[Avodah] Was Lavan daft, dense or ...

[Jonathan Baker]

From: "Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org>
> On Sat, November 17, 2007 12:46 pm, R Arie Folger wrote:

> : I believe that the answer is obvious: reshaim, afilu 'al pit'hah shel
> : gehinnam einam 'hozrim bitshuvah. If Lavan wants AZ, he will justify
> : AZ no matter what the proofs against it, including miraculous
> : revelation.
 
> I am not sure I agree. Yes, someone could explain away proofs. And
> someone could after time (say, 40 days) start questioning the validity
> of revelation.
 
> However, beshe'as ma'aseh, it would seem that nevu'ah is an
> incontravertably real experience. This is how a number of rishonim

Unless it's a vision.

> explain Avraham's certainty that he was told by the RBSO to kill his
> son, despite it being more likely to come from the Satan or being out
> in the sun too long, or a dream of some other sort.

The uncensored Efodi on Guide 2:46 suggests just that: even Jonah in the
fish and the Akeidah were also visionary, not real, experiences.  Avraham
was tuned into God, so the vision meant something.  Lavan was not, so it 
meant less or nothing.
 
> I am therefore inclined to agree with the earlier posters who
> suggested that to a polytheist or henotheist like Lavan, accepting
> Yaaqov's G-d didn't have anything to do with rejecting his own
> deities.

So we seem to have four interpretations:

RAF: Never underestimate the human will to be stupid and worship AZ in the
       teeth of the evidence.
RZS: Hashem was only first among equals, so the message was only one factor
       in Lavan's actions.
RDE: Anthropological: terafim were symbols of household power, so keep them
       with the major family unit.
RSBA: Magickal: fortune-telling talking head would give away their position.

If the [non-Mosaic] revelation to Lavan was visionary, he could easily 
discount it, since he wasn't attuned to God-talk.  This might be a fifth
reading, or a support to the first two.

--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com