{"id":38232,"date":"2018-08-21T07:41:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T04:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=38232"},"modified":"2022-03-15T16:21:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:21:57","slug":"jacob-and-laban-actors-on-whose-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jacob-and-laban-actors-on-whose-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob and Laban &#8211; Actors on Whose Stage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[384,490,481,513,524],"acf":{"old_id":"38232","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38018,"related_cahpter":"29","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The Biblical text between a Divine Comedy and Commedia dell'arte","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The story of Jacob&#8217;s life in Laban\u2019s house provides the characters needed to bring the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commedia dell&#8217;arte<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an early form of Italian professional theatre, to its best. It features the pair of lovers &#8211; Florindo and Isabella (played by Jacob and Rachel) who desperately try to fulfill their love, and the domineering father figure &#8211; Pantelone (starring Laban) who poses difficulties and obstacles in the couple&#8217;s way. And in the version of &#8220;the biblical director,\u201d Jacob is enslaved to Laban for twenty years, and Laban does not cease to change the terms of his employment. (For 14 years Jacob worked for his beloved Rachel, even though his employment contract required only seven years, and for six more years he worked for a wage that kept changing).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But contrary to the rules of comedy, it seems that this story employs another character that is not part of the typical cast of characters, i.e. God, who steers the entire plot; for it is God who has determined Jacob\u2019s wage even before he arrived at Laban\u2019s house: \u201cThe ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring. Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south\u201d (28:13-14).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jacob, meanwhile, from his standpoint, is the one who determines what he will give God in return: \u00a0\u201cand of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You\u201d (28:22).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, as soon as Jacob arrives at Laban\u2019s house, his real employment contract begins to be implemented, the one that was signed in front of the Master of the Universe. God, on His part, takes care of Jacob\u2019s fertility and prosperity (He orchestrates the reproductive capacity of Jacob&#8217;s wives, who give birth to 12 of his offspring in Haran, and at the same time takes care of the fertility of the Laban\u2019s flock), while Jacob saves a tenth of the profits for God, as he committed to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, not only does Laban function as a secondary actor in this comedy, but he is cast as a mere pawn in God&#8217;s great drama.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cover illustration:\u00a0Claude Gillot\u00a0(1673\u20131722),\u00a0<em>Four Commedia dell&#8217;arte Figures: Three Gentlemen and Pierrot<\/em>, c.\u00a01715 (Wikipedia).<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":38233,"id":38233,"title":"Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures","filename":"Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jacob-and-laban-actors-on-whose-stage\/commedia_dellarte_figures\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"commedia_dellarte_figures","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":38232,"date":"2018-08-21 04:39:42","modified":"2022-03-15 14:21:35","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":640,"height":413,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures-300x194.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":194,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":413,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","large-width":640,"large-height":413,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","1536x1536-width":640,"1536x1536-height":413,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","2048x2048-width":640,"2048x2048-height":413,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","post_full_size-width":640,"post_full_size-height":413,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Commedia_dell\u2019Arte_Figures.jpg","home_baner-width":640,"home_baner-height":413}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Jacob and Laban - 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