your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them and they shall afflict them .... Afterward they shall come out with great wealth (Genesis 15:13–16). Jacob lived in the strange land of Aram, served Laban, and was afflicted by him; then he left with great wealth and returned to the Promised Land. The story thus serves to reinforce one of the central messages of the Passover Haggadah; that the Old Testament cycle of exile, persecution and return recurs again and again, and links the observant Jew in the Diaspora to the Land of Israel.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:33:00 +0000