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CHAPTER 15 LABAN: THE CASE OF A LOST

IDENTITY

CHAPTER 15

Laban : The Case of a Lost Identity

15.1 Introduction

Laban is a biblical personality who makes first and last appearances in the book of
Genesis—at 24:29 and 31:55, respectively. He is also named “Laban the Aramean”
(Gen. 25:20) after his place of residence. Laban and what he represents epito-
mizes, in Jewish tradition, one of the gravest threats to the Jewish people and its
very existence. It is therefore no coincidence that when a Jew is sitting at the table
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for the Seder, on Passover’s eve, to read the Haggadah, one of the verses relates to
Laban in no uncertain negative terms: “Go and realize what Laban the Aramean
wished to inflict on Jacob , our patriarch. Pharaoh decreed against the males only,

however Laban wished to uproot all” (for sources to the double statements in the
last sentence, refer to Exod. 1:16 and Deut. 26:5, respectively).
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Why is Laban s archetype so menacing to the very existence of the Jewish people?
Because Laban represents a total loss of identity, the mixing together of all. Laban
wished to preserve no distinctive features, to display no particularity of personality, and
no particularity of culture or of personal history. In today’s speech, one would say of
Laban’s philosophy of life, “everything goes,” or of Laban’s ideal, “the global village.”
What, indeed, comprises a person’s own individual identity? One can assert

that these minimal essentials are required to define one’s own identity:
• One’s own parents.
• One’s own children.
• One’s own religion.
• One’s own language.
• One’s own property.

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