Bible Law: Cheating a Cheater?

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Jacob worked for his father in-law Lavan who wrongly switched his wages 100 times to favor himself (Rashi). If Jacob’s wages were speckled sheep, to help Jacob prosper, God made all the sheep birth only speckled, to which the crooked opportunist Lavan responded, “All the newborn speckled shall now be mine.” Then God changed the offspring to be streaked to which Lavan again said, “The streaked are mine.” Lavan repeatedly changed Jacob’s wages so that Lavan would take the current birthing trend for himself, caring nothing for Jacob and his own daughters, Jacob’s wives (Gen. 31). 

It was due to Lavan’s swindling that Jacob—harnessing natural adaptive camouflage—devised a strategy to retrieve his former justly-earned wages. Jacob discretely peeled branches making speckled and streaked patterns conforming to his current wages. He placed them in the animals’ watering troughs. Jacob knew animals are affected by visuals, which changes their appearance like a chameleon. Clearly Jacob did not sin as we learn from Psalms:

Jacob asked Rachel, “Will you marry me?” “Yes” she answered, adding, “But my father is a trickster, and he will deceive you.” To this he answered, “I am his brother in trickery.” And she asked him, “Are righteous men permitted to walk in the ways of deceit?” "Yes” answered Jacob, “for it is written, ‘With the pure You will act pure, and with the perverse You will deal in kind’ (Psalms 18:27) ”(Ein Yaakov, Vayetzei).

Of course Psalms was not yet written by King David, who was not yet born. But this teaches that Jacob possessed the perfections later taught in Psalms: one may cheat a cheater, as “God deals purely with the pure people, and with crooked people God deals in kind,” like punishing Pharaoh (Ibid. Rashi). Thus, Jacob was morally correct to use shrewd plans to regain what was unjustly taken from him.

But there is more to be explained: why does God deal purely with pure people, and deal shrewdly with deceitful men? It is because the pure, righteous person operates according to a system of consistent fairness and transparency, so others trust him. And this trust is developed by others experiencing a good person’s consistent allegiance to righteousness. God too treats the just man justly, thereby endorsing his proper character. 

But a deceitful person knows others are not deceitful, explaining why he plans his devious schemes around his expectation of others remaining truthful. For example, a deceitful diamond merchant will lie, claiming his diamond is worth $2000, twice its true $1000 value, presenting forged documentation from the GIA of a $2000 certificate value. He will expect an unsuspecting buyer to pay $2000 with “authentic cash” and not counterfeit bills. The just response is that the experienced diamond buyer who sees the deceit, uses counterfeit bills for half the price, paying only the true $1000 worth with real dollar bills. Thus, justice is achieved when the buyer plays the same game as the deceitful seller. God too deals this way to counter wrongdoing. And Jacob was correct to do the same.  

The rule is that justice is the objective, and deceit—at times—is the correct path to justice. Deceit works as the crooked businessman doesn’t expect others to be as cunning as he is. This is the meaning of “with the perverse You will deal in kind.” That is, God—and wise men—use their knowledge of crooked people to defend against harm. During Channuka too, Yochanan deceived Nikanor through a pledge of fealty, and secured a private meeting with Nikanor so as to kill that evil man.