Said to Myself

Every year in the traditional Seder we read, “Go and learn what Lavan the Aramean sought to do to our father Yaakov. A Pharaoh made his decree only about the males, whereas Lavan sought to destroy everything.”  It is scary to realize that every year we rehearse the “they tried to kill us, let’s eat” as if it is normal or at the least expected. Why do we introduce our children to antisemites throughout history every year as if it is normative if not normal?

I have thought about this question for years, but it takes on a whole new level of meaning on this our first Passover after the Tree of Life Shooting where a White Supremacists went in and killed 11 Jews in a Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Long before Robert Gregory Bowers, Hitler, Haman, or even Pharoah, there was Lavan.

The spike in acts of hate speech and even hate crime against Jews over the last two years has made me ask the question about origin of Antisemitism. Why is there such a long history of people hating us? Where did that all start? That search brought me back to the Torah portion of Chaye Sara. There we meet Rebecca’s brother Lavan. If we accept the premise set forward in the Hagadah that Lavan is paradigmatic Antisemite, what do we learn from Lavan about the origin of Antisemitism?

There we read:

Now Rivka had a brother whose name was Lavan, and Lavan ran to the man outside, to the fountain. (Genesis 24:29)

From this we do not see anything so horrible. Quoting the Midrash Rashi explains his running:

and Lavan ran: Why did he run and for what did he run? “Now it came to pass, when he saw the nose ring,” he said, “This person is rich,” and he set his eyes on the money. — [Gen. Rabbah 60:7]

Lavan is not being hospitable but rather interested in filling his pockets with wealth. This is an obvious counter-distinction to his sister’s emulation of Avraham’s generosity toward strangers in looking after the needs of Eliezer and even his camels. Where Rivka was clearly in line with the hospitality of Avraham, her brother was running after his own interests.  On this the Or HaChaim has another opinion. He writes:

The fact is that Lavan was sincerely concerned about his sister’s innocence, suspecting that the gifts to her of the jewelry by a total stranger could have been the beginning of an immoral relationship between them. The Torah here describes Lavan as if he were a righteous person because it acknowledges his concern for his sister’s chastity. When the Torah states: “it was when he saw,” this shows that Lavan reacted first to what he saw and subsequently to what he heard. As long as he had not yet heard what transpired between the two he put an ugly interpretation on the manner in which he thought his sister had obtained the jewelry, suspecting Eliezer of seducing Rivka. ( Or HaChaim on Genesis 24:29)

At first glance in the text Lavan is simply Rebecca’s brother. He even seems to be hospitable, but according to Rashi he really is just motivated by self-interest. According to the Or HaChaim Lavan is worried about a stranger taking advantage of his sister. On the surface based on his assumptions this does not seem so horrible. This is actually endearing and would not remotely make him an Antisemite, let alone the paradigm of it in our history.

And then I got to thinking about the meaning of his name. Here we are discussing the Rabbinic origin of Antisemitism and Lavan’s name means white. This demanded some exploration. My mind jumped to last summer’s White Supremacists’ Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville. On the evening of Friday, August 11, a group of white nationalists gathered for a march through the University of Virginia’s campus. They marched towards the University’s Lawn chanting Nazi and white supremacist slogans, including “White lives matter”; “You will not replace us“; and “Jews will not replace us”. Their hate seems to spring from a fear that Jews who they define as non-white will replace Whites. On one level the fear of being replaced is in reference to white power, privileged, and money. On another level I cannot help read “Jews will not replace us” as a reference to Jared Kushner. This mob of white men are disgruntled that this Jew has replaced them in being married to Ivanka, the first daughter and their model of Teutonic blond beauty. The myth of the noble defender of our women’s honor against the raping foreigner is not something new that Trump has created. It is but a thin veil of valor to cover over the cowardice of xenophobia and the ugliness of hatred.

Months ago my wife sent me an amazing article Skin in the Game: How Antisemitsm Animates White Nationalism by Eric K. Ward.  There he writes:

American White nationalism, which emerged in the wake of the 1960s civil rights struggle and descends from White supremacism, is a revolutionary social movement committed to building a Whites-only nation, and antisemitism forms its theoretical core. That last part—antisemitism forms the theoretical core of White nationalism— bears repeating.

Ward argues that Antisemitism fuels the White nationalism which is a genocidal movement now enthroned in the highest seats of American power. Fighting Antisemitism cuts off that fuel for the sake of all marginalized communities under siege from the Trump regime and the social movement that helped raise it up.

To Ward’s conception Whites hatred of Ashkenazic Jews is a clear case of the narcissism of small differences, they are both white. Ashkenazic Jews are genetically related to White Europeasn just as Rivka was Lavan’s sister. Like Rashi interpretation of Lavan, these Whites Supremacists are also in pursuit of the privileges and money they believe they are due. On another level we can read Or HaChaim’s understanding of Lavan expressing his paternalistic fear of preserving the sexual purity of his sister as an age-old slur of maligning a marginalized group as rapists. We can see that Whites Supremacists and these rabbis’ reading of Lavan’s introduction might argue that hatred and violence could be painted as legitimate or even virtuous even if founded on bad information and a lack of desire to engage the “other”. And worse we see that White Supremacy origins might just an expression of self-interest and unfounded fear-mongering.

As we get ready for Seder we should prepare to confront the Lavan of the Seder. What rituals and conversations will we have at our Seder to inspire us to confront White Supremacy today? Passover is not just celebration of our “freedom from” (e.g. reclining), but also our “freedom to” (e.g. opening our homes to guests). We desperately need now more than ever the Seder, itself as a ritual, that models the primacy of questions in engaging with different worldviews. We should be liberated to experience empathy of the “other”. We need to remember that even if we do not agree or get along, from its origins, like Rivka and Lavan, we are still family and we should strive to understand each other.

• Borrowed from From Lavan to Kristallnacht to Pittsburgh: A History of White Supremacy
• Thank you Jill Goldstein Smith for your help with this piece