Commentaire sur La Genèse 30:35

ויסר AND HE REMOVED i.e., Laban removed ביום ההוא ON THAT DAY

AND HE REMOVED THAT DAY THE HE-GOATS. The meaning thereof is that Scripture relates that Jacob had said in a general way, removing from there … the spotted and the speckled among the goats,¹⁶⁴Verse 32 here. [which, according to Ramban’s opinion explained above, refers only to the she-goats], but Laban was afraid of the influence of the male seed, and so he removed the he-goats that were even ringstraked, having a little white on their feet at the spot where they are bound, and he removed from the sheep every one that had white in it together with all the brownish ones. Now if every one that had white in it means that he removed from among the he-goats and she-goats all that had any white color in them, whether ringstraked or grizzled, in that case, and all brownish among the sheep is in addition to the colors mentioned [for, as we have seen, Ramban is of the opinion that Jacob’s hire from the sheep was from all three colors]. The reason why they added the brownish color to the hire from the sheep is that it is not in their nature to be born with the same colors as he-goats and she-goats, and it is not in the nature of goats to be brownish.

ויתן ביד בניו, of Lavan.

ויסר ביום ההוא את התישים, after Lavan had agreed to Yaakov’s proposal he removed not only the females with such skin patterns as Yaakov had mentioned, etc., but also the males both young an mature ones. [His objective was to make it almost impossible for Yaakov to prosper by relying on genetic factors. Ed.]

ויסר ביום ההוא את התישים, “On that day Lavan removed the he-goats (of special skin patterns).” Nachmanides writes that Yaakov had been imprecise and had spoken only about טלוא ונקוד בעזים, the dappled and blotched she goats, whereas Lavan was aware that the male genetics are paramount in determining the skin pattern of the young; this is why by removing the male goats he hoped to effectively prevent goats being born which bore the skin markings which would have made them Yaakov’s. Lavan had even removed the עתודים, animals with just a little white around their ankles. (According to many commentators what is described here as חום, brown, refers to generalized spotting of a brownish colour, the basic colour of sheep being white). According to the way we explained matters this is all logical, as Yaakov also did mention the male animals since it is written הסר משם כל שה וגו', “remove from there every lamb, etc.” The word כל included the males, the billy-goats. Alternately, one may explain that the words כל אשר לבן בו in verse 35, refer back to the goats from which he had separated all those that had any white stripes or spots. The meaning of the words וכל חום בכבשים in the same line, would mean “every sheep displaying the skin pattern mentioned earlier,” i.e. נקוד וטלוא, referring to brownish dapples and blotches.

Lavan, on that day... [Rashi knows that our verse speaks of Lavan and] not Yaakov, for it is written afterwards, “And he gave them to his sons and he placed a three days’ journey between himself and Yaakov.”

Jakob hatte nur die Ausscheidung der jungen Lämmer und zwar nur der klein- oder großgefleckten bestimmt; Laban sondert sofort auch die Böcke und die Muttertiere aus, von denen zu erwarten gewesen wäre, dass sie buntscheckige werfen würden, und zwar auch die nur am Fuße gezeichneten, alles unter den Ziegen, woran nur irgend etwas Weißes, sowie unter den Schafen alles, woran nur irgend etwas Dunkles war, so dass nur eine Herde von ganz weißen und von ganz schwarzen Ziegen übrig blieb, von denen es ein Wunder gewesen wäre, auch nur im geringsten buntscheckige Junge zu erwarten.

את התישים i.e. THE HE-GOATS.

כל אשר לבן בו EVERY ONE THAT HAD WHITE IN IT — all that had a white spot.

ויתן AND HE i.e. Laban, GAVE THEM ביד בניו INTO THE HAND OF HIS SONS.