Torah Readers Reflections

This essay is Inspired by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' teaching from Covenant and Conversation, “The birth of the world's oldest hate”

In the Passover haggadah story there’s a short cryptic passage that most of us just gloss over, maybe wondering what it means but moving on very quickly.

“Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought to do to our father Jacob. Pharaoh made his decree only about the males whereas Laban sought to destroy everything.”

I don’t recall reading anywhere that Laban intended to destroy everything, in fact I’m pretty sure that nowhere in the bible does it mention anything close to that regarding Laban. True, Laban deceived Jacob, he exploited him and chased after him. In fact this passage from the haggadah is based upon events that occurred in this week's portion of Vayetze.

Laban’s Deception

As Laban is about to catch up with Jacob, God appears to him in a dream and tells not to harm Jacob. “Be very careful not to say anything good or bad to Jacob”, God tells him. When Laban finally catches up to Jacob he complains that Jacob was trying to escape. Jacob’s response is a refrain that exploited workers all over the world know very well:

“Twenty years now I have worked for you in your estate – fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for some of your flocks. You changed my wages ten times!” (Gen. 31:41)”

This suggests that Laban, as an employer behaved outrageously unfairly towards Jacob treating him like a slave. It does not say that he tried to destroy Jacob or even come close to the slow genocide dictated by Pharoah when he tried to kill all the male Israelite children.

Is Laban worse than Pharaoh?

In fact by stating this in the Haggadah it would seem to diminish from the central theme of the Passover seder, which is redemption from slavery to freedom. It would seem to excuse Pharaoh's decrees as being less than those of Laban. This seems to make no sense, either in terms of the central theme of the Haggadah or in relation to the actual facts as recorded in the biblical text.

It would seem that the haggadah is referring to something else, not recorded in the Torah. Perhaps the haggadah is hinting that the consequences of Laban’s behavior could be more destructive and far reaching than those of Pharaoh’s?

The details are in the story

If we examine the story, Laban starts by welcoming Jacob. He gives him work and income to support himself and his future family. Regardless, It would seem that Laban is very calculating and in the end is putting his self-interests first and foremost. Jacob works for 7 years and then another 7 years for Rachel. When he tries to leave Laban protests and he stays for another 6 years. Throughout these last 6 years, Laban makes Jacob’s working conditions worse and worse, he reduces his pay. At this point Jacob feels that he has no other option other than to escape Laban’s clutches. As it is, now he is treated as a laborer with little to no pay. Whatsmore, Laban seems  to see all of Jacob’s possessions as his own:

“The daughters are my daughters! The sons are my sons! The flocks are my flocks! All that you see is mine!” (Gen. 31:43).

What really bothered Laban about Jacob?

In Laban’s eyes, Jacob has no rights, he is the property of Laban. Even though they had an agreement with regards to the flocks, Laban still sees those flocks as his own.

What really annoys Laban though is something else, Jacob maintains his dignity, independence and freedom. Faced with a very difficult situation where Laban is taking everything from him, Jacob still finds ways to keep his flocks and grow them, to work and provide for his large family, to thrive under very difficult circumstances. He maintains his dignity no matter what hardships Laban throws at him.

Laban’s anti-semitic behaviour

This behaviour in the basis of antisemitism and in as much, Laban is the first real anti-semite. He is the first to display this behavior, but certainly not the last, we have seen this exact pattern throughout our long history.

Jews run from an oppressor, a benevolent leader takes them in but then exacts a price. Jews are generally successful and leaders saw that they can contribute and make them rich. Jews always brought prosperity to their host nations wherever they went. They contributed financially and culturally to the success of the host nation. Regardless; Jews refused to assimilate, they kept their identity which was different from that of the host nation, they kept their dignity, they preserved their heritage.

Eventually the host nation always turned against the Jews, they would exploit them, place restrictions on them. The local population would see their success and accuse them of stealing their wealth even though it was the Jews who contributed enormously to their society and made them rich and successful. Finally the host nation, seeing that the Jews maintained their dignity and were successful and prospered no matter the circumstances, would grow envious and angry at them. This is when it became dangerous to be a Jew and they had to find somewhere else to settle and start again. This is the exact pattern that Jacob experienced with Laban. 

In her book “World on Fire”, Amy Chua argues that ethnic hatred will always be directed by the host society against any conspicuously successful minority. All three conditions must be present.

1. The hated group must be a minority or people will fear to attack it.

2. It must be successful or people will not envy it, merely feel contempt for it.

3. It must be conspicuous or people will not notice it.

Jews almost always fit in all three of these categories and for this reason they are hated.

So, why is Laban in the Passover Haggadah?

With this new information, we can begin to understand what the sages were saying in the Haggadah. Pharaoh was a one-time enemy of the Jews, yet Laban exists in one form or another in every generation. While Pharaoh tried to exploit and commit slow genocide on the Jews once, Laban’s everywhere try to do the same in every single generation.

We now see Jacob in a very different light. Jacob stands for the minorities everywhere, for the oppressed, the refugees, the week, the poor. Jacob maintains his dignity and refuses to be defined as a slave or as someone else’s property. He contributes to others prosperity, he maintains his inner freedom and always finds a way to thrive no matter the circumstances. He stands up for his rights and his freedom.

Laban is the eternal voice of hate; hate of successful minorities, exploitation and oppression of those minorities. Jacon is the voice of hope, the voice of freedom and the voice of dignity. He is the proof that hate never wins the final victory; it is always freedom that does.