Comentario sobre Génesis 30:32

נקוד SPECKLED — marked with small specks like dots old French pointure; English points.

SPECKLED AND SPOTTED. This means speckled or spotted. And every ‘chum’ among the sheep — commentators have explained¹⁵⁹Ibn Ezra and R’dak. chum as meaning “black,” since blackness comes from heat (cham). But this does not appear to me to be correct since most sheep are black, particularly in the eastern countries where it is warm, and if so, all sheep would then belong to Jacob.
The correct interpretation is the rendition of Onkelos, namely, that chum is reddish or brownish, called rouge in Old French, and so did Rashi explain it. Chum would then be from the root; the light of ‘hachamah’ (the sun),¹⁶⁰Isaiah 30:26. since it is like the sun which is somewhat red.

נקוד, I believe that this describes these spots in the region of the neck and head, as the word ויקוד means bending down with one’s head and neck. (Exodus 34,8) The word ויקוד has a dagesh in the letter ק, as on that occasion Moses’ bowing down was equivalent to his prostrating himself, i.e. more than just bowing down. The word is of the category of נפל, which in a similar construction would also be ויפול with the dagesh inn the letter פ. The קדקד is the head, but is also connected to the foot, as the line ויעקוד את יצחק means that he bound Yitzchok’s feet. (Genesis 22,9).

הסר משם כל שה, the young ones, not the adult ones; so that some of them would give birth to young ones with the same skin patterns as the younger ones and will be part of my share.

הסר משם, "Remove from there, etc." It is evident from Laban's words that Jacob would own only the speckled and spotted sheep and goats as well as the brown ones amongst the sheep; the ankle-striped ones would not be part of his share. From the following verse it appears, however, that Laban also took the ankle-striped ones for himself. Why did he do this?

אעבור, I will check in passing together with you.

אעבור בכל צאנך היום הסר משם כל שה נקוד וטלוא, “I will go through all your flocks today. Remove from these every dappled or blotched lamb, etc.” The word וטלוא means או טלוא, “or blotched,” not that the same sheep displays both dappled and blotched skin patterns. The males are the subject of discussion here.

אעבור בכל צאנך היום הסר משם כל שה נקוד וטלוא...והיה שכרי. “Let me pass through your whole flock today. Remove from there every spotted or speckled lamb, every brownish lamb,.....that will be my wage.” Any lambs which would be born amongst Lavan’s flocks from this day on which displayed these skin patterns although they did not have paternal or maternal animals with that skin pattern would be Yaakov’s. The other lambs would be Lavan’s. Yaakov added that if Lavan would be able to find amongst the flocks Yaakov would segregate any with skin patterns other than agreed upon between them, he would be guilty as having stolen them. Lavan replied: “yes, let it be as you have said.” From the above we learn that Lavan kept the goats which were predominantly black. This is why he said in verse 35 ”everyone that contains some white.” He meant that as long as the predominant colour was black such goats were his. He applied a similar yardstick to sheep who had some brown in it. If the predominant colour of the sheep, כבשים, was black but they had some brown in it they would be Lavan’s. Seeing that Yaakov separated the spotted and the speckled amongst the he-goats not including the dotted ones, whereas amongst the she-goats he separated the dotted and speckled ones, it was necessary for the Torah to mention: “every animal with some white in its skin pattern.”

Dark brown, similar to red... I.e., Onkelos translates חום as שחום, which means red.

