When a Jew would bring his first fruits to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he was required to recite a section of the Torah that describes the odyssey of the Israelites from Canaan to Egypt and from Egypt back to the Land of Israel. The purpose of this recitation was to express gratitude to G-d for all that He had done for them, particularly their possession of the land which provided them with the ability to enjoy one’s fruits.
This paragraph so eloquently expresses the process of servitude and emancipation that it has also been incorporated into the Haggadah text that we recite at the Passover Seder.
There is one verse that seems to connect two disparate events: “An Aramean (a reference to Laban, Jacob’s father-in-law), tried to destroy my father, and he descended into Egypt.” The implication of this statement is that as a result of the Aramean, Laban, Jacob had to go to Egypt.
Commentators are all baffled by this juxtaposition. Nowhere in the Torah is the suffering Jacob endured at the hands of his wily father-in-law Laban given as a reason for Jacob to descend to Egypt. Indeed, Jacob’s sojourn to Egypt occurred several decades after having returned from Laban. When Jacob left Laban he had just fathered Joseph. Jacob did not come to Egypt until Joseph had already attained the post of Viceroy in Egypt at the age of 30, followed by seven years of bounty and two years of famine. A simple calculation reveals that Jacob’s descent into Egypt occurred close to forty years after he had departed from Laban. Why then does the Torah link these two events?
One ingenious interpretation is given by the great nineteenth century German sage, R. Azriel Hildesheimer in the name of his father: The Talmud maintains that the catalyst for the Jewish people’s enslavement in Egypt was the sale of Joseph by his brothers, which was provoked by their jealousy for him when his father gave him preferential treatment. However, had Laban not tricked Jacob and given him Leah instead of Rachel, Rachel would have, in fact, given birth to Joseph first. Hence, Joseph, would have ben the first born and would have deserved this preferential treatment as was the custom, in those days. Hence it was Laban’s deceptive practice that ultimately led to their enslavement in Egypt.
However, this explanation, does not suggest that there was any intrinsic relationship between Laban and Egyptian bondage. Furthermore, why implicate Laban more than Jacob? After all, the reason Jacob had to go to Laban was to escape the wrath of his brother Esau when he took his blessings from him. So why don’t we connect the bondage with Jacob, or perhaps his mother Rebecca who pushed Jacob to deceive his father?
In truth, there is a deeper connection between Laban and Egyptian bondage. One of Laban’s statements to Jacob was: “The sons are my sons and the daughters are my daughters.” Ostensibly Laban meant to suggest that he was just as concerned about the well-being of his children and grandchildren as was Jacob. The real intent of Laban, however, was that he was the true patriarch of the family and that Jacob’s wives and their children were truly his, not Jacobs. The dispute between Laban and Jacob was a clash of two cultures. Laban—which means white—had a clean and pure veneer. He was indignant—after tricking Jacob—and self-righteously proclaimed: “In our region we don’t give away the younger daughter before the older one.” Behind this cultured veneer lurked a dark, duplicitous and utterly corrupt man.
Jacob, conversely, did not always appear that cultured and pristine. Jacob was compelled to appropriate the blessings from his brother Esau. His image was certainly tarnished by this behavior. Similarly, his sons engaged in the destruction of Shechem—though motivated by righteous indignation in response to what was done to their sister—it even embarrassed Jacob.
However, beneath the outer appearances of Jacob and his sons was a holy and truly pure spirit. But living in a world of such immorality, deception and cruelty, they were occasionally compelled to fight that deception and violence with their own.
To the extent that Jacob and his sons were associated with Laban, Laban had some effect on them. Occasionally, we pick up negative traits and ideas just by osmosis. Moreover, there is a well-known adage: “One who wrestles with a dirty person will also become dirty.” No matter how innocent one is, by associating with those who are impure, even to combat them, one acquires some trace of that impurity.
Since Jacob and his children, represented the nascent energy of the Jewish nation, it was imperative that they be cleansed from even the slightest trace of “Labanism.”
This then, perhaps, is what the Torah means when it connects Laban’s desire to destroy my father and the descent of Jacob into Egypt. In order to get rid of the destructive association with Laban we had to go through the refining process that we experienced in Egypt.
The prophet compares our stay in exile with that of the Egyptian experience. And while we can never understand why G-d needs to refine us through suffering and pain, the Torah informs us that exile is a refining process. The sooner we realize the duplicitous nature of the Laban cultures that have given us Nazi Germany, Soviet Totalitarianism and the like, and delve into our own culture, we will hasten the process of the exodus from this exile, once and for all.