VBM Did Yaakov Deal Justly With Lavan? By Harav Yaakov Medan
I. The Agreement about the Division of the Sheep
Yaakov wanted to avoid a violent struggle with Lavan, and chose instead to use the weapon of cunning (we expanded on this issue in a previous sicha: Lavan’s Deceit’s). Let us examine the agreement about the division of the sheep that followed the last six years of Yaakov's working for Lavan:
And he said: Appoint me your wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him: You know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. And now when shall I provide for my own house also? And he said: What shall I give you? And Yaakov said: You shall not give me anything; if you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. I will pass through all your flock to-day, removing from thence every speckled and spotted one, and every dark one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness witness against me hereafter, when you shall come to look over my hire that is before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and dark among the sheep, that if found with me shall be counted stolen.
And Lavan said: Behold, would it might be according to your word. And he removed that day the he-goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the dark ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. And he set three days' journey between himself and Yaakov. And Yaakov fed the rest of Lavan's flocks.
And Yaakov took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree; and peeled white streaks in them, making the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived at the sight of the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.[1] And Yaakov separated the lambs – he also set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark in the flock of Lavan – and put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Lavan's flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger of the flock did conceive, that Yaakov laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in; so the feebler were Lavan's, and the stronger Yaakov's.
And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses. (Bereishit 30:28-43)
I. The Agreement about the Division of the Sheep
Yaakov wanted to avoid a violent struggle with Lavan, and chose instead to use the weapon of cunning (we expanded on this issue in a previous sicha: Lavan’s Deceit’s). Let us examine the agreement about the division of the sheep that followed the last six years of Yaakov's working for Lavan:
And he said: Appoint me your wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him: You know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. And now when shall I provide for my own house also? And he said: What shall I give you? And Yaakov said: You shall not give me anything; if you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. I will pass through all your flock to-day, removing from thence every speckled and spotted one, and every dark one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness witness against me hereafter, when you shall come to look over my hire that is before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and dark among the sheep, that if found with me shall be counted stolen.
And Lavan said: Behold, would it might be according to your word. And he removed that day the he-goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the dark ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. And he set three days' journey between himself and Yaakov. And Yaakov fed the rest of Lavan's flocks.
And Yaakov took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree; and peeled white streaks in them, making the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived at the sight of the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.[1] And Yaakov separated the lambs – he also set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark in the flock of Lavan – and put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Lavan's flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger of the flock did conceive, that Yaakov laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in; so the feebler were Lavan's, and the stronger Yaakov's.
And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses. (Bereishit 30:28-43)
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