Jacob and Laban agreed on the terms of marriage and when Jacob believed that he had fulfilled his part of the bargain, he turned to Laban:
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her.”
And Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a banquet.
When evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and he cohabited with her.
(Genesis 29:21-23)
The short description of the wedding seems unremarkable. Laban gathered his neighbors to join in the family celebration. At the same time, the specific language used by the Torah does require some explanation. We find that many of the classical commentaries note that specific format chosen by Laban – a banquet (mishteh) – and discuss its significance. Some suggest that alcoholic beverages were served at that wedding (the Hebrew root of the word mishteh implies that it was a drinking party) and that it was part of Laban’s plan – that a disoriented Jacob would be more likely to fall for his trick. As an example, the Hadar Zekeinim teaches:
“And Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a banquet.” Laban was the father of all tricksters, which is why he was known as Laban the Aramean (in Hebrew, the letters making up the words “Aramean” and “trickster” are the same). His intention was for Jacob to become drunk and to trick him when he was incapable of understanding.
Other commentaries note that such a celebration was normative practice, as the Peskita Zutreta says: “that was the custom.” But even from that comment we can discern that in the reader’s eye there is something unusual about this banquet.
Further focus on the words “he made a banquet” makes us realize that this language serves as a link to other banquets described in the Bible, and as a message that banquets like these foreshadow significant events. They serve as a trigger, warning that something is about to change or be transformed. The words “he made a banquet” serve the same purpose as tense music that is played at a climactic moment in a film. The music warns us that something is about to happen, that we should expect a turning-point in the movie’s plot. Here, too, the careful reader is made aware that something is about to happen, but – just like in the movies – there is nothing that can be done about it.
An example of how the banquet motif precedes an event appears in Parashat VaYeshev:
In three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale you upon a pole; and the birds will pick off your flesh.
On the third day—his birthday—Pharaoh made a banquet for all his officials…
(Genesis 40:19-20)
In the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Chief Cupbearer and Chief Baker, the reader is anxiously waiting for the results – will the interpretations suggested by Joseph turn out to be true? Will the dreams become reality? All this will be revealed at Pharaoh’s banquet.
We hardly need to mention the banquets described in the Book of Esther, where Achashverosh’s banquet leads to Queen Vashti being replaced by Esther, foreshadowing an entire plot-line and hinting to the redemption of Israel that will come at the end.
In King Solomon’s court a banquet also serves as a highlight and a moment of trial:
And God said to him, “Because you asked for this – you did not ask for long life, you did not ask for riches, you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for discernment in dispensing justice – I now do as you have spoken. I grant you a wise and discerning mind; there has never been anyone like you before, nor will anyone like you arise again…
Then Solomon awoke: it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented offerings of well-being; and he made a banquet for all his courtiers.
Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
(I Kings 3:11-16)
After King Solomon asked for wisdom and for the ability to understand and dispense justice, he makes a banquet. Immediately afterwards we hear of the two women who approach him for “The Judgement of Solomon,” the court ruling that made King Solomon – and his wisdom – famous around the world.
But banquets – and their significance – change with time, and they serve a different purpose in the time of the rabbinic sages. Similar to Plato's banquet, which served as an opportunity for an in-depth philosophical discussion of the meaning of love and desire, in the time of the sages we also find that a banquet was an opportunity for serious, in-depth conversation.
Rabbi Akiva said: I asked Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Yehoshua while at the butcher shop in Emmaus where they had gone to purchase an animal for his son’s banquet:
What is the status of an individual who accidentally commits incest with his sister, his father’s sister and his mother’s sister all in a single episode of forgetfulness? Is he obligated to bring just a single sin-offering, or must he bring a separate offering for each event?
They responded to him: We have not heard a ruling on this matter, but we have a tradition that if someone engaged in relations with five different menstruating women in a single episode of forgetfulness, he must bring a separate offering for each event, and we believe that your case can be derived by means of an Argumentum a fortiori .
(Sifra Leviticus – Dibura D’hovah 1:1)
The question raised by Rabbi Akiva in the butcher shop in the context of preparing for a banquet is a theoretical question dealing with the number of sacrifices that need to be brought if one repeats similar sinful acts accidentally. The main point of the discussion was to consider different sides of a basic issue having to do with the most sensitive questions regarding the laws of sin-offerings for inadvertent sinful acts.
We observe that the banquet changes from a motif of tension and expectation of a plot change to an opportunity for collegial intellectual discussion and the spiritual gratification of the rabbinic house of study. The banquet changes from a place of looking forward to a future event to a place of reality, of being present.
The change in the meaning of a banquet, from its significance in the Written Torah to that of the Oral Law, matches a conceptual idea expressed in the kabbalistic Sod, which distinguishes between mishteh shel din (a banquet of justice) and mishteh shel hesed (a banquet of undeserved lovingkindness). In parallel, the Written Torah represents the banquet of justice, while the Oral Law – as is always the case – represents the element of lovingkindness.
Rabbi Zadok hints to this distinction when he explains that there are two types of wine – there is white wine and red wine – which is to say, there is lovingkindness and justice. He writes:
In the future we will learn from the verse: “and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned” (Genesis 21:8) that on the day when kindness will be shown to Isaac’s descendants, the Holy One Blessed be He will make a banquet for the righteous ones (see Pesahim 119b). This is based on the idea expressed in the Holy Zohar in this parashah that in this world My Name is written with the letters Heh-Vav-Yud-Heh, but it is pronounced Alef-Dalet-Nun-Yud, but in the World to Come it will be written Heh-Vav-Yud-Heh and pronounced Heh-Vav-Yud-Heh, for there will be lovingkindness from every side.
(Pri Zadik, Bamidbar, Parashat Pinhas)
There are banquets and then there are banquets. There are banquets that hearken to the future, to the element of justice, of tension about what is to come. That is the banquet prepared by Abraham on the day that Isaac was weaned. The perspective at that banquet was the viewpoint of the Jewish people looking forward from that moment of justice – of “The fear of Isaac” – towards the flow of history that had yet to unfold. In a future time, however, when our long and arduous journey will finally come to an end, we will sit comfortably at the banquet prepared by the Holy One, Blessed be He.
From a psychological standpoint, the two elements of banquets and wine all come together. Drinking wine allows one to enter into the depths and hidden parts of one’s heart – “when wine enters, secrets come out” (Eruvin 65a). It is the admission ticket into hidden places, which is exactly why it comes together with an element of unhealthy tipsiness and confusion. But it also has a deep truth to it, a truth that aims with great accuracy to the very heart of the matter.
Being tricked into taking Leah as his wife was the result of deceit, but it also extracts a deep-seated truth that turns out to be a source of blessings and abundance for Jacob.