This year my 'Big' question at the seder table was concerning this part of the Haggadah:
Go forth and learn what Laban the Aramean wanted to do to our father Jacob. Pharaoh had issued a decree against the male children only, but Laban wanted to uproot everyone - as it is said: "The Aramean wished to destroy my father; and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation - great and mighty and numerous."
"And he went down to Egypt" forced by Divine decree. "And he sojourned there" - this teaches that our father Jacob did not go down to Egypt to settle, but only to live there temporarily. Thus it is said, "They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks because the hunger is severe in the land of Canaan; and now, please, let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."
Every time I read this part I always wondered where it is learned that Laban had hatred of Jacob to the point of wanting to destroy the Jewish people. I always attributed the 'simple meaning' of the story which, to me, was that Laban was a shifty guy but not intrinsically wicked. But once again I cannot rely on my own understanding of the relationship between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban. It is obvious that Laban tricked Jacob into marrying his oldest daughter Leah after having promised that he would marry Rachel, the younger one. That was a dubious thing to do but as he explained it was his custom to first marry the oldest girl {maybe this was deception}...
Here is a piece I reproduce from Arutz Shevas wonderful Jewish section...
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11483#.T4O3PKxYsYoLearning from Lavan: The SederLavan tried to uproot everything that Yaakov and his family were meant to represent and achieve, but he did it clandestinely.
From Shira SmilesSometimes things are gray, but there are other times when things are truly either black or white.“Go and learn,” the Haggadah exhorts us, “What Lavan (the name translates as ‘white’) the Aramean attempted to do to our father Jacob! For Pharaoh decreed only against the males, Lavan attempted to uproot everything.”
The Haggadah then links Yaakov’s 20 year sojourn with Lavan, the father of Jacob's wives, Rachel and Leah, to his descent to Egypt years later. This most evil Lavan considered himself pure and righteous. As white as they come.
And, as we will discuss later, therein lay a great part of the danger Lavan posed to Bnei Yisroel.
So the question remains, what are we to learn from Lavan and his actions? How was our descent to Mitzrayim a result of Lavan’s actions? How, in fact, can we deduce his evil intentions throughout when they are barely alluded to in his conversation with Yaakov after Yaakov had fled with his family from Lavan’s home?
This lack of clarity is precisely what Rav Levenstein uses as the basis for our lesson. Yaakov did not recognize every scheme Lavan attempted in his quest to destroy Yaakov throughout his stay, except perhaps toward the end, when he consulted his wives and left surreptitiously with his family.
But throughout the twenty one years that Yaakov lived with Lavan and tended his sheep, Lavan kept trying to find ways to destroy him. But Hashem prevented these schemes from coming to fruition without Yaakov ever even realizing he was in danger.
Here is a truly important lesson. We too go about our lives ignorant of the dangers around us, both physical and spiritual, yet Hashem continually intervenes on our behalf as we continue obliviously on our way.
Let us first examine the connection between Lavan’s actions and the descent of Bnei Yisroel to Egypt. Rav Kram in his commentary on the Haggadah reminds us that Yosef was sold to Egypt because his brothers were jealous of him, believing that he wanted to usurp the rights of the firstborn.
Indeed, in many ways Yosef did manifest the rights of the firstborn, and,according to Yaakov’s plan he should have been the firstborn. Yaakov wanted to marry Rachel, but Lavan deceived him and placed Leah under the marriage canopy.Had Yaakov married Rachel first, Yosef would indeed have been the firstborn, and there would have been no jealousy, as the brothers would have recognized Yosef’s legitimate rights to his privileges. They would not have tried to get rid of him, Yaakov and his family would not have followed him to Egypt, and we would not have subsequently been enslaved.
So while we now see the connection between Lavan and our descent to Egypt, there is also a deeper explanation of how Lavan tried to uproot everything that Yaakov and his family were meant to represent and achieve.
Rabbi Wolfson in Wellsprings of Faith describes for us the Heavenly plan Yaakov understood he was meant to carry out. Yaakov knew that he was to marry both sisters, but each in due time. He knew through divine inspiration that Rachel would die young, so by marrying Rachel first, he would then be able to marry Leah after Rachel’s death and complete the symbolic marriage of Hashem to Knesset Yisroel.
For the bond to be permanent in every aspect of our history, the characteristics of both Rachel and Leah were necessary to be included in the character of Am Yisroel.Yaakov would then have been able to bury both Rachel and Leah alongside himself in the Cave of Machpelah, and the connection between Hashem and Bnei Yisroel would be unbreakable and manifest to all. Both aspects of that relationship,both the revealed and the hidden would be known to all, and there would have been no time when Hashem’s face would be hidden from us, no descent into Egypt and no subsequent exiles.
