“Jacob was angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob responded and said to Laban: What is my transgression, what is my sin, that you have pursued after me?” (Genesis 31:36). “For you felt all my vessels, what have you found of all your household vessels? Place it here before my brethren and your brethren, and they will determine between the two of us” (Genesis 31:37).
“Jacob was angry and quarreled with Laban” – Rabbi Azarya in the name of Rabbi Ḥagai and Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Maron, and taught in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak: The combativeness of the patriarchs, and not the humility of the descendants. The combativeness of the patriarchs, from where is it derived? “Jacob was angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob responded and said to Laban: What is my transgression, what is my sin that you have pursued?”
Do you, perhaps, think that there would be blows or wounds there? There were, rather, words of appeasement, Jacob placated his father-in-law: “For you felt all my vessels, what have you found of all your household vessels?” Rabbi Simon said: In the way of the world, a son-in-law who resides with his father-in-law, is it possible for him not to benefit from even one vessel, even one knife? However, here, “you felt all my vessels” – you did not find even a needle, even a hook.
And not the humility of the descendants, from David, as it is stated: “David fled from Nayot in Rama, and he came and said before Jonathan: What have I done? What is my iniquity and what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life?” (I Samuel 20:1). He mentions bloodshed in his words of appeasement, matters of murder; however, here, “that you have pursued me.”