VAYETZE 1998

In the Torah portion Vayetze we learn how Yaacov goes to Mesopotamia and how he marries Leah and Rachel, and how Laban also gives two maids, one to Rachel and one to Leah, and they become Yaacov's concubines. There is a big Halachic problem in this Torah portion, and that is, how is it possible that Yaacov could have married two sisters when they were both alive? We know that Halachically it is not allowed at all.  You are not allowed to marry two sisters when they are alive.  In fact, you cannot even divorce one sister, and marry another sister. This is a clear cut Halacha, and if, as Rashi said, Yaacov observed, although only voluntarily all the 613 commandments, how is it possible that he was able to marry two sisters? There is even an opinion that says that Bilha and Zilpa, who were the maids of Leah and Rachel, that they were also their half-sisters, being the product of concubines of Laban, but, be that as it may, how is it possible that Yaacov married two sisters? What's more, he is, of all the patriarchs, the only one who really had two wives. Abraham had a wife, Sarah, and a concubine, Hagar, and after Sarah died he married Ketura, but he never had two wives at the same time. Yitzchak only had one wife, Rikva, but Yaacov had two wives.  In fact, although polygamy was allowed in Judaism until about the year 1000, there is no rabbi in the Talmud who was ever recorded as having two wives at the same time.  We
 
know that polygamy was not a favored institution, but here Yaacov marries two women, and not only two women but two sisters. There are different interpretations and explanation for this.  One says that really Rachel and Leah were half-sisters, and, therefore, it is possible to be allowed.  Another interpretation is that Yaacov only observed the 613 commandments in Israel, but not when he was with Laban.  Another interpretation is that G-d told Yaacov to marry these two women, and, therefore, G-d overruled His own Halacha, which, of course, is a very peculiar interpretation, because we say that G-d cannot overrule Halacha.  We say that, "The heavens are for G-d, but has given the land to us," so we make the Halachic decisions, and G-d can never overrule the decisions that were given into our hands.  Otherwise there would be no way to come to a decision.  Someone could say, "G-d told me to do something," but once G-d has given us the Torah, we are the ones who make the decisions on the Torah.  If there are any exceptions to be made, then we can only make exceptions according to the rules of the Torah and Halacha.  Other people say that, no, both Rachel and Leah were converts, so to speak, to Judaism and, therefore, they were like born again, and therefore, although they were really biological sisters they were not spiritual sisters, but this is a hard interpretation.
 
Be that as it may, why is it that Yaacov married two women, and why did G-d countenance this?
If we look at the text carefully, we can probably see that here Yaacov is being taught a lesson as to what is required in a successful marriage, and what G-d wants us to do to obtain a successful marriage. Yaacov sees Rachel for the first time at the well when he first comes to Mesopotamia.  He falls head over heels in love with her.  It is love at first sight, and he wants desperately to marry her, and he even agrees to work seven years for nothing just to marry her.  We all know that he is tricked, and that he marries Leah instead, and then later after a week he marries Rachel, but he has to work another seven years for her, so Rachel is really a symbol of materialism, of passionate love.  If we look carefully at Rachel and how she reacts in given situations, she is really a symbol of materialism, of this world, not in a bad sense but in a good sense. After all, her son is Yosef, and her son is the son who saved the Jewish people by providing food for them, by making sure they had a refuge in the time of famine, by taking care of them, by knowing how to deal with the authorities. He was an important personage, and this was the symbol of Rachel.  For us to

have any type of life, we have to have material things, and these material things have to be used in the right way.  If they are used in the right way, they can have a great spiritual impact, but she was a symbol of earthiness and materialism, in the finest sense of the word.  In fact, we know that in the cave in Chevron it was Leah buried with Jacob, and not Rachel. We also know that when the time of the Mashiach will come, there will be two Mashiachs, according to tradition.  One is the Mashiach Ben Yosef, who is a descendant of Rachel, who is going to make sure the Jewish people are gathered to the land, who will make sure that things materially are done right.  He eventually is not going to be 100% successful, and there is one tradition that He even dies in battle, but He prepare the ground. The Mashiach Ben Dovid is a descendant of Leah, who represents spirituality.  He is the one who is eventually going to make sure that the Messianic era will be ushered in.  Rachel, too, is buried outside Bethlehem, as a symbol of the gathering of the Jews, that we have to have a place of our own to implement all the laws of the Torah. Judaism requires material things. We believe that we receive the spiritual by going through the physical, and Rachel's charge was to make sure that the physical things were in order.  Leah, on the other hand, was more of a spiritual person.

