In Parhsat Vayetzei, after working
for seven years in order to marry Rachel, Yaakov tells Lavan that his term has
been completed and he is ready to get married. Lavan gathered all of the local
people and made a wedding feast.
In Breisheet 29:23,25 the trouble
begins:
When it was evening, he (Lavan) took
Leah, his daughter, and brought her to him (Yaakov). He consummated the
marriage with her…When it was morning, behold it was Leah! He (Yaakov) said
to Lavan, “What have you done to me? Did I not work with you for Rachel? Why
did you deceive me?”
How did Yaakov only realize in the
morning that it was Leah? Why did he think that it was Rachel in the evening?
Rashi quotes the Talmud, Megillah
13b which explains that Yaakov had given Rachel certain signs. When Rachel saw
that Leah was being brought to him she thought: “My sister may now be
humiliated,” whereupon she readily transmitted those signs to her.
The Talmud explains:
As a reward for the modesty that was
exhibited by Rachel, she merited that the modest King Saul descend from her.
And as a reward for the modesty that was exhibited by Saul, he merited that the
modest Esther descended from him.
What was the modesty exhibited by
Rachel?
In Breisheet 29:12 we read: “And
Yaakov told Rachel that he was the brother of her father.”
Was Yaakov the brother of her
father? Wasn’t he the son of Rivka, her father’s sister? Rather, this is what
happened: Yaakov asked Rachel to marry him and she answered, “Yes. However, my
father is a deceiver and you will not be able to outwit him.”
Yaakov answered, “I am his brother
in deceit.” Then Yaakov asked “What deceit would he use against me?”
Rachel answered: “I have a sister,
Leah who is older than I, and my father will not marry me off before he marries
her off (he will therefore try to trick you into marrying her).” To prevent
this from happening, Yaakov gave Rachel signs/ passwords where he would be able
to identify her as Rachel.
When the wedding night arrived and
Rachel saw that her father was indeed planning on substituting Leah, she said
to herself, “Now my sister will be put to shame” (since Yaakov will ask her for
the passwords and she will not know them). She gave the signs to Leah and
therefore Yaakov didn’t know until the morning that it was really Leah.
Eicha Rabba, Ptichta 24 takes
Rachel’s selfless behavior a step further and explains that when the Beit
HaMikdash was being destroyed, Yirmiyahu pleaded with each of the Avot, forefathers- Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as well
as Moshe to rise from their graves and beg God to have mercy on their children.
However, God would not listen to any of them. At that point, Rachel jumped in
and said:
Sovereign
of the Universe! It is revealed before You that Your servant, Yaakov loved me
exceedingly and worked for my father on my behalf for seven years. When those
seven years were completed and the time arrived for us to get married, my
father planned to switch me with my sister. I had pity on her and I gave over
the signs which I arranged with Yaakov so that he would think that she was me.
I did her a kindness, was not jealous of her and did not expose her to shame.
If I was not jealous of my rival then why should You, a King who lives
eternally and are merciful be jealous of idolatry and exile my children and let
them be slain by the sword. I had mercy on my sister, you should have mercy on
your children.
God
answered, for your sake, Rachel, I will restore Israel to their place.
In
Yirmiyahu 31:15 we find the portrait of Rachel crying:
Thus said the LORD: A cry is heard in Ramah— Wailing, bitter
weeping— Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her
children, who are gone.
Yirmiyahu’s
words of consolation are found in Yirmiyahu 31:16-17:
Thus said the LORD: Restrain your voice from weeping, your eyes
from shedding tears; for there is a reward for your labor —declares the LORD:
They shall return from the enemy’s land. And there is hope for your future
—declares the LORD: Your children shall return to their country.
God
did in fact follow through and continues to reward Rachel. The Jewish people
have returned to the Land of Israel after 70 years of exile. With the founding
of the State of Israel, Jews from all over the world are once again able to return
to their homeland.
