Readers of the Haggadah have always wondered at the strange statement suggesting that Laban was even worse than Pharaoh. While Laban was not perfect but it is hard to understand how the sages could reach such an extreme conclusion! Horowitz explores this issue but also analyzes the nature of Pharaoh’s oppression of the Israelites. Why was Pharaoh more concerned with the males than the females while Laban would have felt threatened by both? The issue here is connected with the question of Noahide identity and the laws of Noahides according to the sages. Go and learn: “Pharaoh issued his decree only for the male children; Laban sought to exterminate them all.” To understand this statement, we must analyze Genesis, Chapter 31. First, what is the connection between “Very well, you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house,” and the last part of the verse, “Why did you steal my gods?” And in his response, Jacob seems to contradict himself; he tells Laban that he can take the life of anyone who has taken his idols but he goes on to say that if Laban finds anything that is his, he is free to take it. The commentators disagreed about whether our forefathers were considered to have the status of Israelites from the time of the patriarchs until the giving of the Torah or if they were considered to be Noahides. Different laws applied to a Noahide vs. an Israelite. We find a discussion in the Talmud that suggests that a Jewish worker could retract from working even up to the middle of the day based on the verse, “For they shall be servants unto me (and not the servants of servants).”³² 10a; also see Leviticus 25:55. Special rights applied to Israelite workers A non-Jewish worker, on the other hand, could not retract once he accepted a job. Laban’s statement, then, is, “Since you were leaving to go to your father’s house; you must see yourself as an “Israelite” so why did you steal my idols since you are forbidden to have even benefit from an idol?” We can now understand Jacob’s answer. Since stealing is punishable by death for a Noahide, whoever stole it should be put to death because they clearly do not accept the monotheistic teachings of Abraham. Jacob is saying, if you find the idols, treat the person like a Noahide; but with regard to everything else in my household the law of the Israelites applies – there is no death penalty – you may take it back. The difference between Laban’s and Pharaoh’s attitude toward the children of Israel can also be understood in terms of Noahide vs. Torah definitions of identity. While the other nations defined a child’s identity by the male line, Israelites did so, based on the female line. This meant that even if a Noahide had relations with an Israelite woman, the child was considered to be an Israelite. Laban, then, considered all of Jacob’s children to be a threat. They would follow Jacob’s identity and therefore it was necessary to destroy both the male and female lines. Pharaoh, on the other hand, considered the Israelites to be Noahides. This meant that if the Israelite women had relations with an Egyptian man, the offspring would be considered an Egyptian. If an Israelite man had relations with an Egypt woman the line would be continued. It was, therefore in Pharaoh’s interest to get rid of the Israelite males and to keep the Israelite women for breeding with Egyptian men.

footnotes: ³² Baba Metziah

Continuing the earlier discussion regarding Laban, Horowitz relates this question to Lurianic Kabbalah. According to Isaac Luria, or the Ari as he is often called, Israel’s exile was necessary for the cosmic redemption of the world. Horowitz draws on the Lurianic myth of creation (tzimtuzum), the breaking of the vessels (shevirat hakeilim), and the redemption of the divine sparks (nitzotzot) which had an honored place in Hasidic thought as well. According to Luria, a cosmic catastrophe took place at the time of creation. God figuratively withdrew from the universe in order to make room for creation but allowed His sparks to be contained in ‘earthly vessels.’ The divine sparks, however, were too powerful and caused the vessels to shatter and the divine sparks to scatter throughout the world. Hidden amid the evil and darkness of the world, then, are divine sparks. It is the job of the Jewish people to redeem these sparks wherever they are found and to allow them to return to their divine source in order to bring redemption to the world. The exile of the Jewish people, then, is a necessary part of redeeming the sparks - nitzotzot. Sin causes the sparks to remain hidden in the world while mitzvot reveal these hidden sparks. What is interesting is that the myth of divine sparks is very specific and even mathematical – there are 288 sparks hidden in creation. Jacob’s exile in Aram and his descendents exile in Egypt were all part of the process of freeing the sparks. These numbers are arrived at through complex gematriot and numerical calculations. Horowitz will return to the Lurianic myth many times in his understanding of the Exodus. Israel’s servitude is all about redeeming the sparks that are trapped in Egypt. Laban sought to exterminate all of them – even the females: When Laban confronted Jacob following his flight from Aram, Laban said: “The girls are my daughters and the children are my children…all that you see is mine!” (Genesis 31:43) God warned Laban not to harm Jacob but said nothing about Jacob’s offspring. Laban felt compassion for his daughters and their children but his intention was ultimately to destroy future generations of their children. This is implied by his statement above; he is saying, in effect, “Your wives and children are