Komentarz do Rodzaju 24:29

וירץ AND HE RAN — Why did he run and what did he run for? (The next verse explains why). ויהי כראות הנזם AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN HE SAW THE RING —he said, “This must be a rich man ״, and he had an eye to his money.

וירץ לבן אל האיש, to take a look at the wealthy visitor that had come to town, not to invite him to his own home.

ולרבקה אח ושמו לבן, Rebeccah had a brother called Laban. Our sages observe that whenever the Bible mentions righteous people, their name precedes them, whereas the reverse is the case when the Bible mentions wicked people (Esther Rabbah 6,3). Examples are Ruth 2,1; 1,2. Samuel I 25,3. It is puzzling then that Laban is introduced here in the manner of the righteous. In order to understand this we must pay attention to the verse describing Laban as running. Our sages in Yalkut Shimoni 109 state that as soon as Laban saw the nose-ring on Rebeccah he became greedy for money. This does not throw any light on our problem. The Torah should have written: "As soon as he saw the nose-ring, etc., Laban ran," instead of mentioning the fact that Laban saw the nose-ring after he had already commenced to run towards Eliezer. Besides, why did the Torah repeat the words: "to the man outside at the well" in verse 29 and then again in verse 30?

ולרבקה אח, it is mentioned here seeing that in the report of Nachor’s family he has not been mentioned.

וירץ לבן, “Lavan ran;” some scholars ask what prompted Lavan to run to meet Eliezer even before he had seen the jewelry on the hands of his sister? They explain the sequence of what happened as follows: when Lavan realized that his sister took unusually long to return with her jug of water from the well, he ran to find out if anything had happened to her. He was afraid she might have been violated by some male. Instead of taking the normal route, he ran across orchards etc., in order to reach the well faster. When he did not find Rivkah at the well, seeing she was on the way home by her regular route, and had told her mother who had given her the jewelry, he returned home When Lavan on his return home not only heard the unlikely story of how Rivkah had come into possession of these trinkets, he turned back to confront the man she said had given her such precious gifts. There is no need for such a convoluted explanation. The words ויהי כראות את הנזם ואת הצמידים, “as soon as he saw the nose ring and the bracelets,” merely tell us the reason why וירץ לבן, “Lavan took off in a rush,” to meet this generous stranger.

Why did he run and for what did he run? Rashi is not asking why Lavan ran, and answering, “He said, ‘This one is rich....’” Rather, Rashi is arranging the verses, as they are not written in chronological sequence. It should have said first, “When he had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on the hands of his sister, and heard the words of his sister...” and then, “He ran.” That is the sequence: Lavan saw the ring, heard his sister’s words, and ran. Also, it is not feasible that [the sequence follows the order of the verses]: first he ran, then he saw the ring and heard his sister’s words, and then he went out to the man. An even greater [break in sequence is that] in the middle, it says Lavan saw the ring. [On the contrary,] “He ran” and “He came” should be next to one another, not interrupted by, “When he had seen...” All this brought Rashi to explain, “‘He ran.’ Why did he run...?” Rashi is saying that the verses are written in this order so they will [state that Lavan ran, and then] explain why he ran. Furthermore, there are two [possible] reasons why Lavan ran: seeing the ring, and hearing his sister’s words. When Rashi says, “And for what did he run?” he is asking: for which reason did he run? [Rashi answers:] “He saw” and “He ran” are written next to each other to show that he ran because, upon seeing the ring, he said: “He is rich.” It was not because he heard Rivkah’s words, [in which case we could] judge him favorably, that he ran to honor Eliezer or for some other reason, and not out of his lust for money. Whereas if “He saw” and “He heard” would have been written before “He ran,” [in chronological sequence,] we would not know what he ran for, or if it was for both reasons. This is why Rashi carefully quotes the wording of the verse: “Why ‘He ran’? ‘When he had seen the nose ring...’” From this we see that Rashi’s true intention is to arrange the verses so they will be orderly and connected. He does this by inserting a few [explanatory] words into the verses, which is his practice in most places, as known by those familiar with Rashi’s ways. Whereas if Rashi merely intended to ask and answer, as certain commentators explained, then he should [have paraphrased] and said: “Why did he run? He said, ‘This one is rich’....” [According to them,] that which Rashi quotes, “When he had seen the nose ring,” before explaining, “This one is rich....” is completely not understandable. (R. Meir Stern)

Eine beißende Äußerung unserer Weisen bemerkt: Es war nichts לבן, weiß, an ihm als sein Name! אל האיש, Elieser tritt nicht mehr als עבר auf, bis er es selbst nachher sagte.

The fact is that Laban was sincerely concerned about his sister's innocence, suspecting that the gifts to her of the jewelry by a total stranger could have been the beginning of an immoral relationship between them. The Torah here describes Laban as if he were a righteous person because it acknowledges his concern for his sister's chastity.

When the Torah states: "it was when he saw," this shows that Laban reacted first to what he saw and subsequently to what he heard. As long as he had not yet heard what transpired between the two he put an ugly intepretation on the manner in which he thought his sister had obtained the jewelry, suspecting Eliezer of seducing Rebeccah. Laban nevertheless continued on his way to meet Eliezer and to offer him hospitality.