Dysfunctional Family (Part 2)

As Alyssa so awesomely said in her post, the family of Yitzchak, Rivka, Esav, and Yaakov was quite dysfunctional. In my mind though, the family of Betuel and Lavan was the ultimate family mess.

The first time we hear about these people is when Eliezer comes to Charan to find a bride for Yitzchak. He finds Rivka at the well. She displays extreme kindness, generosity, and other traits essential to an ethical monotheist. When Eliezer goes to meet her family, he finds the most fake and messed-up kind of people imaginable. When he confronts them with the idea that Rivka should come with him to Canaan and marry Yitzchak, they start using the name of G-d to swear that, "Of course, that is what should be done!" The next morning, they change their minds. They say, "No, Rivka can't go because she's too young." In the end though, they decide that it is Rivka's choice and she agrees to go with Eliezer. I can only imagine what Eliezer must have been thinking. How is it possible that such a person like Rivka came from such evil? Honestly, this whole scenario seems oddly similar to an overdrawn drama. The villains are just so beyond evil and the good people are "saint-like", for lack of a better word. The fact that they were not even bothered by their own evilness also bothers me. Do these people not have a conscience?

The only way I can explain this is as follows: Rivka's horrible family made her practice of Tzedek U'mishpat that much more fantastic. This situation is not a Midrashic exaggeration of what might have actually happened. Clearly, Lavan and Betuel just wanted to be evil. We see later on that Lavan deceived Yaakov intentionally and forced him into fourteen years of hard labor for his wife. The fact that Rivka grew up in such an environment and still turned out an ethical monotheist makes her that much greater. This is a lesson for all people: evil always comes back to bite you. Although the evil people do seem to benefit in the short term, I believe that G-d won't let them win.