On this Thanksgiving weekend, we are thankful to God for the release of some of our hostages, and we fervently pray for the swift release of all those still in captivity. However, our concern for the tragic situation in Israel, and the underlying issue of increasing antisemitism here and around the world, still persists. Since October 7, we have witnessed the rapid spread of antisemitism, particularly on college campuses. Students, professors, and administrators are rationalizing, and even celebrating the Hamas atrocities. Following a recent wave of antisemitic incidents at Cornell University, Talia Dror, a leader of the campus Jewish community, gave poignant testimony at a university hearing. Being the daughter of immigrants from Iran, she reminisced about her family’s history of facing religious persecution. “I never thought the horrific antisemitism we faced would follow us to the country we fled to for refuge,” she said.
After all the progress Jews have made in this country, it may feel shocking to realize how quickly we can experience such a reversal. We may find ourselves searching for some way to think about these events that don’t leave us feeling helpless. While there is no simple solution, we can look to this week’s Parsha for insights into how we should grapple with antisemitism.
The development of Jacob’s relationship with his father-in-law and their society has a lot to teach us on this topic. Upon his arrival in Padan Aram, Jacob greets the local shepherds with good cheer, saying,
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם יַעֲקֹב אַחַי מֵאַיִן אַתֶּם וַיֹּאמְרוּ מֵחָרָן אֲנָחְנוּ
Jacob said to them, “My friends, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” [Genesis 29:4]
The answer to Jacob’s friendly inquiry seems tense, “מחרן אנחנו” “We're from Charan.” He tries again to engage them in friendly conversation and asks about Lavan.
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם הַיְדַעְתֶּם אֶת־לָבָן בֶּן־נָחוֹר
He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor? [Genesis 29:5]
However, he’s greeted with a similarly cold response, “וַיֹּאמְרוּ יָדָעְנוּ” “Yes, we do.” Throughout his ongoing conversation with the locals, Jacob's enthusiasm is met with similarly condescending responses, revealing the brutal reality of Lavan's hometown, Padan Aram, a world where relationships seem undervalued, and deception prevails. After leaving the protected environment of his Yeshiva for the first time, Jacob had to learn that in the harsh world outside, you can’t wear your heart on your sleeve. He saw that these people cared little about relationships and would exploit any sign of vulnerability.
Jacob's father-in-law, Lavan, illustrates this deception by putting on a show of hugging and kissing Jacob, but as Rashi suggests, his gestures are merely a ploy to assess if Jacob is carrying any valuables.
After being famously tricked into marrying Leah, Jacob ends up dedicating 14 years of labor for both Leah and Rachel, with an additional six years devoted to amassing his earnings to support his family. Despite Lavan's ongoing deceptive behavior, God's miraculous intervention ensures that Jacob becomes exceedingly wealthy.
However, their success only provokes resentment, and Jacob, Rachel, and Leah decide to surreptitiously leave together with their family and possessions. Rachel and Leah are painfully aware that their father is extremely cold-hearted even toward his family. When Lavan becomes aware of their escape, he tracks them down, perhaps intending to kill them all, and only God’s direct intervention and warning saves them.
When Lavan finally reaches Jacob, we are given insight into his real motive, with his emphatic declaration to Jacob:
וַיַּעַן לָבָן וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־יַעֲקֹב הַבָּנוֹת בְּנֹתַי וְהַבָּנִים בָּנַי וְהַצֹּאן צֹאנִי וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה רֹאֶה לִי־הוּא
Then Laban spoke up and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine. [Genesis 31:43]
In other words, "Everything you have is mine, all mine!" Lavan was claiming to be the true Chosen One instead of Jacob, and if not for God's intervention, he was willing to fight to the death to reclaim what he asserted was rightfully his and stolen by Jacob.
Given God’s warning against assaulting Jacob, Lavan then attempts to engage him in negotiation. He proposes a treaty contingent on a debate between the God of Abraham and the God of Abraham’s brother and Lavan's grandfather, Nachor.
אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם וֵאלֹהֵי נָחוֹר יִשְׁפְּטוּ בֵינֵינוּ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבִיהֶם וַיִּשָּׁבַע יַעֲקֹב בְּפַחַד אָבִיו יִצְחָק׃
May the God of Abraham’s [house] and the god of Nahor’s [house]”—their ancestral deities—“judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac’s [house] [Genesis 31:53]
This was Lavan’s way of asserting that his family held the most legitimate ancestral claim to the Jewish people. This claim is emphasized when Lavan names the symbolic monument “Yagar Sahaduta” in Nachor’s native language of Aramaic. This prompts Jacob to skip over Nachor and Abraham and confirm his inheritance directly from his father Yitzchak, by naming the monument “Galed,” in their primary language of Hebrew.
