Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
What's going on here? מַה זֶה?
As Rahel fled from Lavan’s home with her family, she stole her father’s תְּרָפִים (terafim; Bereishit 31:19). What are terafim, and why did Rahel steal them?
We get a hint later in the chapter, when Lavan refers to the terafim as “my gods” (Bereishit 31:30). Rashi says that Rahel stole them because she wanted to stop her father from worshipping idols.
Ibn Ezra (Spain, 900 years ago) thinks something deeper must be going on. He says that the terafim were kinds of magical tools for reading the stars, which Lavan used to see the future. Rahel wanted to make sure Lavan did not use the terafim to find where they were running, so she took them with her.
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