Moses describes a ceremony when the people, settled in their land, would bring an offering of their first fruits to the priest. As part of this ritual, they are to proclaim their arrival in this land which God had sworn to their forefathers, and then recite the verse, which begins above.
This section of the Torah forms a key part of the Haggadah - clearly a pivotal self-defining moment. But, bizarrely, there is some confusion and debate as who this wandering Aramean is supposed to be.
Three possible candidates are offered by the rabbis: Abraham, Jacob or Laban, all casting contradictory interpretations.
Laban, Jacob's devious dishonest father-in-law, is described in the Torah as an Aramean. But he is also the villain of the piece: would we really be proudly describing ourselves as Laban's descendants? Only if we wanted to show how far we have come.