וַיִּקְרָא־לוֹ לָבָן יְגַר שָׂהֲדוּתָא וְיַעֲקֹב קָרָא לוֹ גַּלְעֵד
Laban named it Yegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Gal-ed. [Genesis 31:47]
For two decades Jacob navigated the intricate dance of survival within a hostile environment, as Lavan's deception and corruption are repeatedly laid bare. This narrative stands as a tragic prelude to historical antisemitism, which ultimately resonates across the annals of time. Every Passover, as we recite the Haggadah, we acknowledge the assertion that Lavan, surpassing even Pharaoh, epitomized antisemitism. As the Haggadah emphatically declares,
אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם
rather in each generation, they stand [against] us to destroy us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hand. [Haggadah, Magid]
Following this declaration, the Haggadah encourages further exploration with the words that immediately follow: "צֵא וּלְמַד” which translates to “go out into the world and learn." And who is the prime example of this phenomenon “out in the world”? The Haggadah provides Lavan as the prototype:
צֵא וּלְמַד מַה בִּקֵּשׁ לָבָן הָאֲרַמִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת לְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינו
Go out and learn what Lavan the Aramean sought to do to Ya'akov, our father [Haggadah, Magid]
The Haggadah is telling us that the epitome of antisemitism is found within the story of Lavan and Jacob in our parsha. This proclamation underscores Lavan as a quintessential example of antisemitism due to the lengths he would go to, in trickery and depravity, to destroy Jacob. He would even prefer to harm his own family rather than witness Jacob's success. The Haggadah urges us with the words "צֵא וּלְמַד" — "Go out into the world now and learn," prompting us to view this story not just as history, but as a lens through which we can view antisemitism throughout the generations and in our own times as well.
Einat Wilf, a prominent author and former member of Knesset, recently shared a valuable lesson from her extensive experience mediating matters between Israel and the Palestinians. She emphasized that peace is impossible unless Hamas or any of our negotiating partners renounce their goal of eliminating Jews and Israel. Since the 1947 partition, the persistent rejection of the idea of a Jewish state in Israel has left the conflict without a viable resolution. The optimistic luxury of dismissing the repeated calls for a free Palestine "from the River to the Sea" is not a realistic option.
For those downplaying the murderous intentions of Hamas, the words of the son of one of its co-founders, Mosab Hassan Yousef, spoken at the United Nations, offer a chilling perspective. He recounted his brutal upbringing, revealing his father's single-minded goal of enlisting him, even as a young child, in Hamas’ mission of wiping out the Jews. According to him, this was the objective of every parent living under the Hamas regime. He asserted that Hamas openly declared its intention to provoke Israel into causing as many Palestinian casualties as possible, with the sole purpose of attributing the blame to Israel and winning the PR battle.
This recalls the narrative of Lavan, the figure who initially prioritized the aim of harming the Jewish people above his own well-being and that of his family. It evokes Golda Meir's poignant words: "We will only achieve peace when our adversaries love their children more than they hate us.”
Offering strength, the concluding words of "v'hi sheamda" in the Haggadah assure us::
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם
In each generation, they stand [against] us to destroy us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hand [Haggadah, Magid]
As mentioned a few weeks ago, God pledged to rescue us from adversaries aiming to annihilate us. This week, we find that this commitment applies even to those, exemplified by Lavan, who are willing to jeopardize their own survival to ensure our demise. The narrative of Jacob and Lavan offers a compelling framework for understanding our ongoing struggle against groups and individuals singularly bent on our destruction, echoing in the timeless words of the Haggadah.
Hamas and its supporters explicitly threaten our very existence, and we cannot afford to be naive or engage in wishful thinking by attributing peaceful intentions to them. Facing the harsh reality of who we are dealing with is crucial for our physical survival. At the same time, we must have hope. As the Haggadah teaches, we must bear witness in real time that God will save us from those who wish to destroy us.
During this Thanksgiving weekend, it is also crucial to remember that, despite escalating antisemitism, America still remains among the safest places for Jews to live in the diaspora. Let us take time this weekend and every day to express gratitude for the opportunity to live in this country with religious freedom and prosperity. We pray that God willing, a sense of security and well-being endures and extends to our brethren in Israel, in America, and to Jews throughout the world.
Shabbat shalom.
Eliezer Hirsch