צֵא וּלְמַד מַה בִּקֵּש לָבָן הָאֲרַמִי לַעֲשׂוֹת לְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ. שֶׁפַּרְעֹה לֹא גָזַר אֶלָּא עַל הַזְּכָרִים וְלָבָן בִּקֵּשׁ לַעֲקוֹר אֶת הַכֹּל, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי, וַיֵרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט, וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, עָצוּם וָרָב

Go and learn what Lavan the Aramite sought to do to our father, Ya’akov, for Par’oh only decreed against the males, but Lavan sought to destroy everyone

 

A Tale of Two Oppressors

- Aaron Birenbaum

 

In the Haggadah we re-tell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt.  Surprisingly, we start telling the story not from when the Jews go down to Egypt, but from the escape of Ya’akov from Lavan. 

The Hagaddah says that Lavan was worse than Paroh; whilst Paroh only wanted to kill the boys, Lavan wanted to kill every Jew.  Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, the great Hasidic leader, describes the intrinsic difference between Paroh and Lavan.  Mitzrayim, Egypt, can also be read meyztarim, shackles.  The Egyptian terrorists bound us with hard work and wanted to destroy our masculine side: strength and body.  This hard work was supposed to keep us from connecting to God. Lavan, however, wanted to destroy both our masculine side and our feminine side: our strength of body and our strength of neshamah, our soul power.  Lavan wanted to keep us from connecting to God by showering us with love and acceptance. 

Rebbe Nachman’s words are even more forceful if we look at the background behind them.  Lavan invites Ya’akov to come live with him, work for him, and get paid.  Ya’akov asks for Lavan’s beautiful daughter, Rachel, in exchange for seven years of work.  When payment is due, he is deceived and is presented with the other daughter, Leah.  (Bereishit: 13-25).  This shows Lavan’s true personality.  He deceives us; he offers beauty and presents deceit.  When Rachel’s first son is born, Ya’akov decides that Lavan’s house is not a good place to raise a nice Jewish boy and flees.  Ya’akov wants his salary.  Lavan tricks him again and again, offering this and then changing his mind and offering that, constantly changing Ya’akov’s wages so that Lavan can cheat Ya’akov out of his hard-earned payment, so that Ya’akov will stay with Lavan and worship Lavan’s gods.  (Bereishit 30:25 – 31:10)   Lavan traps us with kindness, love, acceptance, and beautiful daughters.  When Ya’akov talks about his life he says, “עם לבן גרתי”, “Im Lavan garty”, “I lived with Lavan”.  Rashi explains that the letters of “"גרתי rearrange to spell תרי"ג - 613.  Ya’akov is saying, “Despite living with Lavan, I kept the 613 commandments.” (Bereishit 32:5) 

Paroh, on the other hand, gave us hard slavery, discrimination and genocide.  Paroh had no traps or tricks, just straight out oppression. 

Now Rebbe Nachman’s words make much more sense: Paroh binds and ties us, but Lavan tells us he loves us.  Ya’akov never ran away from Mitzrayim.  Rashi tells us he established a Jewish area in which to have batei-midrash, houses of study (Genesis 46:28).  He requests segregation.  Lavan, on the other hand, welcomes us in, and Ya’akov realizes that he has to run away.  Paroh kills with hate; Lavan kills with love.

  The Midrash says about Egypt that, despite being in a foreign land, the Jews kept their own names (Chayim instead of Harry), language (Shalom Aleychem instead of Hello) and clothing (Kippot instead of baseball caps), and through this, they merited redemption and freedom (Vayikra Rabbah 33).  Pesach celebrates the redemption from all slavery, physical and spiritual.  The very first thing that happens to Ya’akov after he leaves Lavan, in the very next verse, is a meeting with angels (Genesis 31:1-2).  This is the final message:  if we fight and refuse to succumb to Lavan, and we work to avoid him, then angels will always be with us.  Im Yirtze Hashem, God willing, this Pesach should be the last one before the final redemption from all oppression, be it spiritual or physical.

 

 

The Breslov Hagaddah
           Various Torah and Rashi quotes