Parshat Miketz - 5764

Bondage and Freedom in Bereshit and Shemot

From the point of view of redemption from slavery, Sefer Bereshit is often viewed as the lead-up to Sefer Shemot. In this week’s Parashah, we see the rise of Yoseph to a pinnacle of power, providing sustenance to all of the ancient Middle East. We know that he will eventually confiscate all the land of Egypt, except the land of the Priests and of the Jewish People, as payment for food. In the early Parashiot of Sefer Shemot, the Torah will tell us of the rise of a Pharaoh “who does not know Yoseph,” possibly an indication of a popular revolt against the policies of Yoseph, and the beginning of the enslavement of the Jewish People, to the point where they will be required to make bricks without straw.

We will also learn of a genocidal plot by the Pharaoh of Egypt to drown infant male Jews in the Nile. His advisors regarding that plot, according to the Midrash, included Bilaam, the evil heathen prophet, who enthusiastically endorsed the plan, and was punished by humiliation when he tried to curse the Jewish People, and by death by the sword. A second advisor was Iyov, Job, who remained silent and was punished for his silence by having his faith tested severely, and a third advisor was Yitro, who expressed his disapproval of the plan by fleeing and was rewarded for his flight by becoming the father-in-law of Moshe Rabbeinu.

One might have imagined that Pharaoh, for denying G-d, for imposing harsh slavery upon the Jews, and for attempting genocide against the Jewish People, would be Number 1 on the list of Enemies of Israel. Yet, very surprisingly, in the Passover Haggadah, another candidate is asserted; namely the wicked Lavan who, despite the fact that his name means “white,” suggesting purity, his deeds were in fact black, and the Haggadah contrasts him with Pharaoh as follows: “... for Pharaoh decreed death only upon the Jewish males, while Lavan sought to uproot the entire People.” Now this is a very surprising evaluation of Lavan’s character by the Baal HaHaggadah. Lavan certainly wasn’t a very nice man, switching Yaakov’s salary at will, providing him with terrible working conditions and, worst of all, deceiving him by switching his bride from his beloved Rachel to her sister, Leah. But this doesn’t seem to qualify him as one who attempted to uproot the entire Jewish People.

Let’s look a little more closely at Lavan, and consider his intentions from two aspects: Lavan claimed when he caught up to Yaakov, “...The daughters are mine, and the sons are mine, and the sheep are mine, and everything you see is mine...” (Bereshit 31:43) Was this just an outrageous lie, or did Lavan base his claim on some logic? As far as the children were concerned, if Lavan were a prophet, he could have said, “If I hadn’t switched Leah for Rachel, you would have had no children at all!” For Rachel was by nature barren, incapable of giving birth. It was only because of jealousy of Leah, and G-d’s turning, as it were, a sympathetic ear to her cries, that Rachel was able to have children, as we find in Bereshit 30:1, “And Rachel saw that she had not born children to Yaakov, and Rachel was jealous of her sister, and she said to Yaakov, ‘Give me children, for if not, I will die!’ ” And when Rachel finally gives birth to Yosef, the verse reads (Bereshit 30:22), “And G-d remembered Rachel, and G-d heard her, and He opened her womb. And she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, ‘The L-rd has gathered in my shame.’ ”

And indeed, all of Leah’s children were conceived in the bitter context of her sibling rivalry with her sister and co-wife (a relationship later forbidden by the Torah). As Scripture says (Bereshit 29:31-32), “And the L-rd saw that Leah was hated, and He opened her womb,...And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuven, because she said, ‘The L-rd has seen my misery; perhaps now my husband will love me.’ ” And so on, in a similar vein, for all her children. So indeed, in this sense, Lavan would have been correct in claiming the children of Yaakov, as resulting from his deception!

But on a deeper level, we can understand why Lavan is viewed so harshly by the Baal HaHaggadah. Lavan’s statement concerning Yaakov, after the latter had served him for a month, “Indeed you are my close relative; it is not appropriate that you serve me without compensation” can also be translated as “Even though you are my close relative, you must serve me without compensation.” And although he did pay him, on a basis that shifted with the sand dunes of the desert, he really considered Yaakov a slave.

All the children of a slave, in addition to his wives and in addition to himself, belong to the master! It was in this context that Lavan said, “The daughters are mine, and the children are mine...” And from this point of view, he was entitled to the entire family of Yaakov, in addition to Yaakov himself. And in this regard, he was worse than Pharaoh, who only claimed absolute sovereignty over the Jewish males.

To this Yaakov responded, “Im Lavan garti,...” “I have lived with Lavan;” and the Midrash completes Yaakov’s intent, “ve-Taryag Mitzvot shamarti,” “but I have observed the 613 Commands of the Torah.” Jewish Tradition teaches, “There is no truly free individual besides one who occupies himself in the Torah.” This activity proclaims one as a servant of G-d, and not a servant of any human being. Yaakov rejected Lavan’s claim out of hand, declaring himself entirely free to pursue the worship of G-d.

I’ve often looked askance at the guarantee by the Constitution to all citizens of this Land of the right to the “pursuit of happiness.” Surely happiness isn’t the most important goal in life. Rather, the most important goal is to be a loyal servant of G-d, as we say in the “Shacharit” Prayer on Shabbat, “Let Moshe rejoice in his portion, because You have called him a loyal servant.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel
Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU

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