Wednesday, September 05, 2018

The othering of Laban

NAOMI GRAETZ: Arami Oved Avi: The Demonization of Laban (TheTorah.com).
The rabbis translate the phrase ארמי אובד אבי in Deuteronomy 26:5 “an Aramean tried to destroy my father” and understand it as a reference to Laban, who they claim was worse than Pharaoh. But whereas the biblical Laban can be read either sympathetically or unsympathetically, he is hardly a Pharaoh-like villain, so why demonize him?

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