Vayetze
Dear Rabbi:
If you were initiating this dialogue to me, in this week’s parshah, Vayeitzei, I would assume you would use a phrase such as “what comes around, goes around” to describe what occurs to the “hero”, Jacob. Because of his past indiscretions with his brother and his father, the payback is given to him by his uncle, Laban. I do not necessarily see it this way.
Let’s look at what led up to Jacob going down the path he
was on. When last we left our lead character, he was “getting out of Dodge”
because he was going to be killed by his brother, Esau, who he swindled out of
his birthright and blessing. You may come back with an argument that as to the
birthright there was a “sale”, but taking advantage of a desperate family
member when all he wanted was some food is hardly my idea of a fair deal or one
that should have been made under any circumstances. Next we see one of the
“Chosen Ones” swindle his ailing father who wanted to give his eldest son
something. You will give the excuse of his mother making him do it, but his
father recognized Jacob as a person of “cunning”.
This week Jacob starts off by meeting G-d in a dream about a
ladder going up to Heaven, (I will leave it to you to explain how Heaven with
angels going up and down the ladder comes into this dream, given your take on
Heaven) which culminates with the Lord telling him that he would bequeath the
land to his descendants and further states the following at Genesis 28:15:
“And behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever
you go, and I will restore you to this land, for I will not forsake you until I
have done what I have spoken concerning you."
The land and a personal protection from the Almighty. How
does Jacob react to this after he realizes that he truly is in a holy place?
Well let’s look at the text at Genesis 28:20-22:
“And Jacob uttered a vow, saying, "If G-d will be with
me, and He will guard me on this way, upon which I am going, and He will give
me bread to eat and a garment to wear;”
“And if I return in peace to my father's house, and the Lord
will be my G-d;”
“Then this stone, which I have placed as a monument, shall
be a house of G-d, and everything that You give me, I will surely tithe to
You.”
So what Jacob is saying as I understand it is that Jacob
will be with G-d only if the Almighty delivers on his promise to Jacob. Is this
the response a righteous believer should give and where is the alleged growth
of Jacob?
What happens next? Jacob comes to the land of his relatives
and is immediately smitten with the beauty of Rachel. This leads to the “bad
guy” in this week’s saga, Laban. It begins with Laban “bargaining” with Jacob
in order for Jacob to be with his beloved, Rachel. The deal struck is seven
years service in return for Jacob getting Rachel and it does not seem that this
was any great burden to Jacob as we read the following in Genesis 29:20:
“So Jacob worked for Rachel seven years, but they appeared
to him like a few days because of his love for her.”
So far, where does the “payback” come into the picture?
Jacob had no place to go, the time seems to go by in a flash and he will be
rewarded with the person he loves. Since, in a sense, I am speaking for both of
us, I assume you will come back with Laban deceiving him into marrying Leah.
This does not sit well with me in that within one week of marrying Leah, he
also gets Rachel and is still within the protection of Laban with no need to
think about how to take care of his new family. While we are on the Rachel/Leah
switch, how was this accomplished? Was Jacob rendered so drunk at the wedding
that he did not know who he was going to bed with? I didn’t read any “hairy
arm” trick that Laban pulled to get Jacob to sleep with the wrong daughter.
Let’s review the rest of what takes place. In order for
Jacob to have Rachel, he has to work for another seven years. Again where was
he going to go? For all he knew, Esau was waiting to go through with his threat
to kill Jacob so again staying with Laban offered him protection. And while we
are looking at the “hard times” of Jacob, he may not have liked Leah but it did
not stop him from jumping into bed with her to produce four sons in a desperate
attempt by Leah to get Jacob to like her. The “good one”, Jacob, never gives
her any compliment for his growing family.
When Rachel cannot give Jacob a child, what does she do? She
has her handmaiden, Bilhah, sleep with Jacob who offers no resistance, which
resulted in two more sons. Leah who must have been tired from what she
produced, gets into the act by having Jacob sleep with her handmaiden, Zilpah,
with a net result of two more sons.
Let’s give Jacob a chance to catch his breath with something
of an aside. If Leah and Rachel knew the history of Jacob’s family, they might
have taken their cue from Sarah and her allowing Abraham to take up with Hagar.
