RESPONDING TO TODAY'S LAVAN
Vayeitzei
Yaakov is described as the Ish Tam Yoshev Ohalim. In contrast to his brother Esav, the man of the field, Yaakov is the simple, sincere Jew who sat in the tents of Torah study, separated from the outside world.
Yet, in Parshas Vayeitzei, Yaakov is called upon to “go out”, to leave his familiar environment and the protective walls of the Yeshivah and the holy land, to travel to enter the material world - the home-turf of Lavan.
How would Yaakov be able to survive, let alone thrive, when faced with the likes of Lavan the skillful deceiver who would certainly seek to exploit him?
The word Tam can be interpreted as naïve. From the moment that he arrived, Lavan saw Yaakov as someone that he could exploit for his own interests. His outward displays of welcoming affection and warmth were just a show to disguise his machinations. His hugs and kisses were just an attempt to rob Yaakov of his riches.
Throughout the Parsha we read how Lavan tried to exploit and deceive Yaakov. After Yaakov worked for seven years to be able to marry Rachel, Lavan switched Leah in place of Rachel, forcing Yaakov to agree to work an additional seven years with no compensation. When Lavan agreed to compensate Yaakov for his work in the final six years, he constantly tried to switch the terms of the agreement to swindle Yaakov and benefit himself.
And even when Yaakov left, Lavan pursued him and tried to claim that all of his assets, his flocks and even his wives and children, belonged to him and that Yaakov had stolen them from him.
Despite Lavan’s attempts, Yaakov prevailed. He won the hearts of Lavan’s daughters, raised a family of Tzaddikim and acquired all of Lavan’s wealth for himself. How was Yaakov the ’unworldly’ Torah scholar able to achieve this?
When Yaakov first arrived in Charan and met Rachel at the well, he told her “that he is the brother of her father and that he is the son of Rivka”. Rashi quotes the Midrash that Yaakov was saying that if Lavan will come against him with deceit and trickery, he will be his ‘brother’ in trickery. If Lavan will be decent and upright towards him, he too will be “the son of Rivka”, the righteous sister of Lavan.
Yaakov stood by these words. If Lavan would be good to him, he would be upright and kind in return. But if Lavan would try to harm him and come to him with tricks, he would not naively take it, but would proverbially “fight fire with fire”.
When Lavan tried to trick Yaakov with his wages, Yaakov used his own ‘tricks’ to acquire the flocks of Lavan for himself. This is not what Lavan had had in mind from the naïve Yeshivah Bochur.
At the end of the Parsha, Lavan played the innocent victim, accusing Yaakov of being the villain who had swindled him. But Yaakov stood firm, pointing out the lies is Lavan’s claims. Yaakov was the one who had tried to be peaceful and civil. Only when he was met with Lavan’s attacks, was he forced to take action to protect himself, his family and their own interests.
There is an important lesson in all of this that is so relevant to what is happening in the world today as the nation of Israel faces the Lavans of the world.
The nations of the world expect that the Jewish people will naively follow their dictates and allow them to ‘fool’ us into compromising and sacrificing our security, territory and assets to our own detriment, to serve their purposes. There is an expectation that the Jewish people should be weak and non-confrontational and that our arms can be twisted until we buckle under the pressure, that we will not stand firmly to defend our interests and protect ourselves.
This has played out in all of the wars and rounds of conflict with the Arab nations and terrorist groups who seek our destruction, where Israel was pressured into ceasefires. It played out in the disastrous ’peace accords’ where Israeli governments were pressured into making compromises to our own detriment, with little or no demands on the other side. And when we were forced to fight back to protect ourselves in response to our enemies’ attacks, they turn around and play the victim, accusing Israel of being the aggressors.
We are the biggest lovers of peace. If our enemies would lay down their weapons and come to us seeking genuine peace, we would gladly be their brothers in peace. But until such time, we need to declare to our enemies and to the nations who try to pressure us, that we will be their ‘brothers’ in how we respond. We will fight to protect our people, our land and our interests, we will continue to call out the real evil and we will not allow ourselves to be swindled or pressured to compromise on our security.
