After Rebecca had given birth to Esau and Jacob, Laban begot two daughters: Leah and Rachel. They exchanged letters and agreed between themselves that Esau would take Leah as a wife and Jacob would take Rachel (Tanchuma, Vayeitzei 12).

Laban would renege ten times on any agreement he made with Jacob (Bereishit Rabbah 73:9).

“Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother” (Genesis 29:12). He said, “I am his brother in deceit for it is written, ‘With the crooked act crookedly ‘” (Psalms 18:27) (Megillah 13b).

In a tradition that holds firmly to the religious principle of redemption, the life career of Laban leaves us virtually nonplussed. So creatively manipulative are Laban's familial machinations that the reader of the Biblical text may errantly conclude that Rebecca's brother "only wanted what was good for his children." This refrain, dusted off and dragged out by every generation that succeeded the untrustworthy Laban, has often achieved the opposite effect - that is, the expression of the most negative feelings between offspring and their parents. Laban’s actions are selfishly premediated. His heart does not aspire to the deeds of his ancestor, Abraham. Indeed, his scientific coldness prefigures the creation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s chilling character, Ethan Brand.

Yet Laban's destiny does not end in a lime-kiln. He is the father of two redoubtable daughters of Judaism, Leah and Rachel, as well as the father-in-law of one of our tradition’s most revered patriarchs, Jacob. If there is guilt by association, so here there must be some redemptive spark in the virtuous offspring of Laban. Can we assume Laban was at least a good father? Or was Divinity resting a specific duration before illuminating the next generation with His goodness? Although suspecting the latter, one finds the Laban/Jacob narrative compelling on many levels. Perhaps the most interesting layer is that Jacob learns, in the face of so much deception from his recalcitrant and dishonest father-in-law, who passes off the first "two-for-one" bargain in history upon Jacob, that every interaction between Laban and himself is simply "business as usual." That is, Jacob learns that in Laban's world everything is negotiable and for sale, and if he is to succeed in his father-in-law's realm, he would have to be as crafty and as conniving as Laban.

That Jacob succeeds in this venture, with the help of the Almighty, is only natural. He has already disposed of Esau in a mighty and inimical competition that involved his mother's encouraging deceitfulness. Twenty years have been spent in Laban's tents - Jacob serves fourteen years for Leah and Rachel, and six years pasturing the flocks. In a memorable scene of chase and confrontation, after Jacob flees with his family and is hunted down by the vengeful Laban, the two blood enemies make a pact to leave each other alone. Laban is never appeased, but by this late date, there is no filial guilt. This is the last contact with Mesopotamia and Laban's family. As the star of Mesopotamia fades into the darkness, Israel’s destiny brightens.