Vayetze: evolution of science

Vayetze: evolution of science

Every year, I read this parsha, skeptical of the science, especially the animal husbandry. When Jacob agrees to stay in Haran with Lavan to build his own capital, he agrees to take as his own the spotted, striped and brown sheep.  Lavan removes the sheep that already have these attributes and give them to his sons.    I presume that whiteness in sheep and goats is a recessive trait. Since color comes from an active, intact gene, whiteness implies the absence of such an active gene.   Thus, a white animal cannot have any color genes.  Hence, the white animals cannot have colored offspring in the absence of an event (mutation, jumping gene, epigenetic change).  No spotted or striped offspring will usually come from the mating of two white animals.  However, striped and spotted and brown animals can be heterogeneous, they can harbor one white gene, along with the genes that give color.  So these animals can bear white offspring.  This is not a contradiction to the deal that Jacob accepts, it merely implies that it was quite unfavorable, and perhaps both parties knew this. 

The sticks at the watering troughs have always  disturbed me. These poles were set up to encourage matings that would produce better sheep assigned to Jacob. 

  וַיִּֽקַּֽח־ל֣וֹ יַעֲקֹ֗ב מַקַּ֥ל לִבְנֶ֛ה לַ֖ח וְל֣וּז וְעֶרְמ֑וֹן וַיְפַצֵּ֤ל בָּהֵן֙ פְּצָל֣וֹת לְבָנ֔וֹת מַחְשֹׂף֙ הַלָּבָ֔ן  אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־הַמַּקְלֽוֹת׃

Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots.

The word  לִבְנֶ֛ה , translated as poplar, is clearly related to the white of Lavan. 

   ל֣וּז , the almond is the name of the place mentioned at the beginning of the parsha, the original name of the place that become Beth El. 

 עֶרְמ֑וֹן , the plane tree is related to the word arum, used in the story of Adam and Eve to designate both nakedness and deceit

  מַחְשֹׂף֙ might be a pun with the same  word spelled with a chof,  meaning magic

The repeated use of lavan makes the verse sound like an incantation

 I am  reading   The Evolution of Beauty,  by Richard Prum a book about the role of beauty in biology.  The fundamental question is why animals, most prominently birds, invest so much energy, so many genes, into characteristics and behaviors that do not help them feed or fight.  The proposed answer is that this  gives less physically aggressive animals, often females,  a greater role in evolution on the basis of mate choice.  Certain birds set up a bower, an arrangement of objects, including special sticks, to attract their mate.  Perhaps, Jacob's sticks were like this bird bower for the sheep. 

 I do not want to abandon the benefits and truth of the observations  we call science, that discount miracles and Divine intervention.  I do not want to arrogantly dismiss the Torah story as bad science.  I will just admit that I do not understand and use what I have at hand.