The ways of God are not like unto the ways of men. A man clings close
to his friend while he has riches, and forsakes him when he falls into
poverty. But when God sees a mortal unsteady and faltering, He reaches
a hand out to him, and raises him up. Thus it happened with Leah. She
was hated by Jacob, and God visited her in mercy. Jacob's aversion to
Leah began the very morning after their wedding, when his wife taunted
him with not being wholly free from cunning and craft himself. Then God
said, "Help can come to Leah only if she gives birth to a child; then
the love of her husband will return to her."[168] God remembered the
tears she had shed when she prayed that her doom, chaining her to that
recreant Esau, be averted from her, and so wondrous are the uses of
prayer that Leah, besides turning aside the impending decree, was
permitted to marry Jacob before her sister and be the first to bear him
a child. There was another reason why the Lord was compassionately
inclined toward Leah. She had gotten herself talked about. The sailors
on the sea, the travellers along the highways, the women at their
looms, they all gossiped about Leah, saying, "She is not within what
her seeming is without. She appears to be pious, but if she were, she
would not have deceived her sister."[169] To put an end to all this
tattle, God granted her the distinction of bearing a son at the end of
seven months after her marriage. He was one of a pair of twins, the
other child being a daughter. So it was with eleven of the sons of
Jacob, all of them except Joseph were born twins with a girl, and the
twin sister and brother married later on.[170] Altogether it was an
extraordinary childbirth, for Leah was barren, not formed by nature to
bear children.
She called her first-born son Reuben, which means "See the normal man,"
for he was neither big nor little, neither dark nor fair, but exactly
normal.[171] In calling her oldest child Reuben, "See the son," Leah
indicated his future character. "Behold the difference," the name
implied, "between my first-born son and the first-born son of my father
in-law. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob of his own free will, and yet
he hated him. As for my first-born son, although his birthright was
taken from him without his consent, and given to Joseph, it was
nevertheless he who rescued Joseph from the hands of his
brethren."[172]
Leah called her second son Shime'on, "Yonder is sin," for one of his
descendants was that Zimri who was guilty of vile trespasses with the
daughters of Moab.[173]
The name of her third son, Levi, was given him by God Himself, not by
his mother. The Lord summoned him through the angel Gabriel, and
bestowed the name upon him as one who is "crowned" with the twenty-four
gifts that are the tribute due to the priests.[174]
At the birth of her fourth son, Leah returned thanks to God for a
special reason. She knew that Jacob would beget twelve sons, and if
they were distributed equally among his four wives, each would bear
three. But now it appeared that she had one more than her due share,
and she called him Jehudah, "thanks unto God." She was thus the first
since the creation of the world to give thanks to God,[175] and her
example was followed by David and Daniel, the descendants of her son
Judah.
When Rachel saw that her sister had borne Jacob four sons, she envied
Leah. Not that she begrudged her the good fortune she enjoyed, she only
envied her for her piety, saying to herself that it was to her
righteous conduct that she owed the blessing of many children.[176]
Then she besought Jacob: "Pray unto God for me, that He grant me
children, else my life is no life. Verily, there are four that may be
regarded as though they were dead, the blind, the leper, the childless,
and he who was once rich and has lost his fortune." Jacob's anger was
kindled against Rachel, and he said: "It were better thou shouldst
address thy petition to God, and not to me, for am I in God's stead,
who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?"[177] God was
displeased with this answer that Jacob made to his sad wife. He rebuked
him with the words: "Is it thus thou wouldst comfort a grief-stricken
heart? As thou livest, the day will come when thy children will stand
before the son of Rachel, and he will use the same words thou hast but
now used, saying, 'Am I in the place of the Lord?'"
Rachel also made reply to Jacob, saying: "Did not thy father, too,
entreat God for thy mother with earnest words, beseeching Him to remove
her barrenness?" Jacob: "It is true, but Isaac had no children, and I
have several." Rachel: "Remember thy grandfather Abraham, thou canst
not deny that he had children when he supplicated God in behalf of
Sarah!" Jacob: "Wouldst thou do for me what Sarah did for my
grandfather?" Rachel: "Pray, what did she?" Jacob: "She herself brought
a rival into her house." Rachel: "If that is all that is necessary, I
am ready to follow the example of Sarah, and I pray that as she was
granted a child for having invited a rival, so may I be blessed,
too."[178] Thereupon Rachel gave Jacob Bilhah, her freed handmaid, to
wife, and she bore him a son, whom Rachel called Dan, saying, "As the
Lord was gracious unto me and gave me a son according to my petition,
so He will permit Samson, the descendant of Dan, to judge his people,
that it fall not into the hands of the Philistines."[179] Bilhah's
second son Rachel named Naphtali, saying, "Mine is the bond that binds
Jacob to this place, for it was for my sake that he came to Laban." At
the same time she wanted to convey by this name that the Torah, which
is as sweet as Nofet, "honeycomb," would be taught in the territory of
Naphtali.[180] And the name had still a third meaning: "As God hath
heard my fervent prayer for a son, so He will hearken unto the fervent
prayer of the Naphtalites when they are beset by their enemies."[181]
Leah, seeing that she had left bearing, while Bilhah, her sister's
handmaid, bore Jacob two sons, concluded that it was Jacob's destiny to
have four wives, her sister and herself, and their half-sisters Bilhah
and Zilpah. Therefore she also gave him her handmaid to wife.[182]
Zilpah was the youngest of the four women. It was the custom of that
time to give the older daughter the older handmaid, and the younger
daughter the younger handmaid, as their dowry, when they got married.