But unlike the outcome with Ishmael, Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher, the children
conceived by Bilhah and Zilpah are full-fledged members of our “Tribe”. Why
were they given equal footing with the others?
Getting back to Jacob’s “hard existence” while living under
Laban’s roof, there is a strange event that occurs in the Fourth Aliyah. Reuben
picked jasmine plants from the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah.
Rachel asks Leah for some of them, and Leah agreed, provided that Rachel
relinquishes her turn with Jacob that night. This Jacob must have been quite
the stud for his wives having pay to getting an extra “turn” to sleep with him.
Leah then delivers two more sons and the only daughter in the group, Dinah.
Rachel then gets her turn and the result is Joseph.
At this point, fourteen years from when he came, Jacob tells
Laban that he wants to leave with his family. You will then tell me that Jacob
had to “endure” six more years before he could leave, which is supposed to be
part of the “payback”. But look at what happened. Jacob’s deal was the pure
sheep that he produced would be Laban’s and the speckled and spotted ones would
be Jacob’s. This was supposed favor Laban but Jacob turns the table on Laban,
by making the speckled sheep the better ones and in the process becomes
extremely wealthy. So I again ask, how bad was Jacob’s time with Laban?
Jacob leaves with Laban hot on his trail, but G-d tells
Laban to back off and again Jacob is saved. This leads me to a question as to
what if anything Jacob taught his family in the ways of Judaism. The overall
theme, as I understand it, is that we believe in one G-d and there cannot be
any belief in idols. In Genesis 31:19 we read the following:
“Now Laban had gone
to shear his sheep, and [meanwhile] Rachel stole her father's teraphim.”
Why Rachel stole the idols is not revealed within the text
but it would not be a stretch to conclude that she believed it would bring her
some protection. What did Jacob do for the twenty years he was with her beside
jump on her whenever it was her “turn”?
Shalom,
Mordecai
Dear Mordecai,
You come across as vindictive in your desire to see Jacob “punished” for his “sins.”
You have suggested that I develop my own interpretations instead of relying on the midrashim of the rabbis. I’ll explain to you how I view the matters you allude to.
1. Jacob buying Esau’s birthright: I don’t see any interpretation of the behavior of Esau. I think his way of swaggering in and demanding “some of that red stuff” (25:30) could be viewed as a form of bullying. Also note how hyperbolic he is: “I am at the point of death…” (v. 32).
2. In the
midrash I create in my mind, Rebecca has tried for years to convince Isaac of
the prophecy she received, which would render Jacob the recipient of his
blessing. In the culture Isaac lives in, the opinions of women are not valued
as much as the opinions of men. Isaac can unilaterally ignore Rebecca’s
suggestion. Rebecca is compelled to seek her own means for making sure Jacob
receives the blessing.
Jacob is not a “swindler.” I think you tread dangerously close here to antisemitic stereotypes.
Regarding Rachel and the idols. Monotheism is something that develops over time. We shouldn’t be surprised to see characters in the Torah who are budding monotheists that can’t completely shake idolatry. That Rachel is such a person makes a lot of sense. She lives outside the land and is the daughter of Laban. She’s family, but she’s somehow also different, immersed in the larger pagan culture.
You contend that Jacob doesn’t get his proper payback and that the time he spends with Laban was actually not nearly as unpleasant as we tend to think. To support this contention, you argue that Jacob actually enjoyed the time he served Laban because he was so in love with Rachel. You also suggest that he benefited from Laban’s protection, which he needed since he couldn’t return to Canaan anyway, for that is where Esau was waiting to kill him. You pile on this that Jacob really didn’t have it so bad because he was lustful and appeared to enjoy sleeping with his wife Leah even though he disliked her. Yes, Jacob enjoyed having sexual relations with his wives. I don’t see that as inconsistent with righteousness. You further state that Jacob became wealthy by deceiving Laban about his sheep, and you argue that this compensates for the time he was effectively enslaved.
This is quite a case, but I think ultimately you offer a tendentious reading. The simple reading of the story is that Jacob was effectively enslaved, deceived, and exploited. That he was able to enjoy sex or that he needed a place to stay while Esau’s anger dissipated do not mitigate the evils done to him.
