Hate Evil

Lavan, the brother of Rivka, was one of the most evil people mentioned in the Torah. There is even an opinion that Lavan and Bilaam were either related, or were even the same person.

There is a comment by the Alshich that is most telling. He wrote that Lavan’s first impression of Eliezer was that he suspected him of wanting to abuse his sister. He could not believe that there wasn’t some kind of devious motive on the part of Eliezer.

This type of thinking is indicative of a deceitful person. He assumes that the other person thinks like him. In Eliezer’s case, he was successful in convincing Rivka’s family, that his intentions were noble.

When Yakov Avinu had to deal with Lavan, he saw how a person could sink to such a low level of שקר, falsehood. From the time he switched Leah and Rachel, it was clear that he was לבן הארמי, Lavan the Aramean. But if you switch the letters of ארמי, you get the word, רמאי, a cheater.

There is often a clash between people who live by being honest and truthful, and those who live by the lie and falsehood. It is almost impossible for them to understand one another.

The cheat cannot believe that it’s even possible to be honest. And the honest person cannot believe that such crookedness could exist.

We are taught that the only time hatred could be a good trait, is when we hate evil. We must distance ourselves from liars and cheats, and those who are jealous of us. Nothing good comes from having a relationship with such people.

This also applies to family members. Sometimes they can be even more harmful than non-relatives. King David said of himself, שקר שנאתי, “I hated evil.”

The Torah is warning us that, unfortunately, there are people that behave like Lavan. As difficult as it is to understand them, we must outsmart them. But more importantly, we must distance ourselves from them. Sometimes it takes a long time to free ourselves from the Lavans. It took Yakov twenty years, but in the end, his extricating himself from him, laid the foundations for the creation of the Jewish nation.