נקד וטלוא. Aus der Bedeutung נקודה, Punkt, und נעלות מטֻלאות geflickte Schuhe (Josua 9) sowie טלאי rabbinisch für Flicken, ist wohl die Bedeutung des נקוד וטלוא als punktiert und gefleckt sicher. Sehr bemerkenswert und wohl der Untersuchung bedürftig ist der Umstand, dass beide Wurzeln sich aber überhaupt in dem Kreise des Herdenbegriffes bewegen, und נוקֵד ein Viehzüchter, Amos 1, und טָלֶה: טָלֶא geradezu Lamm heißt! Fast wäre man versucht zu meinen, die tiefe Einsicht und spezielle Sorgfalt, die Jakob bei dieser Gelegenheit in der Kunst der Schafzüchtung an den Tag gelegt, habe נוקד, eigentlich ja: Punktierer, zum Ausdruck für einen geübten und sorgfältigen Viehzüchter und טָלֶה, eigentlich das Gefleckte, für ein noch der besonderen Wartung bedürfendes Tier, erhoben. Allein es lassen sich diese Begriffe auch nach allgemeinen sprachlichen Beziehungen erklären. Wir finden nämlich rabbinisch נקדנים (Berachoth 50 a.) als Bezeichnung von Leuten, die alles genau nehmen, auf das Kleinste achten: נוקד in der Mischna (1,1 פרה) gleichbedeutend mit פלגס, als Bezeichnung eines alleinstehenden Tiers, das einer Kategorie entwachsen ist und die andere noch nicht erreicht hat, überhaupt נקד (Peßachim 111b. und sonst) in der Bedeutung: Sauberhalten, שרא דמזוני נקיד שמיה, siehe Raschi daselbst (in anderen Stellen schwankt die Lesart zwischen נקד und נקר, siehe Aruch נקד). Aus allem diesen sind wir berechtigt, נקד in Verwandtschaft mit נגד zu betrachten und als Grundbedeutung: eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen oder auf etwas richten, anzunehmen. Das ist aber Charakter jedes Isolierten, dass es die besondere Aufmerksamkeit für sich in Anspruch nimmt. Daher auch: ein Punkt, als eine von der ganzen umgebenden Fläche gesonderte kleinste Ungleichheit. Ebenso wie נגיד der über einen Kreis hervorragende einzelne ist, auf den sich die besondere Aufmerksamkeit richtet. שמעו כי נגידים אדבר, höret, denn was ich spreche verdient die vollste Aufmerksamkeit aller. נוקד hieße daher einer, der jedem einzelnen ganz besondere Fürsorge zuwendet, speziell ein sorgfältiger Züchter, welche spezielle Bedeutung allerdings von Jakob erwachsen sein kann. (Vergl. das deutsche "Pünktlichkeit") טלה findet sich nicht nur als junges Schaf, Lamm, sondern auch als junger Mensch, Kind: טליא, chaldäisch und scheint daher seiner Grundbedeutung nach mit תלה, (auch vielleicht דלה): an einem Halte schweben, verwandt zu sein: daher טלה: das noch schwankende, noch des Haltes bedürftige Wesen, das nur durch den Halt nicht fällt. Davon dann טלאי das nicht zur vollendeten Einheit mit einem anderen Verbundene, nur Angeheftete: Flicken, und dann Flecken. — חום kommt als Farbe nicht wieder vor. Jedenfalls heißt es dunkel, ob, weil dunkle Farben wärmer halten, oder durch Hitze das Weiße dunkel wird, steht dahin. Kleine oder große Flecken galten als Auszeichnung sowohl bei Schafen als Ziegen; חום, dunkel, wahrscheinlich schwarz, nur bei Schafen. Die normale Farbe der Wolle ist weiß: כצמר יהיו (Jesaias 18). Im Hohenlied 4, 1.2 wird das herabwallende Haar mit einer vom Gebirge herabeilenden Ziegenherde verglichen und die Zähne mit einer aus dem Bade heraufsteigenden Herde Schafe. Daraus ergiebt sich wohl (im Gegensatze zu רמב״ן) dass die normale Farbe der Schafe weiß und der Ziegen schwarz gewesen sein müsse.

כל שה נקוד וטלוא, “every lamb whose skin pattern is characterised by being either dappled or blotched, etc., he referred not to fully grown animals but to the ones under one year old. Neither did he single out the animals whose skin had a pattern known as עקודים; any animals that would be borne henceforth and whose skin reflected the patterns described by Yaakov would be his. Lavan commenced immediately with his treachery by removing any animals which according to accepted standards were likely to either sire or give birth to young ones having the skin patterns that Yaakov had stipulated as becoming his. This treachery forced Yaakov to devise a different means to encourage the remaining animals under his care to produce some young that reflected the skin patterns he had chosen.

וטלוא AND SPOTTED — The word has the same meaning as טלאים “patches” — wide spots.

