A careful study of Yaakov’s peace pact with Lovan, the world’s greatest swindler, will reveal some amazing similarities to today’s peace pact with Arafat and the Palestinians.
Lovan names his peace pact “Yegar Seadusa” while Yaakov names it the Hebrew equivalent, which is “Gal Ed.” This seems rather strange. Why does the Torah have to tell us what the Aramaic equivalent of “Gal Ed” is? This is a job best left for Targum Unkalous. The Torah is written in Loshon Hakodesh and rarely do we find any foreign words, so why tell us what Lavan’s peace pact was called in Aramaic?
We also find many other strange happenings in the parsha. At first, Yaakov sets up a large stone monument which is to serve as witness to the agreement and only a short time later do they decide to close the agreement over a pile of stones that were collected for some other purpose. Later it seems that they use both the large stone and the pile of stones to complete the agreement. What is this all about, and what if any significance does it have? Why is it of any importance for us to know any of these seemingly minor details? All we need know is the provisions of the deal and no more. We also find mention of a deal Lovan claims to have made previously at a place called “Mitzpa” yet the Torah never even mentions any such deal. Why not? If we follow Lavan’s description of the peace pact we will notice at once that it is a little lopsided. He tells Yaakov that he must agree never to pass across both the large stone monument which he has set up nor the pile of stones, yet he agrees only not to pass across the pile of stones. This doesn’t sound like a properly balanced agreement at all.
In order for us to properly understand what’s happening here we must have a look at the Camp David Peace agreement that was signed between Begin of Israel and Sadat of Egypt many years ago. It was originally written in English and later translated to Arabic and Hebrew. Yet there are many inconsistencies in the translation. The Hebrew does not properly match the Arabic version. That’s because a clever translator can change much. Let us translate the word “because” into the Hebrew “ki.” The Hebrew word “ki” also has three other meanings and one can later claim that he meant one of the other three meanings.
A diplomat is a master at using words that are either vague or have more than one meaning so that each party will interpret the agreement the way they see fit. Lovan the master diplomat and politician wanted the agreement in Aramaic so that he could use words that he could later claim had a totally different meaning. He was called Lovan Hoarami, which also means the “cheater.” After he signed one agreement he immediately decided to change the agreement and write a new one. He makes claims that one is unable to verify such as the recent claim that Israel had agreed to give the Golan Heights back to Syria. His agreements are always one sided, making demands on the Israel but unwilling to reciprocate.
The Aramaic languish seems to be one where not only can the same word have more than one meaning as do words in most languages, but the same word can also have two very opposite meanings. The word “in” can mean either “yes” or “no”.
Perhaps this is why we are told in the Gemarah that the Heavenly Angels do not respond to such a language. While Angels have no trouble studying a language and can understand them all and even read our thoughts, they want nothing to do with a language spoken in deceit.
Lavon claims that he made some sort of secret agreement with Yaakov at Mitzpah yet no copy of that agreement can ever be found anywhere in the Torah, that’s because no such agreement ever existed. It was just another one of Lavon’s many lies!