That the ladder reaches to Heaven is consistent with my understanding of Heaven, which is part physicalist and part spiritual. The shamayma is the sky, but it also is significant that shmayma occurs within the context of a dream. Heaven is a completed reality; whereas earth is an incomplete reality. It is completed by the covenantal work of humans and G-d.
We discussed the conditionality of Jacob’s response to G-d last year. Then, as now, you find this conditionality unbecoming of a “righteous believer.” Once again, Jacob’s frailty, his humanity, and his fallibility are what make him part of the chain that goes back through Isaac to Abraham. You keep looking for a tzaddik who arrives as such on delivery. Abraham is really the only person who fits that profile.
You ask how Jacob was fooled into mistaking Rachel for Leah. Is this nearly as implausible as you suggest? Instead of assuming he was drunk, assume he was a virgin or assume both.
Why the handmaids of Rachel and Leah are worthy of producing progeny that become the people of Israel and Hagar was not, I do not know.
Shalom,
Rabbi
Dear Rabbi,
I am glad that you are reaching beyond the established midrashim of rabbies past. You are a rabbi of the present and I enjoy reading your take. I may not agree with it, but I respect it.
As to me being vindictive, I am merely pointing out something that has been a central issue to our previous discussions, to wit, the question of how one is to be considered "Chosen". I will not back down form my opinion of Jacob and I admire your attempt to make excuses for his actions, but I am merely commenting on what I have read to date. If I had a brother and he was famished after a day out in the field and he expressed his hunger and needed what I had prepared, I would not negotiate "what is in it for me" for a plate of lentils. If a family member is in need, I would not hesitate to assist if I could without demanding something in return. To me it is the "righteous" thing to do. Esau did not demand that he get the "red stuff" or else, he was hungry, expressed his desire for food and did not threaten Jacob in order to get it. This is hardly the actions of a "bully" but that of a simple person that did not press the family link that should have made Jacob comply with the request without asking for anything in return.
Your reference to Rebecca not having enough enough "power" over Jacob to convince him of his "right" to take the blessing does not comply wih the text. She hears what Isaac wants to do for Esau,, runs to Jacob to assume his brother's identity, prepares the meal and makes the "hairy arm" disguise that Jacob takes willingly and goes to his father. Later on it is Rebecca leading Isaac around so that Isaac blesses Jacob in his journey away from the homeland.
As to not being a swindler, what do you call what he did to his father in order to get the blessing? The first time he enters the room, Jacob can use his mother as the excuse, the second time Isaac asks are you sure you are not Jacob and he replies that he is Esau, it is on him in my opinion. This is just fact and not some "antisemitic" excuse.
Rachel and the idols. When she takes them, she has been with Jacob for 20 years and maybe what he stood for should have rubbed off on her in some way. Using your proposed midrash as it relates to Rebecca, she would not have had the luxury of acting independently of Jacob during that time.
I have no problem with Jacob enjoying himself as it relates to his sexual needs with the women that were presented to him and I still stand for the opinion that his life under Laban was not that bad. He did not leave for the 20 years becasue he had made a deal with Laban as to how he was to be paid for his work This is not the actions of a slave master relationship.
All of the above being said, I again want to reiterate that I appreciate you going beyond the traditional midrashim to form your opinions. From your point of view Jacob is righteous, from mine, he was "chosen" by the Almighty as one of our patriarchs and his foibles cannot not be dismissed as irrelevant. I am still searching in my own mind as to what a truly righteous person is supposed to be like and Jacob does not fit the bill for me.
I am glad that you are reaching beyond the established midrashim of rabbies past. You are a rabbi of the present and I enjoy reading your take. I may not agree with it, but I respect it.
As to me being vindictive, I am merely pointing out something that has been a central issue to our previous discussions, to wit, the question of how one is to be considered "Chosen". I will not back down form my opinion of Jacob and I admire your attempt to make excuses for his actions, but I am merely commenting on what I have read to date. If I had a brother and he was famished after a day out in the field and he expressed his hunger and needed what I had prepared, I would not negotiate "what is in it for me" for a plate of lentils. If a family member is in need, I would not hesitate to assist if I could without demanding something in return. To me it is the "righteous" thing to do. Esau did not demand that he get the "red stuff" or else, he was hungry, expressed his desire for food and did not threaten Jacob in order to get it. This is hardly the actions of a "bully" but that of a simple person that did not press the family link that should have made Jacob comply with the request without asking for anything in return.
