This week’s Torah Portion includes Genesis 28:10-32:3, named Vayetze, meaning, “And he left.” The current story tells us about when Jacob left Laban’s house to return home with his new family and loot. Laban became an enemy to Jacob; more specifically, the greed that consumed him became an obstacle Jacob had to overcome. The Bible describes Jacob as being tricked more than once by Laban, his father-in-law. Once, he switched out his wife on his wedding night. Then, Laban changed Jacob’s wages ten times.
Genesis 31:7: Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.
Laban is described as having what Judaism calls an ‘evil eye ‘. This is when you fail to see someone else, their need, their predicament, and their vulnerability because you can only see yourself. When this happens, you become greedy, with a closed hand, guarding your resources and solely focused on gaining. The gaining becomes insatiable and can morph from money to gaining power, affluence, and people. The interactions between Laban and Abraham’s family are less than honorable. First, when Rebeccah told her brother Laban about Eliezer, Abraham’s servant who had just met her at the well, all Laban saw was the jewelry Eliezer had garnished his sister with (Gn 24:30).
In the next generation, when Rachel returns to tell her father Laban about Jacob, who had just watered his sheep at the well, all Laban saw was an opportunity for free labor. Laban’s eyes were green with greed. He was constantly looking out for his gain. You may have met someone like this, the ‘what can you do for me’ kind of person. After serving Laban for 20 years, Jacob takes his family and whatever he has worked for and heads home. Jacob asks for Laban’s blessing on his travels, but instead, Laban tells him;
Genesis 30:27: And Laban said to him, “Please stay if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.
When we can’t look upon someone else with favor, asking how we can be a blessing to them rather than how they can benefit us, we are vulnerable to having an evil eye. Yeshua says that when the eye is dark, the whole body is full of darkness because the eyes are the window to the soul.
Luke 11:34: Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is sick, your body is full of darkness.
Luke 6:38: Give, and it will be given to you—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, will be given into your lap. For whatever measure you measure out will be measured back to you.
Life requires an open hand. When our hand is open, we freely receive and give. It is impossible to keep it open only for receiving and close it for sharing. Either it stays open or closed. I find myself guarding my resources more often than I would like out of fear. I grew up dirt poor and sometimes think that I need to hold onto resources for a rainy day. This belief is counter to what the Bible teaches. The Bible asks us to sow or give first, then reap or receive second. A spiritual law I have found constant is that when you have a need, fill that need in others. This action works for all resources. If you need a financial blessing, be an economic blessing for someone else in need. If you are lonely, be friendly to someone else who is alone. If you need healing, pray for healing in someone else. This beautiful cycle keeps us from the evil eye. Notice that Laban ended up with an empty house. God saw his manipulation and injustice, took what was his, and gave it to Jacob. Laban’s relationships suffered, and he was left unsatisfied.
Genesis 31:12 & 42: And He said, ‘Li’t your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you…Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.
Genesis 31:43: Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?”
Can you count how many times Laban said ‘mine’? Laban never saw Jacob as deserving. He never saw that Jacob worked for all he had because he felt owed. The evil eye is an enemy for us because it leaves us with an unsatisfied life, lonely, bitter, and unhappy, unable to enjoy the blessings of the Holy One that come from sharing. The following verse tells us there is a blessing in receiving; however, when we give, there is an even more incredible blessing.
Acts 20:35: In all things, I have shown you an object lesson—that by hard work, one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Yeshua, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
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