**Yaakov** was 77 years old when he left the land of Canaan from Be'er Sheva [(which was Year 2185)]. When Yaakov left, Esav spoke to Eliphaz his son in secret: "Take your sword and pursue Yaakov and pass before him on the road and ambush him and kill him with your sword in one of the mountains, and take all that is his and come back." Eliphaz was a swift man, skilled with the bow as his father had taught him, a hunter and a mighty warrior, and Eliphaz was 12 years old [(this appears incorrect; he should have been 14 years old, as noted above that he was born in Year 2171)].

Eliphaz did as his father commanded and took ten men, brothers of his mother, and pursued Yaakov and overtook him and ambushed him at the border of the land of Canaan opposite the city of Shechem, etc., and he drew his sword.

Yaakov said, "What is it to you that you have come all this way, and why do you pursue with your sword?" Eliphaz approached Yaakov and said, "Thus my father commanded me, and now I will not transgress my father's command." Yaakov pleaded with Eliphaz and his men and said, "Here is all that I have, take it for yourself and go from me, and do not kill me, and this matter will be credited to you as righteousness." HaShem put Yaakov's favor in their eyes, and they took all that Yaakov had and left him nothing, and they returned to Be'er Sheva to Esav and told him what had happened to them with Yaakov, and they gave him all that they had taken from Yaakov. Esav was angry at Eliphaz and his men for not killing him, but they told him that their compassion was moved upon him because Yaakov had pleaded with them.

At that time, when Esav heard that Yitzchak had commanded Yaakov not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, he went to the house of Yishmael his uncle and took Machalat daughter of Yishmael, sister of Nevayot, as a wife in addition to his wives. Yaakov went on his way to Haran and came to Mount Moriah and lodged there [(Sefer HaYashar) (in Tractate Chullin 91b it says Yaakov said, "Is it possible that I passed by the place where my fathers prayed, etc." Rashi explains that Avraham - as it is written "and he moved from there," etc. - Yitzchak has no verse about this.

From his words it seems that this Beit El was near Ai, and so the Chizkuni writes in Parashat Vayetzei, not Mount Moriah. The Maharashal deleted this from Rashi, for Rashi himself wrote in Chulin 91b the opposite - that this Beit El was not near Ai but Jerusalem, etc., and it is Mount Moriah, etc. See Chiddushei HaGemara and so it is in Sefer HaYashar)]. The well near Haran is of stone upon which 40 men could stand, and it was 100 cubits deep.

Now there is no water in it [(Gedi)].

**Yaakov** came to Haran when he was 77 years old [(see Megillah 17a), which was Year 2185 (in Seder HaDorot, chapter 11, it is written that he was 85 years old, which is an error) (and then it was a Shemitah year, for Year 2100 was 42 Jubilees and 35 years remained, which is 5 Shemitahs). Since Lavan was the reincarnation of Cain who took the twin of Hevel, Yaakov needed to be exiled to Lavan so that he would return the stolen twin to Yaakov, who was Hevel (Seder HaDorot, Parashat Vayetzei)].

Yaakov dwelt in Lavan's house for a month of days, and he ate and drank. Lavan said, "What is your wages?"