Questions on Vayeitzei

One of the chaveirim on Avodah sometimes posts questions that he came up with while reviewing the weekly sedra, something that I wish that I would do more often myself. I responded in a private e-mail to some of his questions (which haven't yet been archived on the web, as of this post's writing), which I append here. Comments welcome.

> 28:19 – Luz.
>
> The Midrash 69:8 says that the Malach Hamoves had no power in the city of Luz. So > what happened to the senior citizens who were well past their use-by dates?
>
> Simple. They were placed outside the walls of the city – where they died.
>
> (Sounds a bit like the Eskimo solution..)
>
> Would this be the first published example of institutionalized euthanasia?

To my recollection, the source says that they would leave of their own volition when they became tired of life (although I could be misremembering), but similar question vis-a-vis suicide, anyway. Lich'orah it would only be a grama, similar to stopping anti-cancer medication, as they would not necessarily die as soon as they left the
city.

> 29:11 - Vayishak Yaakov leRochel. 2 pesukim >later re Lavan kissing Yaakov "Veynashek Lo".
>
> Is there any difference between 'vayishak' and 'vaynashek'?

What immediately stands out to me is that neshek is Modern Hebrew for weapon, although not sure if the word has any basis in lashon ha-kodesh. Not sure what the effect of the grammatical difference would be, though.

> 29:32 - Rashi dh Vatikra shemo Reuven - 'Omro re'u ma bein beni leben chami...'
>
> The first obvious question is, the Torah gives a clear reason why Leah called him > Reuven - 'ki ro'o Hashem be'onyi', so why is Rashi giving a different reason -
> which is also difficult to understand as Yosef, who is a main feature of this -
> was yet to be born...

I recall hearing that Rashi is answering the question regarding why he was named "Reuven", instead of, i.e., "Rayon". The fact that Yosef wasn't born yet fits in well, in that Leah possibly didn't herself realize the significance of her choice of the name "Reuven" over "Rayon", so therefore did not say the reason of Rashi explicitly in the pesukim.

> 30:27 Rashi dh Nichashti says that the proof that Lavan had no sons until Yaakov
> arrived was the fact that he sent Rochel to the well with his sheep,
>
> Something he would not have done had he any sons.
>
> But we see that his father Besuel who did have a son - Lavan - still sent his
> sister Rivka to do the same thing...?

Rivka went out to draw water, presumably for human use, which is a much less labor-intensive job than watching sheep. Adderabba, since Lavan was presumably with the sheep all day, Rivka would be enlisted into obtaining water along with her other household duties (although it isn't terribly surprising that Lavan, not the most honest of people, was mysteriously home from work by this time...)

> 31:34 - Am I understanding it correctly that
> Rochel was sitting on her camel INSIDE the tent? And if so, was/is this the done
> thing - having camels in the tent that you live?

Also, if her only ailment was "derech nashim" why should she be
precluded from standing up or doing any type of physical activity? (Of
course, I have neither primary nor secondary experience in the effects
of such).