Note: The Torah portion known as Vayeitzei, includes Gen 31:19 contains a word the meaning of which scholars continue to puzzle over, "teraphaim." That is one of two mysteries we ponder in this piece. The other is that Torah reveals Jacob to have one daughter, Dina, yet Gen.14:15 speaks of Jacob's "sons and daughters."

In Part one the authors, Rabbis Goldie Milgram and Judy Kummer offer an interpretative story, a midrash about this text. In Part Two they translate and review the major classical commentaries on the story to reveal how they entered this study. In Part three they offer a feminist study guide for this portion suitable for a class or Rosh Hodesh group.

How did our male ancestors view the Rachel "stealing" and what about the term of what she stole, seraphim, what does it mean, terafim? How did they translate "teraphim?" What was important to them? What does a contemporary perspective add? Might the gender of an interpreter matter?

IBN EZRA: (1089–1164), poet, grammarian, biblical commentator, philosopher, astronomer, and physician. Ibn Ezra was born in Tudela, Spain.

"Some say that the teraphim are copper objects used to tell time. Others say that astrologers have the power to make an image that speaks at certain times. They offer proof from "for the teraphim have spoken vanity (Zech 10:2). However, this is not the meaning of this verse. I believe that the teraphim are human images made to draw power from above. I am not permitted to explain this any further. Proof that the teraphim are human forms can be found in the teraphim which Michal, the daughter of Saul, placed in David's bed thereby fooling the guards into thinking that the teraphim were really David.

As to the verse which states: "For the children of Israel shall sit solitary many days without king, and without prince and without sacrifice and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim (Hos 3:4) it can be explained in two ways. One, the prophet says, Israel shall be without king, and without prince, because God chose only members of the Davidic family to be kings over Israel. Therefore the verse which follows says, afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king (v.5).

The verse continues, "and without sacrifice, and without pillar" this refers to sacrifices and pillars to the idols. In a similar manner, "and without ephod" also refers to idolatry, because the worshipers of Baal made an imitation of the ephod that Moses made. Hence Scripture reads afield and not "the afield" as in "Bring hither the afield (I Sam. 23:9). Therefore "an afield in his hand" (v 6) does not refer to the afield made by Moses. I will explain the afield and offer irrefutable proofs for my interpretation concerning it in the proper place if God will be kind to me and grant me life. The second interpretation is that "and without afield or teraphim" means, they will neither serve God (without afield) nor idols (or teraphim." That teraphim are idols can be ascertained by Laban's referring to them as gods. (v.30)

RASHBAM: SAMUEL BEN MEIR (c. 1080–85–c. 1174), commentator on Bible and Talmud. Born in Ramerupt in northern France, Samuel was the son of Meir, one of the first tosafists and a prominent disciple of Rashi, whose daughter, Jochebed, Meir married. 

"Rachel stole the teraphim, so they wouldn't tell or inform Laban that Jacob wanted to flee, like the instance where scriptures says in Hosea (3:4) "neither ephod or teraphim," like in Zacharia (10:2), "for teraphim speak of falsehoods." They were customarily used for making magic."

RAMBAN: NAHMANIDES —an acronym of Rabbi Moses Ben Nahman; 1194–1270, Spanish rabbi and scholar and one of the leading authors of talmudic literature in the Middle Ages; philosopher, kabbalist, biblical exegete, poet, and physician. Born in Gerona, Catalonia

Rachel stole the teraphim, her intent was none other than to keep her father from idol worship, per Rashi. Its possible that Laban used them for worship, since he did say "why have you stolen my Gods?" But if all teraphim were worshiped, how could idol worship have been found in the house of our Lord David? This approaches what is said that they are implements to perceive time and to auger with them for knowledge of the future. The word nigzerat is from slight of hand, "shirkers you are shirkers" (Ex 5:17), they are called teraphim as a hint of their names, since they speak like a weak prophet... lie about distant times, as they say in Zechariah that teraphim speak falsehoods. They make them small who believe them to be gods, don't ask in the name of honor or pray to it only all their deeds in magic that the teraphim tell them, and scripture says "and the man Micah had a house of God and he made ephod and teraphim (Judges 17:5), and there it is written "as of God and you will know the success of our ways (Shoftim 18:5), because they would inquire of the teraphim. Thus was the case of the ephod in Israel, that after they were accustomed to the hold Ephod they made in its image, and they would ask of it and believe its words and stray after it , also the sick would inquire of God because of them. And this is the sense that Gideon made an Ephod of this gold and set it up in his town of Ofrah and all Israel whored after it there and it was for Gideon and his house a snare.(Judges :27) because they had turned from God. So here's Laban who is a magician and sorcerer, when he said "my sorcery", and his land was a land of sorcerers forever, as its written in Isaiah 2:6, "they are full (of practices) from the east and of soothsaying like the Philistines," and Bilaam was an son of a magician in his city, and this is the sense of "why have you stolen my gods."

RASHI: Solomon ben Isaac; (1040–1105), leading commentator on the Bible and Talmud. Born at Troyes, France, had only daughters, deeply influenced by the Crusades.

