[Avodah] More on Yaakov, sheep and the rods

[hankman]

Prof. L. Levine wrote”":
“It is difficult to
assume that, because of a general action such as setting up the rods in
the sight of the sheep, the sheep would bring forth young that were
this time speckled, the next time spotted, and the next time marked on
the feet. Ya'akov's success can be attributed only to a special intervention
of Divine providence - as attested to by Ya'akov himself. The expedient
of the rods was only an extremely weak substitute for the breeding
animals Lavan had wrongfully removed. Nevertheless, Ya'akov did not
refrain from seeking the aid of this expedient; since ain somchin al haness (see
Pesachim 64b), he was obligated to do his part...”

As everyone who had genetics 101 will realize, if you eliminate 100% of the phenotype, and breed the remainder you will still get some of that phenotype in the next generation with recessive genes. So it always bothered me why was all the hokus pokus by Yaakov necessary. Even more so the pasook itself seems to ascribe the results as caused by the sticks even though a simple natural explanation for the reappearance of the phenotype in the next generation is quite simple. The only explanation I could come up with is that the percentages were much higher than one would expect as a result of genetic calculations thus the nes (and Yaakov’s efforts [hishtadlus] to produce it) is described at great length.

Kol tuv
Chaim Manaster
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