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Was Laban aware that he was deceitful, a
cheater? Apparently not, so he would have been righteously and
justifiably indignant had he discovered the Torah's characterization
of him: Laban, the cheat, king of the deceitful. This
characterization extends to all aspects of Laban's life, even to the
realm of truth. "With paeans to G-d in his throat, and a two- edged
sword in his hand" (cf. Psalms 149:6): Laban even recruited religion
as a means to pull the wool over others' eyes. Rachel stole the
terafim
(her father's household idols) in
order to expose the extent and depth of her father's all-encompassing deception.
The king of thieves;
there are three types of thieves to consider: one who is caught
before he even succeeds in carrying out his nefarious plans; one who
is only caught after he steals; and, the chief among them, one who
steals and blames the person he has robbed for the theft. Laban was
of the latter type: "The daughters are my daughters, and the
children are my children, and the flocks of sheep are my flocks; all
that you see is mine"(Gen 31:43). So sayeth Laban, no more and no
less, with a show of such tremendous self-confidence and force that
he confuses the person he stole from into believing that his claims
are true. As the emissary of the rabbis (funds' collector) reported
about the wealthy man who complained at length about his own
difficult financial situation: "I felt so guilty that I was not
contributing money to the upkeep of the unfortunate wealthy man".
Jacob was the guilty one: "And you stole my mind
(lit. heart)"(Gen 31:26); "Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead
(lit. steal) me"(Gen 31:27); "Why did you
steal
my gods?"(Gen 31:30)
Theory detached from
having to deal with reality has the status of a blessing recited
after the action has commenced. This type of blessing is a far worse
breach of the law than an unnecessary blessing, for it is a
statement of falsehood. Any theory, even one dealing with the
absolute truth, brings with it the danger of prioritizing the
concept over reality, replacing the real with the
ideal
, ultimately detaching and emptying the idea of its
primary objective. An individual greater than the others is in far more grievous danger of
detachment than his modest counterpart who does not consider himself a philosopher,
dealing with high and mighty matters. For the latter is satisfied with approaching the
experts in order to ascertain the truth and the way in which to apply it step-by-step in his
everyday life.
Laban possessed
terafim. Theories inscribed upon the leaves of books that
Laban treated as urim ve-tumim [divining gems on the breast
plate of the high priest], so that all the world might know that he
had a connection with the sanctified world. He received counsel and
guidance from the terafim
regarding all his doings. Having lost them, he
cannot find his way in what he perceives to be the confusing reality surrounding him.
This approach disparages the logic present in reality, ignores the needs borne of action
and forces rules upon reality that appear valid and consistent within the theoretical
framework arising from the penetrating mind of its believer alongside of complete
condescension toward and disregard for the sanctity of life itself. Thus, theory dealing
with abstract morality may become the source for a vulgar and cruel distortion; social
theories, across the board, are the source for the repression of individual rights. So too,
political parties that tend to the right, emblazoning upon their banners the sanctity of
nationality, radically advance a sweepingly leftist platform that is divorced from reality
and its needs.
Laban embodies the problematic tendency
to turn reality into theory with all that this
implies. Thus, the cheat succeeds in portraying himself as handsome,
fair and even idealistic while rigidly ignoring tremulous contact
with the real suffused with emotions. In this manner, the
theoretician avoids the "dangers" of empathy
and personal
involvement necessary for interacting with another. He transforms grappling with reality
into the vanities of cocktail party talk. Conversation conducted around the table over a
cup of tea.
Jacob cleverly steers Laban into "drinking a cup of tea" with him to avoid a real
confrontation; substituting confrontation for a ritual festive meal, a farewell party, the
sealing of a covenant provides a good photo opportunity. Laban leaves with what he
desired and Israel is left in peace. A contract which is essentially a public relations
exercise. Featuring a devoted father whose whole being echoes concern for his beloved
daughters; Laban cries out "If you ill-treat my daughter"(Gen 31:50), but he, himself, cast
off his daughters long ago: "Surely, he regards us as outsiders, now that he has sold us
and has used up our purchase price"(Gen 31:15); Laban asks: "Tell me, what shall your
wages be?"(Gen 29:15) His recognition of justice in its noblest form is transformed into
disgraceful exploitation in the real world. Laban is completely dedicated to order, to law,
to tradition. "It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the
older"(Gen 29:26). Laban personified consideration; he was willing to risk his reputation
as an honest man. "The drippings of the honey comb"(Psalms 19:11). Jacob was forced to
deal with this split-personality, two-faced dandy.
Jacob, an ish tam (literally a plain,
umblemished individual), a tent dweller. One might assume that Jacob
also dwelt in a spiritual atmosphere wherein ideas determine what is
appropriate, what are the rules. Tamim
(perhaps, literally, na?ve), it would never occur to
him that deceitful individuals exist who might take advantage of his naivety glorifying
themselves with his crown while keeping the theory bottled up in the academy,
preventing it from ruling over the real reality, outside beyond the tent. Thus, the whole
perfected man must grapple with this dangerous tendency in order to unveil its duplicity.
Must grapple with it by penetrating to the very source of deception, entering its home
base, risking inhaling the poisonous distortion into his own lungs. He must transform evil
into good, falsehood into truth all the while diligently and cautiously maintaining his pure
innocence – "with Laban lived I, and the six hundred and thirteen commandments kept I,
and I did not learn from his evil actions."
Not only did Jacob maintain his righteous behavior externally, he also remained
internally pure and innocent. Jacob remained faithful to his chosen wife – the love of his
life, Rachel. Notwithstanding the two wives forced upon him through Laban's
exploitation of his naivety, the one detested and the other beloved -- an apparent
distortion of reality placed upon Jacob's shoulders; and, notwithstanding the Heavens
reinforcement of the reality created by Laban -- granting Leah, the detested wife, the
choicest of compensations: "This time my husband will become joined to me, for I have
borne him three sons"(Gen 29:34), and even more so "This time I will praise the
Lord"(Gen 29:35) for I have given Jacob four sons -- Jacob tested sorely by G-d's closing
of Rachel's womb remains faithful to his lover's vow and sets up his bed in Rachel's tent.
Jacob only departs from his warm loving character once when he chastises Rachel
harshly for what sounded more like an ultimatum than a request: "Give me children, or
else, I die"(Gen 30:1) – " Jacob was incensed at Rachel … Am I in the place of G-d, who
has denied you fruit of the womb?"(Gen 30:2). The midrash in Genesis Rabbah
comments: "Who has denied you, not who has denied me." "Is this an appropriate way to
respond to one in distress?" demands HaKadosh Baruch Hu. How indeed did it come to
pass that Jacob denied Rachel his loving compassion? Jacob, apparently, reserved his
love which was not contingent upon anything for Rachel, a form of love independent of
the stormy emotions stemming from selfishness that are detached from the values of truth
and justice. Appeasing Rachel, Jacob explains that justice demands that Rachel pray for
herself. Hashem responds to the cries uttered by those in the depths of pain far more
readily than to the prayers offered by others upon their behalf. Jacob's harshness stems
from his desire to correct Rachel's behavior, operating under the credo "those who one
loves, one will rebuke;" Jacob does not avoid his responsibility of helping Rachel. Jacob
was entirely focused upon strengthening Rachel's belief in her own ability to
communicate directly with the Source of All Blessings, of making her independent of
others help, even that of her exalted husband. The Creator's query - "Is this an
appropriate way to respond to one in distress?" – apparently addressed Jacob's tactics.
Even though Jacob's intentions were pure, he should have spoken softly and
compassionately.
Jacob, speaking out of his deep sense of identification with Rachel, felt that she needed to
learn the hard way as he had. She too had to learn how to cope with the trying reality as
"an equal among equals," not as a pauper begging for alms at the doorway, as the verse
illustrates, "The poor man speaks beseechingly"(Proverbs 19:23). That is to say, Jacob
attempted to impart to Rachel the following message: Know Rachel, that you are part of
me, that we do not dwell in a reality separated from the divine presence. We function --
through our corporeal bodies and spiritual selves – as the divine reality in this base world.
So we need not stand like paupers at the doorway; rather, by right we communicate with
the divine source as his representatives upon earth; therefore, self-pity is out of place
here. Just as a soldier demands a weapon from his commanding officer in order to fulfill
his mission, we too are charged with raising a new generation to follow in our path;
requesting children is not a personal appeal.
"Am I in the place of
G-d"(Gen 30:2). How is this response an answer to Rachel's request
for children? Did Rachel, a righteous woman, really believe that
Jacob, as righteous a man as he was, possessed autonomous divine
powers? Did she really partake in the primitive beliefs of the
common folk who because of both their limited imaginations and their
limited abilities to engage in abstract thought only believe in
objects that can be grasped and realized. See the Keli
Yakar
for a beautiful conceptual explanation of Rachel's jealousy toward her
sister; jealousy which created an iron curtain between her prayers and the Source of All
Blessings. Jacob presumed that this jealousy was the reason why their prayers went
unanswered, until Rachel finally gave him her maidservant and in so doing repented from
her sin of jealousy.
