Commento su Genesi 31:29

יש לאל ידי means MY HAND HAS THE STRENGTH AND THE POWER — to do you hurt (אל therefore means strength and יש לאל ידי is equivalent to יש אל לידי). Wherever אל is used as a Divine Name it is because it signifies strength and abundance of power.

ואלקי אביכם, for I respect Him.

ואלוקי אביכם, not because of your merits.

יש לאל ידי, as per Onkelos, i.e. “I possess the power.”

ואלוקי אביכם אמש אמר אלי, וגו', “and the G’d of your father has said to me last night.” I find it difficult to understand why Lavan told Yaakov that G’d had told him not to do harm to him. After all, it was a known fact that Lavan hated Yaakov and wanted to totally uproot him. Seeing that G’d had forbidden him to do so, why did he mention this to Yaakov? Yaakov would have been more afraid of him if he had not mentioned his nocturnal experience at all? I believe the reason is that Lavan was aware that Yaakov was a prophet and he thought that G’d would have revealed to him what He had said to Lavan. Under those circumstances he felt it would be better for him to come clean right away and admit that G’d had warned him.

יש לאל ידי, “it is within my power, etc.” The wicked always boast of their wicked deeds; Lavan was no exception; he too boasted about his wickedness. When he coupled the statement יש לאל ידי with the words ואלוקי אביכם, he meant that for the last twenty years he had been able to inflict harm on Yaakov as the fact that G’d did not warn him not to harm Yaakov until the night before he caught up with him shows that prior to this G’d would not have prevented him from harming Yaakov. The fact that G’d did not appear to him until that night may also be taken as proof of Lavan’s goodwill towards Yaakov. Surely, if G’d was so solicitous of Yaakov’s welfare, He would have had to warn him off before now unless G’d was well aware that Lavan had not harboured any hostility against Yaakov. If Yaakov had only left because he was anxious to return to his family in Canaan why did he steal the Teraphim? He repeated mention of Yaakov having stolen something to lend emphasis to the fact that the very fact of Yaakov stealing from him bothered him the most.

עמכם, ich habe Leute genug bei mir, um mit euch allen fertig zu werden. — יש לאל ידי: wie das Verhältnis des Blutes zur Seele vorzugsweise nicht also ausgedrückt wird, dass die Seele im Blute, sondern umgekehrt, das Blut in der Seele ist, von der Seele umfangen und beherrscht wird (siehe Kap.9, 4): ebenso sagen wir hebräisch nicht, die Hand habe Kraft, sondern: die Kraft hat die Hand. Der Seele geht keine Fähigkeit und Kraft verloren, auch wenn ihr der Körper ganz oder teilweise verstümmelt wird. Die Kraft hat mitunter keine Hand, aber nie hat eine Hand die Kraft. Daher die Ausdrücke ש׳ oder אין לאל ידי usw. Es kann aber אל auch einfacher סמיכות sein: es liegt in der Kraft meiner Hand. — אֶמֶש, von מוש weichen, mit individualisierendem א, die eine Hälfte des Tages, die bereits gewichen ist, also nur die vergangene erste Hälfte des Tages, die vergangene Nacht.

יש לאל ידי לעשות עמכם רע, “it is within my power to harm you;” Lavan implies that even G-d is aware of this and is afraid that I will take my revenge of you, and that it why He has warned me concerning you.

אמש, last night.

מטוב עד רע, “either good or evil, etc.” anything which was good for Lavan was bad for Yaakov. If Lavan decided not to kill Yaakov but to merely take away his possessions, this would prove to be bad for Yaakov; this is why G’d had to phrase His warning by saying טוב עד רע. We find a similar construction in Ezekiel 21,8 והכרתי ממך צדיק ורשע, “I will cut off from you righteous and wicked alike.” [Ezekiel speaks about relative degrees of wickedness; he calls someone who only occasionally worships the Baal a צדיק, whereas he who does so on a regular basis is a רשע by comparison. The fact is, however, that both are wicked (Rabbi Saadyah Gaon)]. The proof that our interpretation is correct can be seen from Yaakov’s reply לולי אלוקי אבי...כי עתה ריקם שלחתני, “if my father’s G’d had not been at my side, you would now have sent me off empty-handed.” In other words: sending Yaakov off empty-handed was Lavan’s idea of treating him “good.”

ואלוקי אביכם, a reference to the G’d of Avraham whose name Avraham had popularised throughout the region. The reason Lavan speaks of אביכם “your father,” is that he uses the term as a pronoun including Yaakov and his children.