After all, Yaacov married her, and he really did not love her.  Eventually, he did love her, but she was willing to endure until they had four children so he actually developed a love for her.  We can see all these things in the way their children were named.  In fact, Leah named her first child Reuven, because G-d has seen my affliction, and it is to Yaacov's credit that at least he was willing to sleep with Leah. After all, there is no marriage unless there is sex.  It is the glue which holds marriages together, and without sex it is very difficult for a marriage to endure.  Leah did not give up.  She persisted.  She knew that her man would eventually love her.  It was Rachel that was the great beauty, and Leah was not such a great beauty. The rabbis say she had weak eyes, which probably meant in a certain sense mat she was starry eyed and looked at the spiritual things of the world, while Rachel was more pragmatic.  In fact, Rachel wanted to get her father away from worshipping idols, so she stole his idols, which is, of course, something she really should not have done.  We know, too, that Leah named her second Shimon, G-d has seen my affliction.  Then the third son she named Levi, which means now my husband has to accompany me, because I am holding a baby in one hand and a baby in another hand, so my husband has to accompany me.  Of course, in the text it, "And he called him
 
Levi," which some people say Yaacov actually called the baby Levi.  Others say, no, this Levi was called by G-d Levi because from Levi came the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people.  That's where Moshe and Aaron and Miriam and the Kohanim came from because they are the descendants of Aaron when Aaron became the high priest. We see from here that Leah persisted in her spiritual quest. The fourth son Leah calls Yehuda, that she thanks G-d because now she has more or less won over her husband.  Now he does love her, as he loves Rachel, too. Because of her persistence and care and concern, her husband loves her.  Rachel now, seeing that she cannot have children, gives her maid, Bilha, to Yaacov, and she produces two children, Don and Naphtali. Again, we are talking about practical, earthy things.  She is talking about G-d is judge between me and my sister, and has given me, so to speak, a favorable verdict.  Naphtali, I have wrestled with my sister, and I have overcome.  It says that she has these adopted children, sort of the ancient form of surrogate motherhood, while Leah, on the other hand, also gives her maid over, only she names the children differently.  She names the children Gad and Asher, which means that G-d has given me good luck and fortune.  In other words, again she is stressing he spiritual aspect.  There is no struggle between her and her sister
 
here. Then later G-d blesses her with two more children, who she calls Zevani and Yisochar, which again means basically a reward, that because I have been good with my sister, too, G-d has given me this type of reward.  My husband now loves me and cares for me because I have been good to him.  We also know later than when Rachel has children she names her child Yosef, and what does Yosef mean? It means that G-d should give me another son or that G-d has removed my shame.  Again, it is really all tilings that are centered on her, and not really centered on thanks to G-d or upon a spiritual position. There is nothing wrong with what Rachel did.  In fact, Rachel, herself, intercepts Reuven when he comes back with some love potions and wants them from him. Leah said, "Yes, you can have them as long as you let your husband come to me tonight." That is when she became pregnant, of course, with one of her sons. We know, too, that Leah, when she became pregnant with Dena actually prayed to G-d, according to the Medrash, that it should be a girl and not a boy so that Rachel should at least have two boys, as the maid servants had.  Later, Rachel did have another child in the next Torah portion, and again it is called Benyonim, which means the son of my affliction or the son of my strength, and, of course, Rachel died giving birth to Benyomin.

We see from this that G-d wanted that the Jewish people should always understand that a marriage is a combination of earthy, material things and also spiritual things.  There were two mothers to emphasize the importance of these, and that marriage has to be based on earthy things.  It has to be based on love and attraction and sexuality, but it also has to have a spiritual component, and the spiritual component is sometimes later in developing. You have to let it develop.  Sometimes a couple does not realize that they have to develop the spiritual component for their marriage to succeed. That, of course, is what Leah taught us.  It was not until the fourth child until the spiritual development occurred between her and Yaacov and caused their marriage to endure, so much so that she is buried with Yaacov. They had a wonderful bond, and when Rachel died Yaacov relied on Leah.  So we need to have both these elements in a marriage.  It is important, too, what you name your children.  Your children's names are reflective of what you believe.  In fact, a generation or so ago when Jews were trying to assimilate and were not proud of their own heritage, they tried to give their children names from English lords, which, of course, became Jewish names, like Seymour and Marvin and Melvin.  You know, these names are always going to be Jewish names because the gentiles stopped using these

names, but today we see that there is a difference.  Jews are proud of who they are.  You see a lot of Davids and Sarahs. These names are indicative of the fact that Jews are once again proud of who they are and what they are. Remember, when we gave our children Biblical names a lot of people looked askance at that and thought we were making a mistake.  How were they going to make it in the world? They seemed to be too Jewish, but people are not afraid anymore of Jewish names and names which speak to the fact that the Jewish people are not just an earthy people; we are also a spiritual people, and we need both these elements if we are to be successful in the world. This is why Jacob had these two wives, according to the rabbis because it had to teach us what marriage is.  Yes, marriage has to do with attraction and love and sexuality and wanting to form a family, but it also has to do with spirituality and providing for the future.  Judaism has certain values.  You have to see people's afflictions.  You have to hear their afflictions.  You have to be willing to accompany them.  You have to be willing to praise G-d.  You have to be thankful for the gifts that are given to you, and you should be happy that you have what you have and that you are able to make a contribution to the world with those talents that G-d has given us.  Let us hope and pray that we will
 
always realize this, because this will mean that we will have strong families and good families if we always realize there are these two components in any type of a marriage.
I am reminded of the story they tell about two little boys who were talking and one said, "You know, my Daddy said that our new baby cost $4000."  The other little boy said, "Well, that's not so bad, they last a long time."  Let us all hope and pray that our families will last a long time, and that our children will always want to be Jewish, and that they always try to emphasize the Jewish character of their relationships so the Jewish people will be strong so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.