צֵא וּלְמַד מַה בִּקֵּשׁ לָבָן הָאֲרַמִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת לְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ: שֶׁפַּרְעֹה לֹא גָזַר אֶלָּא עַל הַזְּכָרִים, וְלָבָן בִּקֵּשׁ לַעֲקֹר אֶת-הַכֹּל. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי, וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט, וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, עָצוּם וָרָב.
We are all familiar with this portion of the Haggadah known as ארמי אבד אבי (The Aramean [Lavan] sought to destroy my father). Here Lavan is being presented in contrast to Pharaoh. Lavan was worse than Pharoah, for Pharaoh only wanted to kill the boys, while Lavan tried to destroy Yaakov, and thus the future of the Jewish people.
This contrast is perplexing to the say the least. Firstly, in the פשוטו של מקרא (the plain understanding of the verses) nowhere do we find that Lavan intended to kill Yaakov, only that he swindled and tricked Yaakov endlessly. Furthermore, if anything, the person whom we do find intended to physically harm Yaakov, was Eisav who came upon Yaakov with 400 men to kill him. So why is Lavan singled out as the one who attempted to destroy Yaakov, and by proxy, the entire nation?
There are many answers to this question, an I would like to suggest a particular approach. As mentioned previously, Lavan was engaged in swindling behavior, constantly reneging on his previous agreements with Yaakov. Whether it was regarding the bride to whom Yaakov was to be married, or the payment he was to receive, Lavan was constantly acting in a duplicitous manner.
At a certain point, for the one who is being subjected to this abuse, it is only natural to become “street smart” and respond in kind, inevitably acting just as duplicitous as the one abusing him. Through this process of “standing up for himself,” he is in danger of having his essence altered and losing his תמימות (innocence), leaving himself irrevocably changed for the worse.
Yet Yaakov withstood one act of subterfuge after another, and came out of it whole, able to proclaim to Eisav עם לבן גרתי ותרי״ג מצות שמרתי - Though I lived with Lavan, I did not sway from the Torah's commandments (Bereishit 32:5). Yaakov preserved his trait of Truth despite the constant barrage of lies thrown at him.
This was perhaps the attempt to “destroy my father” - Yaakov, the symbol of pristine truthfulness, as it says in Micha (7:20) תתן אמת ליעקב. For if Yaakov had fallen prey to the pernicious attraction of retribution, he could have lost this midda of ישרות that is so tied in with attribute of Truth. And thus this trait would be lost to us as well. This would be עוקר the essence and spirit of our people, a Nation whose very existence bespeaks the ways of G-d, as it says in the Gemara Shabbat (55a) חותמו של הקב"ה אמת - The seal of G-d is truth.
Pharoah only desired to physically kill the Jews, thereby preventing them from joining his enemies. But Lavan desired to do much worse; he attempted to rot the inner core of the our Nation, rendering us hollow without any moral compass, ensuring the spiritual destruction for millennia to come. Lavan tried to destroy אֶת הַכֹּל, and if successful it truly would have been the destruction of everything.
So, as we go through the portion of Magid in the Haggadah, we mark the special trait of Yaakov and the essence of our people in stark opposition to the evil of Lavan. May we always remember who we are and the power we have ingrained in us against this evil.
Chag Kasher Ve’Sameach
