"Daniel," his father asked him, "what do you think Yaakov took with him when he left his home and journeyed to Charan?"

"What do you mean, Tatty?" Daniel asked in surprise.

"Well, the parshah begins by telling us that Yaakov set out for Charan. Doesn't a person have to take things with him when he travels?"

"Sure," replied Daniel. "But the Torah doesn't tell us anything about Yaakov's luggage."

Daniel's father smiled. "I'm not asking about the bags Yaakov took with him. When a person moves to a new place, he takes more than just his suitcases. He also takes with him his thoughts, his plans, and his ideas about how he is going to live his life there."

"But how can we know what Yaakov was thinking, or how he was planning his life in Charan?"

"Daniel, if we read the pessukim carefully, we can find out quite a bit. Let's start with the very first two pessukim."

"The Torah tells us that Yaakov left Beer Sheva and went to Charan. Then - 'Vayifga bamakom' - he davened to HaShem," Daniel said, reading first from the Chumash, and then from Rashi.

"Right here, we have lesson number one," explained his father. "Yaakov is on his way to a new country. What does a person do when he moves to a new place?"

"Well, when Aunt Dina and Uncle Ephraim went on shlichus to Russia, they studied Russian. They also bought some clothes and heavy coats like the ones that people wear in Russia."

"And most important," his father reminded him, "we took them to the Ohel on the way to the airport."

"Yes, I remember. They were davening there for such a long time that I was afraid they would miss their plane," recalled Daniel.

"That's the first thing Yaakov did, too: he davened. He was just beginning his shlichus in Charan, so he started it off with tefillah to HaShem. A Jew sets out with prayer.

"Later," his father continued, "when he prepared to go to sleep, he set up stones around his head. Rashi says that he did this to protect himself from wild animals."

"I always wondered about that, Tatty," said Daniel. "If Yaakov trusted HaShem, why did he need to protect his head? And if he felt that, in addition to trusting in HaShem, he still had to do something to take of himself, why did he protect only his head? What about the rest of his body?"

"That's a good question, Daniel. And it teaches us another lesson.

"Yaakov's shlichus took him far from the holiness of Eretz Yisrael, the Torah he studied at the yeshivah of Shem and Ever, and the righteousness of his parents' home. He knew that in Charan, on shlichus, life would be different. He would be living among people who were not very righteous and who worshiped idols. He was determined that although his life might be different, his thoughts and ideals would not change. He would be doing the work of a shepherd, but he would be thinking the thoughts of a yeshivah student.

"In setting up the stones around his head, Yaakov made a firm decision to 'protect his head,' showing that his mind would not change even if everything else around him did."

(Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. I, pgs. 62-63)