AND OF SUCH SHALL BE MY HIRE. Rashi comments: “Those which from now on will be born speckled and spotted among the goats, and the brownish ones amongst the sheep shall belong to me.” And so also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra. The meaning of the expression, every one among the flock speckled and spotted, is that it refers to the he-goats; and the spotted and speckled among the goats refers to the she-goats, just as Scripture said, And he removed that day the he-goats … and all the she-goats.¹⁶¹Verse 35 here. And the meaning of the expression, every one that had white in it,¹⁶¹Verse 35 here. is that it refers to those mentioned, [namely, the spotted and the speckled among the he-goats and the she-goats], and all the brownish among the sheep.¹⁶¹Verse 35 here. [Thus, according to Rashi and Ibn Ezra, Jacob’s hire was to be all spotted and speckled he-goats and she-goats that will henceforth be born, and also the reddish ones among the sheep, but not the spotted and speckled among the sheep.]
In my opinion, all the spotted and speckled among the sheep, as well as all brownish ones, were to be Jacob’s hire since he did not make among his sticks any with a brownish color, in which case he caused himself the loss of his hire from among the sheep, which are the best of the flock. Similarly, in his dream, he was shown the rams which went up on the flocks were ringstraked, speckled,¹⁶²Further, 31:10. there being no brownish ones among them. And the meaning of the verse before us is: removing from there every one of the flock speckled and spotted and all brownish ones among the sheep, and removing the spotted and the speckled among the goats, and they shall be my hire, namely, the three colors among the sheep — speckled, spotted, and brownish — and two among the goats — spotted and speckled. And he further said, So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, that everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and all brownish among the sheep, that shall be accounted stolen with me.¹⁶³Verse 33 here.

הסר משם, in your own interest.

הסר, the word is either in the infinitive, or an instruction by Yaakov to Lavan to remove these animals so that he would not be able to say at a later stage that they had been part of his flock which had been overlooked in their joint count of them, and that it was these mother sheep which had given birth to the lambs with the skin patterns Yaakov had chosen to be his wages.

וטלוא ונקוד בעיזים, “or the blotched or dappled among the kids.” These are the female goats. This is spelled out again when in verse 35 Lavan carries out the suggestion Yaakov had made.

Speckled and spotted among the goats and dark brown among the sheep... Re’m asks: If so, speckled and spotted was the sign for goats, but not for sheep. Yet, does not the verse say, “I will remove from them every שה that is speckled or spotted,” [ostensibly referring to sheep]? He answers: The word שה in our verse refers to goats. For it is written (Devarim 14:4): שה כבשים ושה עזים, showing that goats too, can be called שה. Maharshal objects: On the contrary, since Scripture needed to specify (in Devarim 14:4) that שה also refers to goats, this indicates that wherever שה appears without specification, it refers to sheep and not goats! Furthermore, our verse should have combined the phrases and said only, “And every goat that is spotted and speckled.” Also, why does the verse speak first of goats and then switch to sheep? Furthermore, it is written in v. 35, “That day he removed the תישים.” Why when referring to goats does Scripture sometimes say שה and other times תיש? Maharshal answers: It seems to me that שה means sheep, not goats. Nevertheless, the sign [of Yaakov’s wages] was speckled or spotted for goats, and dark brown for sheep, [as Rashi says]. And when Yaakov said, “Remove from them every שה that is speckled or spotted,” he meant as follows: You surely should take away the speckled and spotted goats, and the dark brown sheep, [as those kinds will be my wages]. And take away even the speckled or spotted sheep, [kinds] which should have been mine [but in fact are not]. This way I will not have any of the speckled or spotted goats, or any of the speckled, ringed or spotted sheep. Only those that will be born from now on, i.e., the speckled or spotted goats, and the dark brown sheep, will be mine. But Yaakov did not say to take away the dark brown goats because there were none to be found. This answers all the questions.

It appears that according to the agreement Jacob made he did not want Laban to take the ankle-striped animals. If Laban were to take those Jacob would also have to separate them from the white sheep and he, Jacob, would not be left with white animals which could respond to the stratagem he employed later when the animals were in heat. All his efforts would then have been in vain. It had not occurred to Jacob to deceive Laban in any way whatsoever. He thought that the sight of ankle-striped ones would cause the flocks to become heated and to cause also the speckled and spotted animals to give birth. When you read verse 40 you will find confirmation of what I have said. Crafty Laban was aware of all these implications and took every type, i.e. the עקוד, נקוד וטלוא. In addition he removed every animal that had some white on its pelt. In this way Jacob's potential wages were reduced to almost nothing. This is why Jacob had to resort to the stratagem with the rods; he therefore also took some of the ankle-striped ones for himself. When Laban removed the mother animals he had thereby proved that he considered them as basically Jacob's (the new generation). Proverbs 5,22: "he will be caught in the ropes of his sin" is applicable to what Laban tried to do in this paragraph.

