Much has been made, in these parshiyot from the middle of Bereishit, of the enduring hatred of Esav for Yaakov. But in our parsha, Yaakov has a more immediate problem in the enmity of Lavan. Indeed, every year on the first night of Pesach, we do not mention Esav at all; instead, the central narrative of the Seder (deriving from the Biblical text of the recitation of the bikkurim) begins with the assertion that Lavan was in fact worse than Pharaoh.
In our discussion of last week’s parsha, we briefly touched upon the vendetta of Lavan that Bilaam attempted to execute when the Children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. The basis for this is a midrash in Bamidbar Rabbah (20:19) associating Bilaam and his evil plots with the sons of Lavan who fume, “Yaakov took everything that was our father’s” (Bereishit 31:1). Chazal associate Bilaam variously with the offspring of Lavan (necessarily through his mother, as he is in fact descended from Lot – which the Midrash also discusses), or as the primary disciple of Lavan. The Arizal suggested that actually Bilaam was a reincarnation of Lavan, whose role on earth was to finally put an end to the evil plans that Lavan had set in motion (see especially Ben Yehoyada on Sanhedrin 106b referencing Sha’ar HaGilgulim).
A theme we find pervading these parshiyot and the various commentaries upon them is the grudge that the enemies of Israel hold from past generations, as a consequence of which they are constantly seeking to torment and persecute and even exterminate us – or to dispossess us – in every generation.
There are many possible explanations for this phenomenon. Some are rooted in ontology and others are rooted in psychology. The analysis suits the perspective of the observer, but horrifically and tragically the phenomenon is only too well documented. The Vilna Gaon in his commentary on the Sifra diTzniyuta (at the end of Chapter 5) observes that all the events that are described in the Torah – and especially those of Sefer Bereishit – play out again and again in every generation. He explains this by joining the ontological and the mystical, explaining that the same restless souls that set these events in motion remain unsettled, and so constantly return to continue their efforts – for good and for ill – for as long as history continues and humanity remains unredeemed. Not coincidentally, this echoes closely the teachings of the Arizal, while fixing it in an explicit textual basis. This teaching of the Vilna Gaon is particularly poignant in the light of the aforementioned reading of the Ben Ish Chai (Ben Yehoyada ibid.), who sees the final comeuppance of Bilaam as putting an end to the machinations of Lavan.
And yet, these same claims – that Yaakov “stole everything,” and that he is not entitled to the patrimony and birthright that were promised to him – echo loudly and all too murderously in our own time.
On the psychological front, the Mei HaShiloach seeks to gain deeper insight into why our enemies are so unrelentingly jealous of us, and what so alarmed Yaakov in the complaints of the sons of Lavan that he had to flee with his wives and children like a thief in the night. The Ishbitzer Rebbe explains there that it is the role and the destiny of Israel to elevate everything that is good and righteous in the nations of the world. These nations might not value or appreciate the holiness they possess when they have it, but when they see it transformed through the agency of Israel, then they realize it is something they no longer have power over and that it has beauty they never appreciated when they did possess it. Consequently – without even fully understanding why – they want to steal it back.
The Ishbitzer says that the sons of Lavan were ruminating idly amongst themselves about their resentment and their loathing, but that Yaakov understood the words that were reported to him to mean that his work in Padan Aram was now done. He wasn’t so much afraid of the sons of Lavan and what they would conspire to do to him – after all, he’d already outsmarted and outmaneuvered them in every way. Rather, he realized from their complaints that he’d already taken everything there was to have of value from the house of Lavan, and it was time to move on to his next challenge.