<b>And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night (Gen. 31:24).</b> This is one of the occasions on which the Holy One, blessed be He, contaminated the purity of His divine glory in behalf of the righteous. It happened also when <i>God came to Abimelech in a dream</i> (Gen. 20:3) on Sarah’s behalf. Laban began to rebuke Jacob, saying: <i>And now that thou art surely gone, because thou sore longest after thy father’s house, wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?</i> (ibid. 31:30). He replied: <i>With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live</i> (ibid., v. 32). At that moment Rachel’s death was decreed. Laban searched the entire tent but was unable to find them. <i>Now Rachel had taken the teraphim</i> (ibid., v. 34). Why did she steal them? To prevent them from informing Laban that Jacob had fled with his wives, his sons, and his flock. Do teraphim actually speak? They do indeed, as it is written: <i>The teraphim have spoken vanity</i> (Zech. 10:2). This is so even though you say: <i>Eyes have they, but they see not</i> (Ps. 115:5).

Why are they called <i>teraphim</i>?<sup class="footnote-marker">12</sup><i class="footnote">The actual derivation of the word is unknown. It is used in the Hebrew Bible to denote the primitive Semitic house-gods.</i> Because they were works of <i>toref</i> (“filth”), works of uncleanness. And how were they constructed? They would take a firstborn male child, kill him, and sprinkle him with salt and spices. Then they would write a demon’s name upon a gold tablet and place it beneath the child’s tongue while performing certain magical rites. After this, they inserted the corpse into a recess in the wall and lighted candles before it. They would then bow down before it, and it would speak to them in a whisper. This is stated in the verse <i>For the teraphim have spoken vanity</i> (Zech. 10:12). That is why Rachel stole them. Furthermore, she sought thereby to eradicate idolatry from her father’s home. However, Jacob was not aware that she had stolen them. Hence, it is written: <i>And Rachel stole the teraphim</i>.