פירוש על בראשית 30:37

מקל לבנה STICKS OF לבנה — a tree that is called לבנה — just as you say (Hosea 4:13) “Under oaks and poplars (ולבנה)” I think it is what is called in old French tremble; English trembling-poplar, which is white.

AND JACOB TOOK HIM STICKS OF POPLAR. As soon as they agreed that his hire would be these colors it was permissible for Jacob to do whatever he could to cause them to give birth in this manner. Perhaps Jacob had made a condition that he may do with them whatever he wants since Laban did not know of the ramifications of this measure, nor did Laban’s shepherds sense anything when they saw the sticks in the gutters once a year during the days of Nisan. For When the flocks were feeble¹⁶⁵Verse 42 here. in the days of Tishri, he did not put them in, otherwise not a hoof would have remained for Laban.
Now some commentators¹⁶⁶R’dak. say that the first year [Jacob did not make use of these sticks, but] there were born to him many speckled and spotted ones by virtue of G-d’s blessing which the angel showed him.¹⁶⁷Further, 31:12. And then he put the sticks in front of those which were his so that they should give birth in their form. This would prevent Laban from saying that their offspring was stolen by Jacob, [as he would have claimed had they given birth to other colored offspring].
This is the meaning of whensoever the stronger flocks became heated,¹⁶⁸Verse 41 here. referring to those that had been born to Jacob by way of G-d’s blessing; but when the flocks of Laban were feeble, he put them not in; so that the feebler were Laban’s, for they did not give birth to speckled ones, and the stronger were all Jacob’s,¹⁶⁵Verse 42 here. including their offspring, for they gave birth to speckled ones.

מקל לבנה, the reason why the letter ק in the word מקל has the vowel patach instead of the vowel tzeyreh, as we might have expected, is because it is in a construct form to the word לבנה, the tree that this staff was cut from. We encounter a similar construction for the same reason in Leviticus 27,32 where the Torah speaks of Ma-assar bakar instead of ma-asser bakar, “tithe of the cattle.” The word מעשר is in a construct form to the word בקר. We find a similar construction in Jeremiah 6,26 with the expressionמספד תמרורים, as well as in Amos 5,16 and Numbers 18,26 and Numbers 22,27.

ויקח, Yaakov did not do this in the first year, but only from the second year on. He did not place the sticks in front of the animals belonging to Lavan, but only in front of those animals which were now his as a result of the young ones born with the agreed upon skin patterns during that year. When he placed the sticks in front of those animals which were his, he did not intend for them to have young ones of a different skin pattern from the one they already had, but only to ensure that all his animals would give birth to young ones bearing the same skin patterns as did their mothers. In other words, he did not deprive Lavan of anything, either directly or indirectly. He acted in a manner which would not allow Lavan even to suspect him of stealing from him. This is the way my father of blessed memory explained these verses in light of the fact that numerous people, reading the story superficially, had expressed surprise that our patriarch Yaakov had been as devious as a superficial reading of the text makes it appear.

ויקח לו יעקב מקל לבנה,”Yaakov took for his use an aspen stick, etc.” Some people are amazed at why Yaakov the righteous person could resort to such a device. Nachmanides counters that seeing that they had made an agreement that the animals born with such skin patterns would be his wages, Yaakov was well within his rights to do everything to ensure that as many animals showing such skin patterns would be born. Perhaps Yaakov had even conditioned his acceptance on his being allowed to do what he could to encourage the birth of animals with the skin patterns that were to remain his. Seeing that Lavan did not have the expertise in genetics which Yaakov possessed, [or the angel taught him in the dream, Ed.] he did not object to such a request. The other shepherds did not become aware of Yaakov’s stratagem as he used it only twice each year in the spring and fall when the animals are in heat. If Yaakov had used the stratagem every time before the animals were at the troughs, Lavan would not have had any lambs born to him at all. Some commentators say that in the first year many lambs were born to the flocks by the grace of G’d, the angel having revealed to him that by the use of the aspen sticks whose bark was peeled in the right way, the sheep while in heat would exercise their imagination and their young would reflect this in their skin pattern. Yaakov made no use of this information until the second year, so as to avoid being accused of having stolen some of Lavan’s sheep. Once he had sheep with such skin patterns of his own, he was no longer suspect.

מקל לבנה, “poplar rods;” fresh, moist rods from the cedars of Lebanon as explained by Rashi.

It is a tree called לבנה... Otherwise, [if לבנה meant white], it should be writtenלְבָנָה . Re’m explains that if [it meant] the tree was white, why did Yaakov need to peel it to make it white? It already was white!

Dem gegenüber wäre das, was Jakob mit den Stäben versuchte, selbst dann eine völlig berechtigte Selbsthülfe gewesen, wenn es auch als ein völlig erprobtes Mittel betrachtet werden könnte, das sich doch schwerlich durch den Versuch bewähren dürfte. Allein, aus der späteren Erzählung wissen wir, wie Laban den Vertrag zehnmal änderte und in Gestalt und Stellung der Flecken und Streifen andere Bestimmungen traf, die durch eine solche allgemeine Einwirkung wie der Anblick der Stäbe doch wohl unmöglich zu erreichen gewesen waren, dass diesmal Gesprenkelte, dann Gescheckte, dann Fußgezeichnete usw. geworfen wurden, so dass der Erfolg rein nur als besondere göttliche Fügung betrachtet werden muss, wie sich ja auch Jakob selbst darüber aussprach. und das Mittel mit den Stäben nur ein äußerst schwacher Ersatz für die widerrechtlich von Laban entfernten Zuchttiere gewesen sein kann, das Jakob gleichwohl nicht unangewandt ließ, um auch hier, nach dem jüdischen Grundsatz אין סומכין על הנס, wenigstens das Seine gethan zu haben.

ויקח לו יעקב מקל לבנה לח, “Yaakov took for himself rods of fresh poplar;” if you were to ask how a righteous person such as Yaakov could play such a trick, the answer this that according to the agreement between him and Lavan the answer is that when the agreement was made Yaakov had told his father-in-law to remove all the sheep of his that had speckled and spotted skin patterns, etc., meaning the young animals, so that he could not be accused later on as these having been stolen by him. This did not include mature animals with those skin patters. Lavan removed all such animals regardless of their age, making it almost impossible for animals that had never shown such skin patterns to bear young ones that did. He was therefore perfectly fair in looking after his own interests, seeing Lavan had made it almost impossible for him to own flocks of his own without resorting to ingenuity; as a matter of fact he did so, with the help of advice from an angel in a dream, as we read in 31,10. In addition, the sage Rabbi Chayim added that careful reading of the text will show that Lavan changed unilaterally the terms of their contract, which had referred only to animals with the skin pattern known as נקודים, whereas he now had added those with skin patterns known as עקודים. This is why Yaakov on his part saw free to do what he did, fulfilling what is written in Samuel II 22,27: עם עקש תתפל, (David speaking) “and with the deceitful people You will find ways to make them cause their own downfall.”

מקל, “rod;” the letter ק has the vowel patach under it (instead of tzeyreh). This is not unusual for the construct mode; we find it also in the word מעשר, Leviticus 27,32, as well as in the word מספד in Jeremiah 6,26 which has the vowel patach under the letter .פ

לח FRESH — He took it when it was moist.

לח, not literally, wet, but not dried out.

לבנה, a tree (poplar) with a white trunk. (before peeling off its bark) He used such a tree in order to produce the desired colour contrasts after peeling the bark partially into the respective shapes to resemble עקוד ונקוד. This could be done only while the saplings were still moist. He also took branches, or sticks that were moist, fresh, as when peeled they would look more whitish. The trees called here לוז and ערמון respectively, are both well known, (plane-tree ad almond tree.)

ולוז וערמון, “and hazel and chestnut.” According to some commentators these were rods from almond trees and from chestnut trees.

He also took a stick from לוז... Rashi is answering the question: לבנה is not לוז; [so why does the verse describe it as such?] Thus Rashi explains, “He also took a stick from לוז. Re’m explains that “were fresh” interrupts between “poplar” and “hazel”, thus [Rashi explains that the phrase] “hazel and chestnut” is a separate point.

לבנה לח, “moist aspen wood;” the wood of this tree is white only when exposed after peeling the bark and still moist. This distinguishes it from the luz and armon trees the wood of which are white regardless of moist or dry. This is why they are described as לבנה, “white.”

לוז ALMOND — He also took rods of לוז, a tree upon which small nuts growold French coudre; English hazel.

מחשוף, exposed, visible. Compare the same expression in Ezekiel 4,7, or in Isaiah 52,10 חשף ה' את זרןע קדשו, “the Lord bared His holy arm.”

ולוז, and almond trees. We know this from the Talmud Bechorot 8, where the time needed for a hen to lay an egg after copulating is given as 21 days, identical to the development of the almond in the almond tree after pollination. It is not to be confused with the hazelnut tree which produces small nuts, and which requires more than 21 days between pollination and blossoming.

וערמון is old French chastenier, English chestnut.

ויפצל, “he peeled;” this word does not appear elsewhere in the Bible. In the Talmud it means to split something into separate parts by peeling or skimming. Examples are enclosures where female sheep or goats are prevented from escaping so that the males introduced will copulate promptly and impregnate them. This is the meaning of the phrase: והיו הקשורים ליעקב, “and the ones that had been tied up would belong to Yaakov.”

פצלות STREAKS — many peelings so that he gave it the appearence of being striped.

מחשוף הלבן MAKING BARE THE WHITE — there was thus an uncovering of the white part of the rod: when he peeled it the white in it became uncovered and visible in the places where it was peeled.