Now, in order to make Jacob believe that his wife was the younger
daughter he had served for, Laban had given Leah the younger handmaid
as her marriage portion. This Zilpah was so young that her body
betrayed no outward signs of pregnancy, and nothing was known of her
condition until her son was born. Leah called the boy Gad, which means
"fortune," or it may mean "the cutter," for from Gad was descended the
prophet Elijah, who brings good fortune to Israel, and he also cuts
down the heathen world.[183] Leah had other reasons, too, for choosing
this name of double meaning. The tribe of Gad had the good fortune of
entering into possession of its allotment in the Holy Land before any
of the others,[184] and, also, Gad the son of Jacob was born
circumcised.[185]
To Zilpah's second son Leah gave the name of Asher, "praise," for, she
said, "Unto me all manner of praise is due, for I brought my handmaid
into the house of my husband as wife. Sarah did likewise, but only
because she had no children, and so it was also with Rachel. But as for
me, I had children, and nevertheless I subdued my passion, and without
jealousy I gave my handmaid to my husband for wife. Verily, all will
praise and extol me."[186] Furthermore she spoke: "As the women will
praise me, so the sons of Asher will in time to come praise God for
their fruitful possession in the Holy Land."[187]
The next son born unto Jacob was Issachar, "a reward," and once more it
was Leah who was permitted to bring forth the child, as a reward from
God for her pious desire to have the twelve tribes come into the world.
To secure this result, she left no means untried.[188]
It happened once that her oldest son Reuben was tending his father's
ass during the harvest, and he bound him to a root of dudaim, and went
his way. On returning, he found the dudaim torn out of the ground, and
the ass lying dead beside it. The beast had uprooted it in trying to
get loose, and the plant has a peculiar quality, whoever tears it up
must die.[189] As it was the time of the harvest, when it is permitted
for any one to take a plant from a field, and as dudaim is, besides, a
plant which the owner of a field esteems lightly, Reuben carried it
home. Being a good son, he did not keep it for himself, but gave it to
his mother. Rachel desired the dudaim, and she asked the plant of Leah,
who parted with it to her sister, but on the condition that Jacob, when
he returned from work in the evening, should tarry with her for a
while. It was altogether unbecoming conduct in Rachel to dispose thus
of her husband. She gained the dudaim, but she lost two tribes. If she
had acted otherwise, she would have borne four sons instead of two. And
she suffered another punishment, her body was not permitted to rest in
the grave beside her husband's.
Jacob came home from the field after night had fallen, for he observed
the law obliging a day laborer to work until darkness sets in, and
Jacob's zeal in the affairs of Laban was as great in the last seven
years, after his marriage, as in the first seven, while he was serving
for the hand of Rachel.[190] When Leah heard the braying of Jacob's
ass, she ran to meet her husband,[191] and without giving him time to
wash his feet, she insisted upon his turning aside into her tent.[192]
At first Jacob refused to go, but God compelled him to enter, for unto
God it was known that Leah acted from pure, disinterested motives.[193]
Her dudaim secured two sons for her, Issachar, the father of the tribe
that devotes itself to the study of the Torah, whence his name meaning
"reward," and Zebulon, whose descendants carried on commerce, using
their profits to enable their brethren of Issachar to keep at their
studies.[194] Leah called this last-born son of hers Zebulon,
"dwelling-place," for she said, "Now will my husband dwell with me,
seeing that I have borne him six sons, and, also, the sons of Zebulon
will have a goodly dwelling-place in the Holy Land."[195]
Leah bore once more, and this last time it was a daughter, a man child
turned into a woman by her prayer. When she conceived for the seventh
time, she spake as follows: "God promised Jacob twelve sons. I bore him
six, and each of the two handmaids has borne him two. If, now, I were
to bring forth another son, my sister Rachel would not be equal even
unto the handmaids." Therefore she prayed to God to change the male
embryo in her womb into a female, and God hearkened unto her
prayer.[196]
Now all the wives of Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, united
their prayers with the prayer of Jacob, and together they besought God
to remove the curse of barrenness from Rachel. On New Year's Day, the
day whereon God sits in judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth, He
remembered Rachel, and granted her a son.[197] And Rachel spake, "God
hath taken away my reproach," for all the people had said that she was
not a pious woman, else had she borne children, and now that God had
hearkened to her, and opened her womb, such idle talk no longer had any
reason.[198]
By bearing a son, she had escaped another disgrace. She had said to
herself: "Jacob hath a mind to return to the land of his birth, and my
father will not be able to hinder his daughters who have borne him
children from following their husband thither with their children. But
he will not let me, the childless wife, go, too, and he will keep me
here and marry me to one of the uncircumcised."[199] She said
furthermore, "As my son hath removed my reproach, so Joshua, his
descendant, will roll away a reproach from the Israelites, when he
circumcises them beyond Jordan."[200]
Rachel called her son Joseph, "increase," saying, "God will give me an
additional son." Prophetess as she was, she foresaw she would have a
second son. But an increase added on by God is larger than the original
capital itself. Benjamin, the second son, whom Rachel regarded merely
as a supplement, had ten sons, while Joseph begot only two. These
twelve together may be considered the twelve tribes borne by
Rachel.[201] Had Rachel not used the form of expression, "The Lord add
to me another son," she herself would have begotten twelve tribes with
Jacob.[202]