Your reference to Rebecca not having enough enough "power" over Jacob to convince him of his "right" to take the blessing does not comply wih the text. She hears what Isaac wants to do for Esau,, runs to Jacob to assume his brother's identity, prepares the meal and makes the "hairy arm" disguise that Jacob takes willingly and goes to his father. Later on it is Rebecca leading Isaac around so that Isaac blesses Jacob in his journey away from the homeland.
As to not being a swindler, what do you call what he did to his father in order to get the blessing? The first time he enters the room, Jacob can use his mother as the excuse, the second time Isaac asks are you sure you are not Jacob and he replies that he is Esau, it is on him in my opinion. This is just fact and not some "antisemitic" excuse.
Rachel and the idols. When she takes them, she has been with Jacob for 20 years and maybe what he stood for should have rubbed off on her in some way. Using your proposed midrash as it relates to Rebecca, she would not have had the luxury of acting independently of Jacob during that time.
I have no problem with Jacob enjoying himself as it relates to his sexual needs with the women that were presented to him and I still stand for the opinion that his life under Laban was not that bad. He did not leave for the 20 years becasue he had made a deal with Laban as to how he was to be paid for his work This is not the actions of a slave master relationship.
All of the above being said, I again want to reiterate that I appreciate you going beyond the traditional midrashim to form your opinions. From your point of view Jacob is righteous, from mine, he was "chosen" by the Almighty as one of our patriarchs and his foibles cannot not be dismissed as irrelevant. I am still searching in my own mind as to what a truly righteous person is supposed to be like and Jacob does not fit the bill for me.
Shalom,
Mordecai
Dear Mordecai,
Reading your account of what transpired between Jacob and Esau and the lentils, I see that my reading is more tendentious than I originally thought. I also think your reading was overwrought. What Jacob did may not have been chesed, but it wasn’t swindling.
Let’s be clear that that what establishes Jacob as a candidate for “chosenness,” as you refer to it, are his parents and grandparents. Jacob’s merit is clearly not evident from the beginning, but if the choice is between Esau and Jacob, then I think the Torah makes a good case why Esau should not be chosen. The main reason is his threat to murder Jacob.
The Torah is sparse in its accounts and that is so also in the description of the scene in which Rebecca tells Jacob to deceive his father. What I’m suggesting is a plausible explanation for why Rebecca might have felt that she had to resort to deception. Given the patriarchal environment she lived in, this may have been the only way. This is my interpretation. How do you explain why Rebecca resorts to deception? If you say that she must not be righteous, how does this square with the account in Chayei Sarah in which Rebecca is clearly compared to Abraham.
I feel like I’ve made some progress if you can see how Jacob’s obedience to his mother is what enables him to deceive his father – at least the first time. The second time, you write, is on him. Perhaps we can only meet halfway. Jacob deceived his father. The word swindling in the context of Jewish behavior goes right up to the line of inappropriate invective.
Rachel was caught between her father, Laban, and her husband, Jacob. Laban was an idol worship, and Jacob was a monotheist. That aligns with the patriarchal context that I have employed for my modern midrash on Rebecca.
Well, I don’t agree with your reading of Jacob’s sojourn in Padan Aram at the house of Laban, but what’s amazing is how the narrative you have woven has plausibility. This goes to show how malleable, flexible, and adaptive these stories are.
This is the most important point in what you write:
“From your point of view Jacob is righteous, from mine, he was "chosen" by the Almighty as one of our patriarchs and his foibles cannot not be dismissed as irrelevant. I am still searching in my own mind as to what a truly righteous person is supposed to be like and Jacob does not fit the bill for me.”
- Jacob is not yet righteous; he becomes
righteous over his entire lifetime.
- I do not dismiss his foibles. His
foibles show that he is a person in development, not someone who arrives
ready-made. His foibles are not to be condemned; rather they are meant to
serve as an example of a real human, who is imperfect.
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