Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
When Rivkah meets Avraham’s servant and hears about Yitzhak, she brings him back to her house to tell her family what happened and to give him a place to stay. This is when we first meet her brother, Lavan. The Torah tells us that Lavan ran out to the man at the well.
Why did Lavan run? Here are two ways of understanding his actions. See if you can tell the difference between the two.
לְמָה רָץ וְעַל מָה רָץ? "וַיְהִי כִּרְאֹת אֶת־הַנֶּזֶם" (בראשית כד:ל), אָמַר עָשִׁיר הוּא זֶה, וְנָתָן עֵינָיו בַּמָּמוֹן:
For what and why did he run? “When he saw the nose ring [Avraham’s servant had given Rivkah]” (Bereishit 24:30), he said, “This person is rich!” and he set his eyes on riches.
Rashi notices that the next pasuk tells us that Lavan saw the golden nose ring on his sister’s face (which was sort of like an engagement ring back then). Why is that important for us to know? Rashi suggests that the Torah must be telling us that Lavan was really focused on that jewelry. Lavan must have been thinking that Avraham, who sent the servant, was extremely rich. So he ran out of the house to try to see whether he could get any of those riches for himself.
לְהֵיפֶךְ מִיבָּעֵי לִכְתֹּב.
וַיְהִי כִּרְאוֹת וְגוֹ' וַיָּרָץ.
אֶלָּא אֲפִילּוּ בְּלִי רְאוֹת הַנֶּזֶם הָיָה רָץ לִקְרַאת אֶחָד מִבֵּית אַבְרָהָם לַחֲקוֹר עָלָיו...
[If Rashi’s reading were correct, then the Torah] should have written [these two pesukim] in the opposite order: “He saw the nose ring… and [then] he ran!” But, in fact, he was running even without seeing the nose ring, in order to greet one of Avraham’s house to ask after him...
Ha’amek Davar (also known as the Netziv) suggests instead that Lavan wasn’t running out of selfishness or just to make himself rich. He thinks that Lavan was running because he wanted to meet someone from Avraham’s house, so he could find out how his relatives were doing (Lavan’s grandfather, Nahor, was Avraham’s brother).
- What evidence can you find in the pesukim (and the larger story of Lavan) to support each of these interpretations?
- Are these readings really contradictory? Could Lavan have wanted both Avraham’s wealth and to know more about how he was doing?
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