Vayetze, Vayeitzei, or Vayetzei (—Hebrew for 'and he left', the first word in the parashah) is the seventh weekly Torah portion (, ) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes . The parashah tells of Jacob's travels to, life in, and return from Harran. The parashah recounts Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob's meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob's time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob's children, and the departure of Jacob's family from Laban. The parashah is made up of 7,512 Hebrew letters, 2,021 Hebrew words, 148 verses, and 235 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah). Jews read it the seventh Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in November or December. Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Vayetze is unusual in that it is entirely contained in one single "open portion" (, ) (roughly equivalent to a paragraph, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). And within that single open portion, Parashah Vayetze does not have any "closed portion" (, ) divisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (samekh)). First reading—Genesis 28:10–22 In the first reading, when Jacob left Beersheba for Haran, he stopped at a place for the night, using a stone for a pillow. He dreamed that he saw a ladder to heaven on which God's angels ascended and descended. And God stood beside him and promised to give him and his numerous descendants the land on which he lay, said that through his descendants all the earth would be blessed, and promised to stay with him wherever he went and bring him back to the land. Jacob awoke afraid, remarked that surely the place was the house of God, the gate of heaven, and called the place Bethel (although the Canaanites had called the city Luz). Jacob took the stone from under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on it. And Jacob vowed that if God would stay with him, give him bread and clothing, and return him to his father's house in peace, then God would be his god, the stone pillar would be God's house, and he would give God a tenth of what he received. The first reading ends here with the end of chapter