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Why did Rochel take Lavan's terafim, and why did the brothers accuse Binyamin of being "ganav ben ganav"? The standard answer—separating Lavan from idolatry—faces four serious problems. The shiur offers a new reading: Rochel took the terafim as a bargaining chip to negotiate with a dangerous father-in-law, and the brothers thought Binyamin did the same with Yosef's goblet.
The shiur opens with a well-known difficulty in Parshas Vayeitzei: why did Rochel take Lavan's terafim (idols)? The standard explanation—that she wanted to separate her father from avodah zarah—is unconvincing on multiple grounds. First, if her goal was to eliminate idol worship, she should have destroyed the terafim immediately, not kept them in her possession. Second, possessing avodah zarah is forbidden. Third, by retaining them, she placed herself in legal jeopardy, holding evidence against herself—whereas destroying them would have given her complete deniability. The standard explanation simply doesn't add up. A Midrash in this week's parashah, Mikeitz, adds another layer to the problem. When the brothers discovered Yosef's goblet in Binyamin's sack, they said, "ganav ben ganav"—"a thief, son of a thief." This cannot mean that Binyamin stole the goblet to separate Yosef from idolatry; such an explanation is absurd in context. Binyamin had no shortage of idolaters in Eretz Yisrael if he wanted to perform such a mitzvah (מצוה), and the hereditary notion of theft ("ganav ben ganav") doesn't make sense if the motive is ideological. So what does Chazal's language mean here?
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Parshas Mikeitz, Parshas Vayeitzei
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