חום בכבשים, brown skin patterns among the sheep; this is emphasised as he did not do so with the goats, as the majority of them displayed such brown skin blotches.

חום BROWN — dark, somewhat reddish, old French rouge. In the language of the Mishna (Bava Batra 5:6): “If he sells it as reddish-dark coloured (שחמתית) and it is found to be white”—a statement made in reference to grain.

והיה שכרי, it will become my wages, from now on.

כל שה נקוד וטלוא , of the תישים, i.e. the males, whereas of the goats the female are meant. As the Torah says וטלוד ונקוד בעזים. The reason why the תישים have not been spelled out by name is that both had understood that they were meant without their having to spell this out. In the story narrative (verse 35) they have been mentioned specifically. The reason Yaakov used the term שה was that this term includes both the males and the females of the species. (compare Ezekiel 34,20 בין שה בריה ובין שה רזה) Another verse referring to the word שה as clearly both male and female is found in Leviticus 22,27 ושור או שה אותו ואת בנו.

וכל שה חום בכבשים, “and all the brown sheep.” Lavan set aside (for himself) all the male sheep which had any brown coloured spots on their pelts, and all the female sheep which had any white spots on their skins. Lavan gave those animals to his sons to tend, and henceforth any of the remaining flocks that would give birth to animals with such markings would be Yaakov’s wages. [He thought that he had made certain there would be only a minute number of such births, seeing that the animals that were likely to provide such genetic input had already been removed. Ed.] I find it difficult to understand to what end sheep are suddenly introduced in a context that dealt with different kinds of skin patterns of goats, both of males and females of the species.(verse 35) We would have expected the Torah to write: sequentially, התישים והעזים, just as the Torah describes this when writing את התישים העקודים...ואת כל העיזים וכו'. Nachmanides writes that the males of the goats were generally dappled and blotched, whereas the male sheep were generally brown. He proceeds to explain our verses as follows: [starting with verse 32. Ed] “remove from there all the lambs that are dappled or blotched, and from the sheep also the brown ones place with the dappled and blotched ones, so that my wages will consist of animals born having these markings on their skin. He wanted the same to apply to the dappled and blotched goats.” He did not mention male goats at all, just as he had not mentioned the male sheep separately. Nachmanides quotes as proof that his interpretation is correct that when Yaakov peeled off some bark from the staves near the water troughs so that they resembled the desired skin patterns, no mention is made of the colour “brown” at all. (compare verses 37-38). If Yaakov had among his flocks of prime sheep only brown ones, i.e. the choicest animals of the flocks, it would follow that he made no attempt at all to increase the number of brown patterned lambs that would be born and would be part of his wages. We must also note that in Yaakov’s dream (31,10) which he relates to his wives, not a word is mentioned about any brown-coloured animals. From the animals and their behaviour which appeared in Yaakov’s, dream it is evident that his wages, or rather the wages that he and Lavan had agreed upon, had been the עקודים, נקודים, and ברודים, not the brown ones. If he had mentioned brown ones in verse 33 it was because among the brown sheep or goats for that matter, these never reproduced in a variety of skin colours other that their original brown. If he had attempted to increase the number of animals with illegal machinations, why did he not try to increase the number of brown sheep that would be born? He did not do so because only brown sheep reproduce brown skinned lambs.

Furthermore, that you may not say... because of the speckled and spotted males... According to the first explanation, they could simply count how many there are now, and know that all above this number were born later. Thus Rashi says: “Furthermore, that you may not say...” (Re’m)

והיה שכרי AND THEY SHALL BE MY HIRE — those which from now on will be born speckled and spotted among the goats and the brownish ones amongst the sheep shall belong to me. Those that are at present such set them apart and place them in charge of your sons, so that you may not be able to say to me about those that will be born in the future spotted and speckled and brownish. “These were there originally”. And a further reason why these should be set apart is, in order that you may not be able to say to me, “Because of the male animals that are speckled and spotted the females will give birth from now onwards to offspring of their own kind” (i.e., speckled etc.).

נקד, displaying white spots among the black or yellowish ones.

וטלוא, a reference to larger patches, as per Joshua 9,5. We encounter this expression in this sense also in Shabbat 114, i.e. טלאי על גבי טלאי.

חום, black The word has this meaning in Arabic when one refers to the colour of the head and throat of the sheep.

והיה שכרי, any animals born in the flock henceforth displaying these skin patterns will be my wages.