really mine and I can do with them as I wish!” Later, in Egypt, Laban’s son would become one of Pharaoh’s advisors who would suggest wiping out both the male and female Israelites. Balaam ben Beor³³ is really the son of Laban (Beor is another name for Laban). Laban’s intentions had to do with the divine sparks which fill the world. According to the Kabbalists, there are 288 sparks that fell into the mundane world and were mixed in with the shards which were created at the time of creation. The role of Israel in the world is to redeem these sparks and to return them to their Divine source. Laban was intent on preventing Jacob from accomplishing this task. The gematriah of Rachel and Leah are 274; when we add the eleven sons of Jacob that were born in Laban’s house along with Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, as well as the two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, the number adds up to 288 – the nitzotzot, the divine sparks. This number is hinted at in God’s warning to Laban: “Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good (tov) or bad (ra). The gematiah of these two words along with the two words as one expression is also 288; that is, God actually warned Laban not to interfere with the divine sparks that Jacob was in the process of freeing. It was for this reason that initially, Laban only wanted to give Jacob Leah (gematriah, 36) as a wife which would have left 252 sparks in his control, which is the gematriah of the word Arami. When he was forced to give Jacob his second daughter, Rachel, he was left with 14 sparks. This is hinted at in the expression, Arami oved Avi,** Laban, the Arami, wished to destroy Avi, the last 14 divine sparks.³⁴ since the word itself is counted as one, thus increasing the value of the word. What we see here in Jacob’s exile and later in the exile of the people of Israel to the land of Egypt, is that it ultimately served a good purpose. It is necessary for the people to be in exile to redeem the divine sparks hidden among the nations. God is entirely good but goodness is expressed through many different avenues. Also nothing happens without God’s decree. The divine sparks descended into the world because of the sin at the tree of knowledge, the sins of the generation of the flood, and because of the tower of Babel, as the Zohar and other sources explain. Despite the misfortune that resulted from these events, we are commanded to bless God for the good as well as the evil in our lives because what appears to us as misfortune ultimately serves a higher purpose that brings us closer to redemption. We must, therefore, give thanks for the exiles which we have suffered, just as we give thanks for the redemptions which have experienced. It is for this reason that we begin the Seder by saying, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.” We praise God for having made us slaves just as we praise God, “who took us out of there.” Similarly, this is the reason we eat bitter herbs at the Seder to give thanks for the bitterness of slavery just as we give thanks for the freedom we gained. We also say, “At first our ancestors were idolaters…” to remind ourselves that the purpose of exile was to lift up the divine sparks which fell (into the world) through the sin of our ancestors. We have pointed out elsewhere that the gematriah of rekhush gadol, great wealth³⁵ tells us that Israel left Egypt with great wealth. Since the gematriah of this expression is the same as the Tree of Knowledge, the implication is that the great wealth was the sparks from the tree of knowledge through which Adam and Eve sinned!, is 569. When we add the number 70 (the number of people who went down to Egypt with Jacob) i t has the same gematriah as the expression “etz hada’at,” the tree of knowledge (639). Thus, when Israel left Egypt, they took with them the sparks that were scattered when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit of the etz hada’at, tree of knowledge. There are many allusions to the redemption of the divine sparks when the Israelites left Egypt. The word “mitei” in the expression mitei mispar k‘mi’at, “few in number,” has the same gematriah as the words etz pri, “the fruit of the tree” (450) and the word mi’at, few, is made up of the same letters as the word ta’am, taste; this is an allusion to the teaching that the “fruit” of the tree of knowledge and the tree itself were both sweet in taste.³⁶ The three signs which God gave Moses before he returned to the land of Egypt are also an allusion that the purpose of the Exodus was to redeem the lost divine sparks. The first sign was to turn his staff into a serpent – an allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The second sign was to make his hand leprous when he removed it from his cloak – an allusion to the tower of Babel. The sin of the tower of Babel was evil speech and leprosy was the punishment of those who gossip about others. And the third sign, turning water to blood, was an allusion to the flood. Through these three signs Moses would be able to convince the people of Israel that the Exodus was all about redeeming the sparks that were lost because of these three sins. Why was Pharaoh’s intention to kill the males and not the females? First one must understand the hidden meaning of the terms used in this narrative. Male and female are allusions to the divine sparks. “Male” and “female” are references to khochma (wisdom) and binah (understanding), the masculine and feminine attributes of the divine in the sephirotic system. Jacob initially went down to Laban to redeem the lost sparks. The verse, “I took your father from beyond the river,” (Joshua, 24:2-4) is a reference to feminine aspect of the divine, binah, which is called a flowing river (since all the other Sephirot flow forth from it). The people on the other side of the river are called b‘nai kedem, since the kodem, precedes the river just as khochma precedes binah. Thus, the journey to the land of Canaan, across the river, by Abraham and then by Jacob, is really an allegory about the redemption of the divine sparks lost in the world*. Laban* represents, the kelipot, the husks, into which the sparks were mixed*.