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Vayeitzei
Jacob is fleeing for his life from his brother Esav.
On the way he stops to sleep in the place, which we are told is Mt.
Moriah. There he dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and
malachim ascending and descending upon it. Hashem appears to him and
blesses him as A vraham and Isaac were blessed.
He continues on towards Haran, to his mother's brother
Lavan's house, and he comes to a well in a field. There he meets a beautiful
woman and he falls in love with her. This is his uncle Lavan's younger
daughter Rache. Jacob goes to Lavan, and agrees to work for Lavan for
seven years to marry Rachel.question of consent.So the time comes for
Jacob to marry Rachel, but vay 'hi vaboker, v 'hinei-hi Leah! And it
was in the morning, and behold, she was Leah!. Which you would think,
he would have known that he was not with Rachel. He must have known
on some level that he was not with Rachel. But it is said while Rachel
was intended to be wife of Jacob--while Leah was to be the wife ofIsrael.
While at this point Jacob is not yet Israel, perhaps the part of him
that is to become Israel recognizes Leah as the one he is intended to
be with. And because he knows he is with the one he is supposed to be
with, Jacob believes he is with Rachel.
So then Jacob agrees to work another 7 years to marry
Rachel--although he does not have to wait another seven years to marry
her; he marries her the next week.And the Torah says that Hashem say
ki s'nuah Leah--which often seems to be translated "that Leah was
unloved". But that's not what it means--it literally means, that
Leah was hated This is something that has always really bothered me.
Why was Leah hated? What had she done? Some suggest that she was an
active accomplice in Lavan's deceit. Which is somewhat hard to believe--not
that she did not want to marry Jacob (midrash says her eyes were weak
from crying because she knew she was intended to marry Esav and not
Jacob), but Lavan hardly seems the type to consult his daughters before
cheating his nephew. Or perhaps when Jacob looked at Leah, he was reminded
of how he was deceived just as he decieved his father (nd brother).
In fact when Jacob demands to know why Lavan has cheated him, Lavan
tells him "it is not right to let the younger go ahead of the elder"---which
is exactly what Jacob had done. So maybe he hates Leah because she is
a constant reminder of what he did--which is hardly fair to her, but
it's at least a reason. Perhaps ultimately he hates her because she
was not Rachel. She was his first wife. He worked seven years for her.
And she was not his love Rachel.The Torah then goes on to say that because
Hashem saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb --v' Rachel akarah,
and Rachel was barren. Now Leah is the only one of our four mothers
not to have been barren for some time before she is able to conceive.
It seems that this is beca,use she is hated--perhaps this was painful
enough without being barren also.
Leah gives birth to a son, and she names him Re'uven: See, a son! meaning both, See, Jacob, a son! and that Hashem had seen her pain. She soon has a second son, and names him Shim' on, saying that G-d has heard that she was hated, and for this reason had given her a second son, so that now her husband will love her. A third son is named Levi, because she says that now Jacob will be attached to her, since she has given him 3 sons. However, it is apparently not Leah who names Levi. Although some translations say "she called his name Levi", the Hebrew kara-sh'mo--unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible--is masculine: He called his name Levi. Who this He is we don't know--possibly Jacob, or perhaps G-d himself names Levi. (And so the reason he is named Levi may not be the reason Leah gives). Leah then gives birth to a fourth son, whom she names Yehudah, saying that now she will "praise G-d". Then she stops giving birth-for a while.
This sequence of events, of births and namings--and
the reasons behind the namings--always intrigued me.
First, because Hashem sees that Leah is hated-presumably by Jacob-and
in response he opens her womb and enables her to have children. Leah
clearly believes that these children are intended to make Jacob love
her. She says first See, a son--now my husband will love me. Then, when
this apparenlty doesn't make Jacob love her: G-d saw
that I am (still) hated, so now He's given me this one, too (presumably,
now my husband is going to love me). Then she interprets Levi's name-remember,
she did not name him herself--as meaning that finally Jacob will become
attached to her--after all, she has now given birth to three sons. But
after the birth of Judah, there is a curious change. There is no mention
of her husband or of him loving her or hating her or of how now finally
he will love her. She says only: "I will gratefully praise G-d"
-and it is at this time that she stops giving birth (for awhile).
I'had identified very strongly with Leah, and it always
bothered me that she was hated. Her situation seems to me very sad--at
one point, she tells Jacob that she has hired him to sleep with her.
She has to hire her own husband to sleep with her--which seems to me
to be indicative of the kind of relationship she had with him. (It also
says that he hates her, which is probably even clearer).
And when she begins to have children, she assumes that
these are a way to force Jacob to love her--and her first two children
she names accordingly. She seems to be using her children as a way to
buy Jacob's love. But I think that this was not the reason that Hashem
opens her womb and enables her to have children without first being
barren. Perhaps this is why G-d names Levi, and not Leah. The first
child, she thinks ''this is so my husband will love me" and the
second she is still thinking "now he's going to love me" so
Hashem names the third child--Leah is still thinking "now, 3 sons,
Jacob's got to love me now." And she interprets Levi accordingly.
But perhaps Hashem had another intent in mind behind Levi's name--I
don't know what it would be, but I don't believe He gave Leah these
sons so Jacob would love her.
And there is a big change with the birth of Yehudah. Leah no longer apparently believes that this is the son that will change everything, that now Jacob will love her and everything will be all right. She says only, I will praise G-d odeh et Hashem. Some say that this was, indeed the child after which Jacob began to love her, but I don't believe that this is so. I don't believe he ever stopped hating her-or at least, I don't believe Jacob ever loved Leah (now whether Israel loved Leah is a different story--remember Leah was intended as the wife ofIsrael). I believe that her statement I will praise G-d indicates a profound change in her way of looking at the gifts G-d has given her. She appreciates them for what they are-her sons, four good and healthy children, rather than as pawns in an attempt to force her husband to love her. Therefore, she says I will praise Hashem--for these four children he has given me, for their own sakes. It is when Leah realizes that her children are not intended to force love from someone who does not love her that she stops giving birth.