Now Laban had two daughters (29:16). Midrash B’reishit Rabbah 70.15 portrays the sisters Rachel and Leah as equal partners in building the Jewish people: “Both produced chieftains and kings.…Both produced prophets and judges.” Leah was “greater in gifts,” in that her sons were the ancestors of the priests and the Davidic kings.
Leah’s eyes were weak (29:16). In B’reishit Rabbah 70.16, Rabbi Yohanan explains that Leah’s eyes had grown weak from weeping. It had been expected that Rebekah’s two sons would marry Laban’s two daughters—and Esau was intended for Leah. Hearing negative reports about Esau’s conduct, Leah had wept, praying that her destiny would change. Rabbi Huna observes that Leah’s prayer had been powerful enough to alter her fate, but in the process her eyes were permanently affected.
In the morning (29:25). The commentators are amazed that Leah fooled Jacob. After living in Laban’s house for seven years, surely Jacob could tell Rachel and Leah apart! Furthermore, how did Laban prevent Rachel from warning Jacob of the deception? Midrash Eichah Rabbah, proem 24, explains that Rachel was a willing—albeit unhappy—partner to Laban’s plan. In this midrash, Rachel recounts her version of the events of Genesis 29. Aware that her father was plotting to deceive Jacob, she warned her future husband of Laban’s plans. Jacob and Rachel agreed upon a sign to allow Jacob to distinguish between the sisters. But then, Rachel changed her mind, realizing that if Laban’s plan failed, Leah would be shamed. Instead of thwarting her father’s plot, Rachel aided her sister in the deception: “That evening, my sister took my place with Jacob and I taught her the signs I had given him so that he would think she was Rachel. I also hid under the bed upon which they lay, and when Jacob spoke to my sister, I responded while she was silent so that he would not recognize her voice. In this way, I showed kindness to my sister; I did not act on my jealousy and saved her from disgrace.”
Laban then gave his maid Bilhah (29:29). According to the 11th-century commentator Rashi, the slaves Bilhah and Zilpah were Laban’s daughters by his concubine, thus suitable mothers of four of the tribes of Israel (on 31:50). The childless Rachel’s use of Bilhah parallels Sarah’s earlier use of Hagar in 16:1–3 (B’reishit Rabbah 71.7). Leah’s motives in giving Zilpah to Jacob are less clear; some commentators suggest that Leah acted to ensure that Jacob would father twelve sons. The Midrash Tanna D’Vei Eliyahu Rabbah 25 (Ish-Shalom edn., p. 138) counts Rachel’s and Leah’s willingness to offer their maidservants to Jacob as among the righteous acts of the matriarchs that led to Israel’s redemption from Egypt. Some traditions include Bilhah and Zilpah among the matriarchs (B’midbar Rabbah 12; Shir HaShirim Rabbah 6; P’sikta D’Rav Kahana 1.10).
“Let me have children” (30:1). Rachel’s demand is understood by rabbinic tradition as a complaint against Jacob. She expects him to pray on her behalf, as his father Isaac did for Rebekah. Jacob was criticized by some rabbis for his harsh reply (B’reishit Rabbah 71.7). Isaac Arama, a 15th-century commentator in Spain, attributed Jacob’s frustration to Rachel’s insistence that a childless woman is worthless. He argues that women have two functions: like men, they can develop their intellectual and spiritual qualities, and they can also bear and raise children. Jacob wants Rachel to recognize that she can have a meaningful life even if she has no children (Akedat Yitzchak on Genesis 3:20).
Afterwards she bore a daughter (30:21). The power of Leah’s prayers is again emphasized in BT B’rachot 60a. Commenting on “afterwards,” Rav suggests that after she discovered she was pregnant, “Leah reasoned, ‘Jacob is destined to father twelve tribes. I have given birth to six sons, and the handmaidens have borne four. If this child is a son, my sister Rachel won’t be equal even to the handmaidens.’ Immediately, the child [in her womb] was transformed to a female.” In other versions of this miraculous demonstration of the efficacy of prayer, the handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, join Leah in prayers on Rachel’s behalf (B’reishit Rabbah 72.6).
Reuben went and found mandrakes (30:14). In B’reishit Rabbah 72.5, the sages explain that through these mandrakes two additional tribes came into being, Issachar and Zebulun. Leah’s willingness to barter with her sister allowed her to attain precedence as the mother of six tribes and to merit burial at Jacob’s side (B’reishit Rabbah 72.3).
—Dvora E. Weisberg