Speaking Truth is the Power
Anti-authoritarianism, faith, and labor
Within the Jewish tradition, Laban is known pejoratively as Lavan HaRamai - Laban the cheater. He earns the distinction of being the most dishonest businessman in history, and consequently is accused by the Passover Haggadah of being the most destructive force to ever threaten the world! Although the Haggadah is primarily a teaching text, used to educate us on the Exodus from Egypt, only once does it instruct us “Go and learn” and it is in the context of studying how Laban was even more evil than Pharaoh. After all, Egypt’s tyrant only wanted to murder the male children, while Laban desired to “ וְלָבָן בִּקֵּשׁ לַעֲקֹר אֶת־הַכֹּל - uproot everything!”
Understanding why Laban is considered devastatingly diabolical needs an explanation. He is the grandfather of the Children of Israel and having a sinister business structure is hardly comparable to committing infanticide! Concealed in this ostensibly awkward attribution of wickedness is the deep wisdom necessary to achieve universal liberation. And, surprisingly, it is revealed through an unlikely focus on workers’ rights.
One of the Torah’s guiding principles of ethical labor practices is the belief that all people must be free to serve the Master of the Universe. Free will and free actions are necessary for spiritual service to be meaningful. The verse, Leviticus 25:55, in which God declares “they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt—I, your God” is used by the Talmud to justify an employee’s right to quit their job. No one can be forced to work for another because we all answer to the Ultimate Boss who cares about our ability to make choices. So, when Laban chases after Jacob who wants to stop working for Laban and leaves without giving notice, God intervenes.
When Laban catches up to him, he tells Jacob (Genesis 31:29-42) “I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father’s [house] said to me last night, ‘Beware of attempting anything with Jacob…” Jacob responds by claiming that Laban had changed the terms of his wages a hundred times and “Had not the God of my father’s [house]—the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac—been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed.”
It is Jacob’s connection to his inherited understanding of Divine expectations to live an honest and just life that both empowers and protects him from Laban’s perceived entitlement of violence. Jacob doesn’t fall for the tricks because he knows who he is, as the Prophet Micha describes, an embodiment of truth.
Throughout history, for the con men turned autocrats, the scam de jour dictates what is true and what is fake - informing and advancing tomorrow’s grift. In addition to the obvious horrors of oppression, cultures of cruelty also uproot the history of our humanity and with it, our attachment to the Source of our values.
Faced with the current threat to our democracy, we should worry less about the tactics of how to combat authoritarianism, and worry more about who we are and what we stand for. If we don’t know what our values are, and where they are sourced, how can we know whether or not we are properly advancing them in this moment that needs them the most?
Proverbs 3:11 teaches “מוּסַ֣ר הֹ’ בְּנִ֣י אַל תִּמְאָ֑ס - Do not despise the rebuke of God, my child…” Homiletically, this charge can also be understood to mean that the greatest rebuke from God is to really internalize and believe that you are a child of God, and as a result, someone who refuses to do despicable things! The more precise our alignment to goodness is, the more intolerant we are to everything in opposition to it.
Laban’s shady shifting was ultimately no match for Jacob’s firm grounding in his ethical identity. What we are witnessing today is no different. Each day offers a competition of chaos designed to sever our connection to norms, decency, and any form of accountability. The smoke and mirrors are intended to distract us from what are objectively un-American and sacrilegious policies of hateful lies. Only the clarity and affirmation of our moral values can combat the distortions that give cover to tyrants and guide us to restoring our democracy.