"Her intention was to prevent her father from idol worship."

Post Biblical Textual Use of Teraphim as discussed in Encyclopedia Judaica CD 2000:

"Apart from the household gods already discussed, a different sort of teraphim is encountered in the Bible; their place is not in the home but in the sanctuary and they were used by the Israelites in cultic ritual. Teraphim were employed in divination in the period of the Judges (Judg. 17:5; 18:17), like the divining ephod with which they are compared, and their use in divination is particularly obvious in the condemnation of teraphim in I Samuel 15:23 where the iniquity of teraphim is placed on a par with the sin of divination. Josiah, known for his far-reaching cultic reforms, did away with all the cultic objects of abominable idolatry, including teraphim (II Kings 23:24). Zechariah further rejects the teraphim by including them among the sources of false prediction (Zech. 10:2). Divination teraphim are assumed by Ezekiel to have been among the devices consulted by the king of Babylon (Ezek. 21:26)."

Clarke’s On-Line Commentary:

Rachel had stolen the images] F:yprt teraphim. What the teraphim were is utterly unknown. In ver. 30 they are termed yhla elohai, gods; and to some it appears very likely that they were a sort of images devoted to superstitious purposes, not considered as gods, but as representatives of certain Divine attributes, Dr. Shuckford supposes them to be a sort of tiles, on which the names or figures of their ancestors were engraven. Theodouret, in his 89th question, calls them idols; and says that Rachel, who was a type of the true Church, stole them from her father that he might be delivered from idolatry. R. S. Jarchi gives nearly the same reason.

The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel gives a strange turn to the whole passage. "And Rachel stole the images of her father: for they had murdered a man, who was a first-born son; and having cut off his head, they embalmed it with salt and spices, and they wrote divinations upon a plate of gold and put it under his tongue; and placed it against the wall, and it conversed with them, and Laban worshipped it. And Jacob stole the science of Laban the Syrian, that it might not discover his departure." If the word be derived from apr rapha, to heal or restore, then the teraphim may be considered as a sort of talismans, kept for the purpose of averting and curing diseases; and probably were kept by Laban for the same purpose that the Romans kept their lares and penates. It is however possible that F:yprt teraphim is the same as F:ypr  seraphim, the t tau and  sin being changed, which is very frequent in the Syrian or Chaldee language and we know that aban was an Aramean or Syrian. FIRE has been considered from the earliest ages as a symbol of the Deity; and as the word seraphim comes from Pr  saraph, to burn, it has been conjectured that the teraphim of Laban were luminous forms, prepared of burnished brass, &c., which he might imagine a proper medium of communication between ippers. Mr. Parkhurst has observed that the teraphim were in use among believers and unbelievers. Among the former, see this chapter; for he denies that Laban was an idolater. See also Judg. xvii. 5;xviii. 14, 18, 20; 1 Sam. xix. 13, 16. Among the latter, see 2 Kings xxiii. 24; Ezekiel xxi. 21; Zech. x. 2. Compare 1 Sam. xv. 23, and Hos. iii. 4. These are all the places in which the original word is found.

The Persian translator seems to have considered these teraphim as tables or instruments that served for purposes of judicial astrology, and hence translates the word asterlabha, astrolabes. As the astrolabe was an instrument with which they took the altitude of the polestar, the sun, &c., it might, in the notion of the Persian translator, imply tables, &c., by which the culminating of particular stars might be determined, and the whole serve for purposes of judicial astrology. Now as many who have professed themselves to be believers in Christianity, have nevertheless addicted themselves to judicial astrology, we might suppose such a thing in this case, and still consider Laban as no idolater. If the Persian translator has not hit on the true meaning, he has formed the most likely conjecture.

ORT on-line Torah commentary

"Rachel stole"
Some say that it was to prevent her father from worshipping them (Bereshith Rabbah 74; Rashi). Others maintain that it was to prevent him from using them in divination to find Jacob (Tanchuma 12; Rashbam; Ibn Ezra; cf. Genesis 30:27; Hosea 3:4, Zechariah 10:2). Still others maintain that Rachel took them to gain her father's pardon (Josephus 1:19:9).

"fetishes"
Teraphim in Hebrew, sexual images, from the word turpha (Tanchuma 12; Zohar 164a). These were images having human form (cf. 1 Samuel 19:13). In some cases, they were made out of the shrunken head of a first-born infant (Targum Yonathan; Tanchuma 12). They were not necessarily idols (Rambam, from 1 Samuel 19:13; Judges 17:5, 18:5), but here they were used for idolatrous purposes Genesis 31:30; Zohar). In general, they were used as a meditative device to obtain messages (Hosea 3:4, Zechariah 10:2; Ibn Ezra; Radak; Ralbag; Rashi on Ezekiel 21:26). The teraphim would be tapped, inducing a relaxed, meditative state (Zohar 164a, from 2 Samuel 24:16; cf. Yad, Avodath Kokhavim 11:6; Chinukh 510).