[Avodah] Lavan falsely accused?

[Zev Sero]

On 9/09/2012 2:24 AM, David Wacholder wrote:
>
>  Until I saw the Ibn Ezra in the "Mechokekei Yehudah" I fell victim
> to a simple minded attack on one of my ancestors. As of today I have
> abandoned that approach.  No longer will I claim that Lavan determined
> to cause harm  to his son-in-law and family.

Oy vey. The Torah tells us that he pursued them and sought to do them harm
until Hashem warned him off.  How can you abandon that?  There are no two
interpretations of the story in Bereishis!  The question is only about the
pasuk in Ki Savo.


>  Do Chaza"l attribute such destructive  intentions to Lavan?

Yes, absolutely.

>  Certainly that is the "common" way to explain the Hagada passage.

"Common" way?! There is no other way to explain the Hagadah passage.
The Baal Hagadah says explicitly "veLavan bikesh la'akor es hakol".
How can you explain that any other way?


>  Ibn Ezra begs to disagree - and he is correct.

Says who?  Who is this author who decides that ibn Ezra (and Rashbam)
are correct, and Unkelus, the Baal Hagadah, the editors of the Taamim,
and Rashi are all incorrect?


>  According to Ibn Ezra's "wanderer" approach - how do we explain the
> familiar Hagada passage?[...]  Lavan Ha'Arami is a euphemism, a  risk-free
> device to discuss notorious implacable enemies of God and the Jewish people.
>  For centuries  years that was the Roman Empire, Their murderous intent
> could not be expressed directly. We know that Rav Shimon Bar Yochai's much
> milder negative remarks were sufficient to have him arrested, had he not
> become a fugitive until he was forgotten by the Romans.

Good grief.  What a krum svara, twisting and ignoring the Baal Hagadah's words
just to make him fit an interpretation that was first proposed 1000 years later.
The Baal Hagadah explicitly translates "oved" in the sense of "destroy", not
"impoverished".  It's specifically the word "oved" that he uses to say that
Lavan was worse than Par'oh.  Ibn Ezra and the Rashbam disagree; so what?
The Baal Hagadah doesn't need their haskamah.

  


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon