By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — This parsha deals with the life of Jacob, beginning with escape to Haran from his murderous twin Esau. He spent 20 years there, accumulating a family and eventually herds of livestock, contrary to the machinations of his greedy father-in-law Laban. On return to Canaan, he ‘buried the hatchet’ in friendship with Esau.
I. Genesis 28: 20-21 “Jacob then made a vow, saying, ‘If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to my father’s house–the Lord shall be my God.'”
This sounds like a conditional statement for accepting belief in God, very troubling of Jacob, a patriarch-in-the-making of the Jewish people. The vow appears to be an attempt to bargain with God, (i.e. a quid pro quo). In my search of the internet, I found no pagan written record of such a proposal to gods, though it would appear likely to have occurred.
Meanwhile the rabbis seem to have turned cartwheels to rationalize Jacob’s behavior. Mainly they considered that it was simply part of a personal vow, that is, a promise. [1]
A more contemporary interpretation, by a Seventh Day Adventist, is that Jacob was simply spiritually impaired at that early stage of his life, later to mature. He concludes that God does not reject the spiritually impaired, and neither should we. [2]
II. Genesis Ch. 29, vv. 10-11 “And when Jacob saw Rachel,…and watered…(her) flock…Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and broke into tears.”
This is an example of love at first sight. I wondered about existence of this phenomenon in ancient times. It is acknowledged to have commonly occurred, but the first well-recorded explanation comes from a story told by Aristophanes, described by Plato in The Symposium. Thus, ‘humans were originally beings with four arms, four legs, and a single head with two faces. Zeus saw these creatures as a threat. Instead of destroying them, he split them in two.’
This made these split humans miserable, and they would long for their other half. Per Aristophanes, “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature. Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole…and each of us is …seeking the half that matches him.”
Ergo, this explains love at first sight. When soulmates find each other for the first time, they instantly recognize their matching halves.
Thus, we see examples throughout literature, from the Bible onward to this day. Shakespeare wrote, “Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?” Even Prince Harry, in our day, explained meeting Meghan Mark for the first time as love at first sight.
Today there is science on this phenomenon. One study says it only takes 13 seconds to rate someone’s beauty. Another factor is how much another person looks like you. In a preferential morphing image experiment, most people chose an image of their own self morphed into the opposite sex.
I should add that a number of love cliches circulate out of the mouths of such lovers; such as. “feeling butterflies,” “hearing fireworks,” “on cloud 9,” “warmth,” “falling,” “stumbling,” “soaring,” and “hands shaking.” [3]
III. Genesis 29: 23-25 “When evening came, he (Laban) took his daughter Leah and brought her to him (Jacob), and he cohabited with her…When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban ‘What is this you have done to me?…'”
IV. Genesis 30: 32-41 “…every dark-colored sheep…every spotted…goat. Such shall be mine (proposed Jacob)…that same day he (Laban) (then) removed (dark and spotted) goats…and…sheep…three days’ journey between himself and Jacob…”
“Jacob (the trickster, not to be outdone, cleverly) then got…shoots of poplar…almond and plane, and peeled…stripes on them…set up goats…mating (in such presence)…brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young. (a similar strategy for the sheep)…special flocks for himself…Moreover…(arranged for) sturdier animals…to Jacob (his flock)…(he) grew…prosperous.”
What I did find was a proposed theory as to how Jacob, a practitioner of animal husbandry and observer of simple empirical inheritance patterns could have achieved his success in outfoxing his greedy father-in-law.
We can forget the foolish notion that the animals’ breeding outcomes were determined by looking at patterned wood colorations while breeding.
Even an unscientific person observes that children inherit traits of parents, as do animals. From Mendelian principles, it is known today that white wool sheep have the dominant color gene. Accordingly, most sheep are white, which happens to be the desired wool color. This is true whether a white sheep has both paired genes for white or a pair combination of white and black (the recessive gene).
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.