פירוש על בראשית 33:17

ויבן לו בית AND HE BUILT FOR HIMSELF A HOUSE — He stayed there eighteen months — summer, winter and summer again (Megillah 17a); for the first mention of Succoth (booths which are erected for the cattle) points to the summer (when booths are necessary for the cattle), the mention of building a house to the winter, and the second mention of booths to the next summer.

AND HE BUILT FOR HIMSELF A HOUSE. It is possible that the place was a location which had no city, and he therefore found it necessary to build for himself a house and make booths for his cattle. Or it may be that the expression, and he built for himself a house, means that he built for himself a large house with a strong tower to fortify himself against Esau.

נסע סכותה, He journeyed towards Sukkot. The reason this place was called סוכות was because there Jacob built pens and shelters for his herds and cattle. The Torah purposely does not say לסוכות, "to Sukkot" because this would have led us to believe that this place had already been known by the name סוכות. You may well ask why the Torah bothered to mention the fact that Jacob called the name of the place where he built shelters for his animals סוכות. Perhaps the reason is that Jacob was the first human being who expended so much time, energy, and money in order to assure his animals a degree of comfort both in summer and in winter.

ויעקב...ויבן לו בית, this teaches that it was during the rainy season. In Bereshit Rabbah 78,16 it is concluded from this detail that Yaakov stayed at Sukkot for several years. [other versions say that it was in Bet El where he stayed 18 months or longer. Ed.]

ויבן לו בית, “he built himself a house.” It is possible that this was not an urban area and he had to build himself a house; alternately, the Torah reports that Yaakov built himself a very strong and solid house, one that could serve as a fortification against an attack by Esau.

And built himself a house. He made a permanent house in which to serve Hashem and temporary shelters in which to tend to worldly matters.

He stayed there eighteen months; a summer, a winter, and a summer. Re’m objects: “I do not know why Rashi cites this Midrash [which does not fit with the simple meaning of the verse.] The house and the shelters were all [used] at the same time—the house by Yaakov, and the shelters by his animals—as the verse states. And Rashi writes [in many places], ‘My intention is only to explain the simple meaning.’” Maharshal answers: Scripture wrote סכות twice, and בית once, indicating that “סכות is one summer, בית is a winter...” The Kitzur Mizrachi answers: Rashi cites this Midrash in order to corroborate the twenty-two years in which Yaakov did not fulfill the mitzvah of honoring his parents, mentioned by Rashi in Parshas Vayeishev (37:34).

Es war dies das erste wirkliche Haus, das Jakob sich erbaute, und es weist dies darauf hin, dass er jedenfalls längere Zeit dort verweilte. Der Ort ist übrigens jenseits des Jordans, somit außerhalb Kanaans.