* His name is made up of two parts. The first two letters, lamed bet (gematriah, 32) are a reference to the 32 paths of khochma, wisdom, while the final nun, is a reference to the 50 gates of purity that are associated with the attribute of binah,** understanding. Jacob, in his great wisdom, overcame Laban’s deceit and redeemed the “thirty two paths of khochma,” wisdom, when he fled from Laban. However, he was unable to redeem the “fifty gates of” purity associated with binah.³⁷. The number 32 comes from Sefer Yetzirah and the number 50 is connected with the idea of there being fifty gates of impurity in Egypt. Therefore, he went down to Egypt to continue the redemption of the divine sparks. These fifty sparks had fallen into the deepest impurity, and until Israel descended into the impurity of Egypt, the sparks could not be redeemed. Thus we say, Laban, the Arami, sought to destroy Avi, but he went down to Egypt. Since Pharaoh already had control of the feminine sparks, he now sought to take control of the masculine sparks, the sparks of khochma, by killing the males. That is why the Torah repeatedly says that the heart (leiv) of Pharaoh was hardened. He sought to control the 32, lamed bet, paths of wisdom, khochma. How did Pharaoh plan to do this? By enticing the people of Israel to worship idols in Egypt, since idolatry would damage the attribute of khochma, divine wisdom. The turning point in the Exodus story comes with the fifth plague, cattle disease, since the Egyptians worshipped their cattle. Thus, when God struck their cattle, the divine sparks of wisdom we were redeemed from Egypt (because the Israelites would now see that the gods of the Egyptians were not gods at all). That is why the Haggadah says that the expression “With a mighty hand” is a reference to the fifth plague.³⁸ It is for this reason that the expression in the Torah changes during this plague from “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” to “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Although the battle was not over, Pharaoh was already defeated! Pharaoh, then, did not decree against the females because it was unnecessary since they were already under the control of the Egyptians (since Jacob had not yet redeemed those sparks), but Pharaoh did make a decree against the males since he wished to have power over them. Moses, however, redeemed both male and female. Another proof that Laban planned to kill both the male and females: Laban said to Jacob: “I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father said to me last night, “Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.””³⁹This verse suggests that God only warned Laban regarding Jacob and not his family. When Laban says “The girls are my girls and their children are my children,” Laban implies that it was his intention to kill the woman and men. Because Jacob was able to free the divine sparks that were in his power he planned even greater evil against the offspring of Jacob. This also made the subjugation of the Israelites even worse in Egypt. That is why Moses said, “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has dealt worse with Your people, and You still have not delivered Your people.”⁴⁰ Initially, Pharaoh tried to subjugate them with a peh rakh,** delicately; only later did he subjugate them with force.⁴¹. The 288 divine sparks were mixed in with the husks of evil that were spread throughout the land of Egypt. The words Tov v‘Rah, good and evil, have the same gematriah. ⁴² only adds up to 288 if one adds the ‘kollel’ the expression to the number. Thus, when Laban says I have it in my power to do good and evil – he is really speaking about the divine sparks. When Jacob separated the adarim,** flocks, thus arranging to take some for himself from Laban, he is really arranging to take the divine sparks. Adar’im equals 274. We add to this number the 12 sons of Jacob and Dinah making 287. There is still one spark short in this accounting, just as there is one short in the gematriah of tov v‘rah. Similarly the word avi, as in “An Aramean sought to destroy avi, my father, is also 13, referring to the sons and daughter of Jacob.⁴³

footnotes: ³³ The Midrash suggests that Pharaoh had three advisors regarding the Israelites: Laban’s son who called for the total destruction of Israel; Job who remained silent and did not advise Pharaoh one way or another; and Jethro who discouraged Pharaoh and then fled from Egypt to save himself. ³⁴ If you do the math you will note that the numbers are off by one in several cases. This does not trouble practitioners of gematriah ³⁵ The Torah ³⁶ This is an allusion to the idea that the tree of knowledge was not a tree at all but a source of enlightenment and knowledge. ³⁷ These two numbers are commonly associated with these two sephirot ³⁸ See page ________ ³⁹ Genesis 31:29 ⁴⁰ Exodus 5:23 ⁴¹ After Laban or his son advised him to do so, according to the Midrash ⁴² The gematriah ⁴³ So where is the extra spark since all these numbers come to 287? This could suggest that even after the flight and redemption from Laban the process of redeeming the sparks was still not done.