Even so, the phrase "Am I in the place of G-d?"
remains problematic. Jacob who had overcome the trials and
tribulations and apparently turned theology into a reality suffused
with the divine presence attained a level of perfection proximate to
the actualization of the divine presence within himself. He
metamorphosed into a chariot for the Shekhinah, to the
point where HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Himself, referred to Jacob using the
term e-l
(god). Jacob had to put an end to the sweeping tendency of attributing divine powers to
him. A tendency inherent in deceitful individuals like Laban, who distinguish between
theory and reality, denying the concreteness of reality perceiving it to be only a theory
that can be manipulated by its holder at his every whim. Thus, Laban proclaims: "I have
the power in my hand to harm you, but the G-d of your father said to me last night …"
(Gen 31:29). As if he was pitting theory against theory, his theory versus Jacob's.
The cheater in the end succeeds in deluding himself because he believes in his deception
and lives in accord with it. This is the deceiver's come uppance. Laban who
metamorphosed reality into theory lost his ability to succeed in the real world whereas
Jacob who turned theory into reality and applied the power inherent in reality's
concreteness to theory bested him. In this manner, Jacob succeeded in actualizing value
concepts within the real world whose power actually stems from the divine truth present
in reality itself. The Torah's demand that concrete reality be imbued with truth and that
value concepts be applied to it may distort those of little faiths' and of narrow horizons'
clarity of vision for they constantly switch back and forth from Laban's stance to Jacob's
and get mixed up in the process.
Sometimes these theorists view themselves as distant from reality aloft in the celestial
firmament oblivious to their duty of actualizing the divine presence. They reach the stage
where they become intoxicated with their lofty vision and perceive themselves to be the
divine reality without bothering to thoroughly study themselves. They jump into the deep
waters of esoteric Torah skipping over the study of Torah's plain or literal sense (peshat)
and the halakha, even reaching the stage where they perceive themselves to be
transmitters of a short cut to the Torah; they scorn Torah giants who have mastered the
Torah's contents and reached a deep understanding of it and act as if the Torah may be
found on any street corner, accessible to anyone who wishes to pick it up without toiling
overmuch to gain its contents or a fundamental understanding of it.
Thus, Jacob completes the circle and joins
heaven and earth into one unified whole. A circle commencing in the
realm of ideas, in the academy of Shem and Ever, where the
individual is freed from grappling with the evil inclination which
situates itself within the private sphere, dwelling place of creativity. One who deals with creativity
frees himself from the harassment of the evil inclination as he
expresses the quality of the Self and not that of the Ego
. Only through departure from the rarified realm does the worshipper of
Hashem expose himself to the dangers of the evil urge. For this reason, the Torah stresses
Jacob's departure from Beer Sheva to signify his descent from the heights of the realm of
ideas in order to complete the circle by adjoining the upper realm and physical reality.
Jacob dreams but does not get overly excited. Only when he envisioned the ladder of
Jacob did he realize that the dream was true, after he saw the ongoing link between
heaven and earth, the angels in ascent and descent. Ascending, uplifting reality to the
level of ideas, and descending, bringing the ideas down to be actualized upon earth. For
then he realized that the dream was meant to guide him in his upcoming confrontation, a
conflict that brings with it the message of wholeness to the world.
Jacob takes a new path designed to complete the work of the first two patriarchs:
Abraham grappled with the stratum of fundamental principles (mountain); Isaac strove to
reveal the divine potential waiting to be exposed and actualized (field); and Jacob, has the
most difficult task of all, to bring to fruition the discoveries made by and transmitted to
him by his saintly grandfather and father (house). Given this insight, we can understand
Jacob's reaction to the explicit promise, G-d, who had revealed Himself to him, made.
For the promise comprised both everything that was promised to his forefathers and an
additional component designed to encourage Jacob.
To our great
astonishment, Jacob does not accept this promise as worded, instead
he modestly accepts only the minutest part of it: "If G-d remains
with me, if He protects me in this journey … that I am making, and
gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to
my father's house …"(Gen 28:20-21) Is this all that Jacob desires?
Is he releasing G-d from his promise to give Jacob the land and
progeny? Even more surprising is Jacob's strange vow: "Hashem shall
be my G-d"(Gen 28:21). If G-d does not fulfill his promise is Jacob
implying, Heaven forbid, that Hashem will not be his G-d? No,
apparently Jacob is aware of and understands his novel role as the
patriarch who is chosen to complete the circle begun by his father
and grandfather. He must aid in rooting the unique name of Hashem,
may he be blessed, in the world, in the fertile soil of concrete
reality. He continues in the path of his forefathers, and this is
precisely what he means when he vows "and if I return safe to my
father's house"(Gen 28:21); he will complete the
circle
.
Translated by
Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
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