habitation on high; that says in your heart: 'Who
shall bring me down to the ground?'
4
You make your nest as high as the eagle, and you set it among the stars,
I will bring you down from there, says Mighty.
5
If thieves came to you, if robbers by night--how are you cut off! –why
would they not steal till they had enough? If grape-gatherers came to
you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
6
How is Hairy searched out! How are his hidden places sought out!
7
All the men of your confederacy have conducted you to the border; the
men that were at peace with you have beguiled you, and prevailed against
you; they that eat your bread lay a snare under you, in whom there is no
discernment.
8
Shall I not in that day, says Mighty, destroy the wise men out of Red,
and discernment out of the mountains of Hairy?
9
And your Mighty men, O South, shall be dismayed, to the end that every
one may be cut off from the mountains of Hairy by slaughter.
10
For the violence done to your brother Supplanter, shame shall cover you,
and you shall be cut off for ever.
11
In the day that you stood aloof, in the day that strangers carried away
his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon
the Teaching of Peace, even you were one of them.
12
But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day of
his disaster, neither should you have rejoiced over the children of
Praised in the day of their destruction; neither should you have spoken
proudly in the day of distress.
13
You should not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of
their calamity;, you should not have looked on their affliction in the
day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day
of their calamity.
14
Neither should you have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his
that escape; neither should you have delivered up those of his that did
remain in the day of distress.
15
For the day of Mighty is near upon all the nations; as you have done, it
shall be done to you; your dealing shall return upon your own head… (Karma?)
16
For as you have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the nations
drink continually, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as
they had not been.
17
But in
mount
Zion
there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of
Supplanter shall possess their possessions.
18
And the house of Supplanter shall be a fire, and the house of ETERNAL
Has Added a flame, and the house of Hairy for stubble, and they shall
kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of
the house of Hairy; for Mighty has spoken.
19
And they of the South shall possess the mount of Hairy, and they of the
Lowland the Immigrants; and they shall possess the field of Doubly
Fruitful, and the field of
Watch
Mountain
; and the Son of the Right shall possess the Rocky Region.
20
And the captivity of this host of the children of those
who Persevere as Mighty, that are among the Zealots, even to Refinement,
and the captivity of the Teaching of Peace, that is in separation, shall
possess the cities of the South.
21
And saviors shall come up on
mount
Zion
to judge the mount of Hairy; and the kingdom shall belong to ETERNAL.
Torah
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