Genesis 24: Intro to Lavan: Not So Black and White

YINR 929: Tanach Yomi · Oct 1, 2025 · 4m

Embedded in this long and repetitive chapter is our first introduction to Lavan, Rivka’s brother. While Lavan plays a much more central role in the Yaakov narrative (Bereishit 29–31), he is almost universally vilified by commentators and would likely make a “top five worst people in Torah” list for anyone who learned these stories in school.

But the text itself is ambiguous.

“Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was Lavan. Lavan ran out to the man at the spring, when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on his sister’s arms, and when he heard his sister Rivka say, ‘Thus the man spoke to me.’ He…