But this could only be accomplished if Yaakov did not transgress the Torah prohibition against marrying two sisters while they both lived, albeit the Torah was not yet given. Our forefathers lived by the dicta of the Torah, and the future of their descendents was dependent on their fulfillment of each law, irrespective of the Law having not yet been given.
Lavan, by his deceit under the marriage canopy, tore the very fabric of future Jewish history. By undermining the permanent relationship between Hakodosh Boruch Hu and Knesset Yisroel, he tried to uproot it completely and created a gap between appearance and reality. While Hashem always watches over us, there would be times when it would appear that He had indeed hidden His face from us. There would now be times when we would be distant and in exile, starting with our descent to Egypt.
While dark times are bitter and suffering is difficult, we must take heart in recognizing that these challenges offer opportunities for growth, says the Yalkut Lekach Tov. Indeed Rav Haskel Levenstein quotes the Vilna Gaon in highlighting some of these times.
First, in our current scenario, Yaakov left his father’s house penniless as he fled from Esau, but when he left Lavan he had accumulated much wealth, just as his descendents would do when they left Egypt.
The Egypt experience also made us a great and sensitive people, for we knew how a stranger feels in a strange land. The Babylonian exile was also a difficult time, yet it gave birth to the Jerusalem {SIC} Talmud.
Out of the fires of the holocaust emerged not only a Jewish State in our ancient homeland, but also a resurgence of Torah Judaism and Torah institutions. Therefore, says Halekach Vehalebuv, there is a custom to kiss the maror, the bitter herbs, before we eat them, to acknowledge and embrace the good that often grows from that dark soil.
Let us now return to Yaakov in Lavan’s house. Yaakov was surrounded by an alien culture inimical to the path Hashem had chosen for him and his descendents. Lavan wanted a homogenous society, not like Yaakov’s but like his own. Lavan didn’t want to destroy us physically as Pharaoh did, says Rabbi Twerski; he wanted to destroy us spiritually. After all, Lavan said, Yaakov’s wives are my daughters, and these children are my (grand)children. If Yaakov had accepted this gesture and these words in the interests of peace and political correctness, the entire Abrahamic destiny would have been uprooted and destroyed.
Learn, says Rabbi Schwab in On Prayer. While a gesture of friendship from outsiders may be sincere, we must always be wary of hidden agendas. That we have survived as a distinct people to this day can only partially be attributed to our vigilance. It is mostly attributable to Divine Providence. At the Seder, we must be thankful for the constant miracles Hashem performs for us that maintain our separateness and distinctiveness as a nation.
This sense of gratitude, says the Sifsei Chaim, is what propels us to observe Pesach and do the Seder every year. We do not understand every mitzvah, yet we do them because we were slaves, and He Who freed us requests this of us. We observe them because we are grateful, because we love our Benefactor and choose to make Him happy, rather than because we are compelled to obey Him. We are grateful that He brought us to Har Sinai where we could feel Him close to us, and we are then grateful for His having given us the Torah.
One of the major components of the Seder is the four cups of wine, each signifying a different segment of the Seder. According to Halekach Vehalebuv, these four cups represent the four kinds of separation we as Jews are cognizant of and grateful for. These separations are cited as part of the Havdalah ritual that demarcates Shabbat from the rest of the week and that separate us from the other nations.We recognize the wine of Kiddush that separates the holy from the profane.
We are grateful for the separation between light and darkness, for Hakodosh Boruch Hu’s bringing us out of the darkness of Egypt into the light of Torah values, and we replay that story each year at the Seder over this second cup of wine. We understand that as Jews, we are different from other people, for we have the ability to elevate the physical and the mundane to a spiritual level, as we eat our Passover meal and recite both a Hamotzi and a Bircat Hamazon over the meal and drink the third cup of wine in praise of Hashem Who gave us this ability.
Finally, we come to the fourth cup that separates the Sabbath from the six days of the week as we raise our cup in anticipation of our final redemption, for the Sabbath day is filled with a touch of the atmosphere and aura of Olam Habo, the world to come.
The entire purpose of Hashem’s taking us out of Egypt and our reenactment of the event every year is to imprint upon us that we are separate and distinct, privileged to be servants of Hakodosh Boruch Hu rather than of man, privileged to be the sons and daughters of the King.
As we continue to prepare and clean for Pesach, says the Netivot Shalom, let us be mindful to clean not only the space without, in our homes, but also the space within ourselves. Let us do teshuvah and remove the haughtiness from within. Let us remove the arrogance that would puff us up as yeast would bread, and render us chametz.
Lavan and matzo are both white. But Lavan is puffed up with arrogance and unfit for sanctity. Let us be like the humble matzo who see our worth in our service to Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Let us enter this Seder not only as a reenactment of the first Seder in Egypt, but as a practice for the final Seder of the Leviathan when the Messiah comes.
May we all have akosher and joyous Pesach.
Topic: Laban attempted to destroy our father Yaakov! (Read 2110 times)