Vayeitzei - Don't be Lavan

Hi, this is David Lowski and welcome to the para in five where in five minutes we try to give you some insight into the para to help make your own shabas a little more enjoyable. Pes we get introduced well this is not really his introduction his introduction was much earlier but we knew him of course but we get to know pretty well one of the most difficult characters in Tanakh to deal with which is Lavan and uh Lavan seems like one of the most corrupt and crooked guys you could ever meet. Yeah. Nonetheless, you somehow he managed to trick YaKob a 100 times. Changed his deals a 100 times. Yakov says, "Yeah." And he and he's called love on which is kind of strange. I would have called him shak or black, you know. Call him white. White is like purity, white is uh truth. Yeah. So, Loveven is such an interesting character because he's a master at making him look like he's the right guy. He's a good guy and he's not. So, as we know right at the beginning of the par, he switches Ra and Leia and Yakov says, "How could you do this to me?" And he says, "Look, Jacob, did you really think I was going to marry off the younger daughter before the older daughter?" Now, I don't know what goes on in your house. I know there were some issues over there with you and your brother, but in this house, we respect the firstborn. The firstborn gets married first. And I'm insulted that you even think I would marry the younger sister off before the first one. Now, you're going to do the right thing, YaKob. I don't care what they do in your house. In my house, we do the right thing. Now, if you still want to marry Rahul, you can marry her also work another seven years because I wouldn't insult Rahul by having you work seven years for Leia and then not work seven years for Ra. That would be an insult. But I don't even know why you had a havina that I would do anything else. Yeah. And Yakob was like, whoa. And throughout loving always had some sort of an explanation, some sort of a trick, something that would go on. And so at the very end when YaKob runs away, lo and chases him with an army and he encounters him and he says, "Yaob, YaKob, what kind of way is this to behave? You run away in the middle of the night like a thief. You don't let me kiss my children goodbye. You don't let me say goodbye to to my grandchildren. We were going to make you a sudas praa. What about I would have brought in a band. Forget about what you did to your mother-in-law. She's just sick over this. Now, at this point, Yakob is like and he says, "You should know. I not that I would, but I've got an army here. If I wanted to, I could really do you serious damage. But Hashem came to me last night and said not to talk to you, good or bad. And Yakob says ao that's what Hashem said. So obviously it doesn't matter what you say everything that comes out of your mouth as a lie or a halftruth or a distortion. Hashem said you shouldn't even talk to me. And so Yakob goes on the defensive and says, "What did I ever do? What did I take of yours? Go through everything." And he did. He went through the linings of the jackets. Couldn't find anything. Show me what you got. This is I I worked for you for 20 years in the heat and in the cold. I never brought you a dead animal. I took on every responsibility. I took care of everything I could. And now you chase me and threaten me because you would have sent me off with nothing. And at this point, loving just loses it. And listen to what he says. The girls are my daughters and the boys are my sons and the money is my money and everything is mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Reminds me in my misspent youth of a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Daffy Duck and him, they come into a cave filled with treasure. And he starts screaming at Bugs Bunny, "It's mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine." And he like beats him back down into the hole and and Bugs Bunny doesn't care about the money, you know. And he goes, "I'm rich. I'm rich." You know, he just couldn't believe it. And he finds a genie. And the genie comes out of the lamp and says, "I'm here to Sergio goes try to steal my treasure." And he bangs the genie back in. Well, the genie is very angry and he strikes him. And later on, Bugs Bunny sitting on the beach goes, "I wonder what ever happened to that duck." And he opens up a clam and there's a pearl and a very, very tiny Donald Duck runs over and grabs the pearl and goes, "Mine. It's mine. It's mine, mine, mine, mine, mine." That's what loaning sounds like over here. Everything is mine, mine, [clears throat] mine, mine. Take a look at this part of the story because this is absolutely amazing. He says to his children, "Let's make a circle out of the stones." And says, which I put up. Okay, he just lost it because when you get so stuck on trying to fool everybody, they say a con man's the easiest person to con, you know, and he just got so carried away with his desire for everything, he just eventually burnt himself out. It's a cautionary tale and every one of us should be very careful about how we approach our honesty and dealings with business and with other people. Chavis.