This week, Yaakov is on the run.  After Esav discovers that Yaakov has usurped the blessing of the first-born, he vows to kill his brother.  Yaakov steals away to Haran, the land of his mother’s family.  

When the parasha opens,it is nighttime in the desert.  As anyone who has travelled in the Negev knows, the heat of the day in the desert is deceptive — at night, it is freezing cold.  The parasha tells us that he has only a stone for a pillow.

And it is at this moment, in the dark and the cold, that Yaakov has an existential realization.