Targum Onkelos Deuteronomy 26:5
Sifre Deuteronomy 301 ed. Finkelstein
Sifre Zuta Deuteronomy 26:5 ed. Kahana
“An Unsettled Aramean”
“Make the following declaration before the Eternal your God:
‘An unsettled Aramean was my father,
who went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number.
There he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.’”
(Deuteronomy 26:5)
Who was “my father,” the “unsettled Aramean [Arami oveyd]?”
In and of itself, the description “unsettled [oveyd]”
would fit the grand patriarch Abraham,
who migrated with his father from Ur of Chaldea to Charan (cf. Genesis 11:31),
from Charan to Canaan (cf. Genesis 12:6),
then to Beth El and Ai (cf. Genesis 12:8),
in various stages toward the Negev (cf. Genesis 12:9),
to and from Egypt (cf. Genesis 12:10ff.),
at the Terebinths of Mamre in Hebron (cf. Genesis 13:18; 18:1),
in Gerar (cf. Genesis 20:1ff.),
in Beersheba (cf. Genesis 21:33),
and was finally buried near Mamre
in the Cave of Machpelah (cf. Genesis 25:7-10).
That Abraham is an “Aramean [Arami]” we learn
when he dispatches his servant to his “native land,”
“Aram-naharaim” (cf. Genesis 24:1-67).
But even though Abraham and his wife
“went down to Egypt” (cf. Genesis 12:10ff.)
temporarily and presumably “few in number,”
“there” it was Jacob rather than Abraham
who “became a great nation, mighty and numerous” (cf. Exodus 1:1-7)!
Therefore:
Targum renders,
“‘An unsettled Aramean [Arami oveyd] was my father…’”:
“Laban the Aramean [Arami] sought to destroy [oveyd] my father…,”
presumably Jacob
in reference of God’s appearance to “Laban the Aramean” (cf. Genesis 31:24)
in a dream warning him not to act on his intention
to do harm to Jacob (cf. Genesis 31:29).
According to Sifre (ed. Finkelstein),
“‘An unsettled Aramean [Arami oveyd] was my father…,’”
can be interpreted, “Laban the Aramean [Arami] destroyed [oveyd] my father…,”
teaching that when our father Jacob went down to Aram,
he became unsettled [oveyd],
expecting that he would be destroyed [oveyd] (as a slave to Laban),
so Laban is characterized as if he destroyed him (cf. Genesis 31:38-43)!
According to Sifre Zuta (ed. Kahana),
“‘An unsettled Aramean [Arami oveyd] was my father…,’”
can be interpreted,
“When my father (Jacob) went down to Aram,
he became an unsettled Aramean there…,”
and when he came back from there,
“…he went down to Egypt,”
displaced and troubled!
“Joseph sent his brothers up from Egypt to the land of Canaan,
to Jacob their father.
They told him: Joseph is still alive, and he rules over all the country of Egypt!
Whereupon his heart all but stopped, as he could not believe them.
Later, in Egypt, Pharaoh asked Jacob:
How many are the days of the years of your life?
When Jacob told Pharaoh his age, he felt it necessary to add:
Few and bad have been the days of the years of my life.”
(Genesis 45:25-28; 47:7-10)
Sedra Summary 