Yet, in Parshas Vayeitzei, Yaakov is called upon to “go out”, to leave his familiar environment and the protective walls of the Yeshivah and the holy land, to travel to enter the material world - the home-turf of Lavan.
How would Yaakov be able to survive, let alone thrive, when faced with the likes of Lavan the skillful deceiver who would certainly seek to exploit him?
The word Tam can be interpreted as naïve. From the moment that he arrived, Lavan saw Yaakov as someone that he could exploit for his own interests. His outward displays of welcoming affection and warmth were just a show to disguise his machinations. His hugs and kisses were just an attempt to rob Yaakov of his riches.
Throughout the Parsha we read how Lavan tried to exploit and deceive Yaakov. After Yaakov worked for seven years to be able to marry Rachel, Lavan switched Leah in place of Rachel, forcing Yaakov to agree to work an additional seven years with no compensation. When Lavan agreed to compensate Yaakov for his work in the final six years, he constantly tried to switch the terms of the agreement to swindle Yaakov and benefit himself.
And even when Yaakov left, Lavan pursued him and tried to claim that all of his assets, his flocks and even his wives and children, belonged to him and that Yaakov had stolen them from him.
Despite Lavan’s attempts, Yaakov prevailed. He won the hearts of Lavan’s daughters, raised a family of Tzaddikim and acquired all of Lavan’s wealth for himself. How was Yaakov the ’unworldly’ Torah scholar able to achieve this?
When Yaakov first arrived in Charan and met Rachel at the well, he told her “that he is the brother of her father and that he is the son of Rivka”. Rashi quotes the Midrash that Yaakov was saying that if Lavan will come against him with deceit and trickery, he will be his ‘brother’ in trickery. If Lavan will be decent and upright towards him, he too will be “the son of Rivka”, the righteous sister of Lavan.
Yaakov stood by these words. If Lavan would be good to him, he would be upright and kind in return. But if Lavan would try to harm him and come to him with tricks, he would not naively take it, but would proverbially “fight fire with fire”.
When Lavan tried to trick Yaakov with his wages, Yaakov used his own ‘tricks’ to acquire the flocks of Lavan for himself. This is not what Lavan had had in mind from the naïve Yeshivah Bochur.
At the end of the Parsha, Lavan played the innocent victim, accusing Yaakov of being the villain who had swindled him. But Yaakov stood firm, pointing out the lies is Lavan’s claims. Yaakov was the one who had tried to be peaceful and civil. Only when he was met with Lavan’s attacks, was he forced to take action to protect himself, his family and their own interests.
There is an important lesson in all of this that is so relevant to what is happening in the world today as the nation of Israel faces the Lavans of the world.
The nations of the world expect that the Jewish people will naively follow their dictates and allow them to ‘fool’ us into compromising and sacrificing our security, territory and assets to our own detriment, to serve their purposes. There is an expectation that the Jewish people should be weak and non-confrontational and that our arms can be twisted until we buckle under the pressure, that we will not stand firmly to defend our interests and protect ourselves.
This has played out in all of the wars and rounds of conflict with the Arab nations and terrorist groups who seek our destruction, where Israel was pressured into ceasefires. It played out in the disastrous ’peace accords’ where Israeli governments were pressured into making compromises to our own detriment, with little or no demands on the other side. And when we were forced to fight back to protect ourselves in response to our enemies’ attacks, they turn around and play the victim, accusing Israel of being the aggressors.
We are the biggest lovers of peace. If our enemies would lay down their weapons and come to us seeking genuine peace, we would gladly be their brothers in peace. But until such time, we need to declare to our enemies and to the nations who try to pressure us, that we will be their ‘brothers’ in how we respond. We will fight to protect our people, our land and our interests, we will continue to call out the real evil and we will not allow ourselves to be swindled or pressured to compromise on our security.