Leah
Leah | |
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| לֵאָה | |
 | |
| Born | |
| Died | |
| Spouse | Jacob(cousin/husband) |
| Children | |
| Parent |
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| Relatives | See list
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Leah[a](/ˈliːə/) appears in theHebrew Bibleas one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarchJacob.Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wifeRachel.She is the mother of Jacob's first sonReuben.She has three more sons, namelySimeon,LeviandJudah,but does not bear another son until Rachel offers her a night with Jacob in exchange for somemandrakeroot (דודאים,dûdâ'îm). Leah gives birth to two more sons after this,IssacharandZebulun,and to Jacob's only daughter,Dinah.
Name[edit]
Leah means "wild cow”, “weary”, and “delicate”, a common title with ancient goddesses likeInana,Urash,andNanshe.[4]Rachel means "ewe lamb." Noegel says there's an irony involving Laban's flocks within this detail, one is on generative acts, -Give me my wife for my days are fulfilled, that I may go into her(אליה) (29:21). Herein also lies a subtle pun on Leah's name, which occurs again in 29:23.[5]
Biblical narrative[edit]
Overview[edit]
Leah first appears in theBook of Genesis,in Genesis 29, which describes her as the daughter ofLabanand the older sister ofRachel,and is said to not compare to Rachel's physical beauty and that she has tender eyes.[b]Earlier passages in the Book of Genesis give some background on her father's family, noting that through him, she is the niece ofRebecca,who is the wife ofIsaacand the mother ofJacobandEsau,and the granddaughter ofBethuel,andrabbinic literaturegoes even further, with theBook of Jasherclaiming Leah and Rachel were twins and recording her mother's name as Adinah and her brothers' names as Beor, Alub, and Murash. Rabbinical literature contradicts itself on whether Leah and Rachel were half-siblings toZilpahandBilhah,two sisters who would serve as mistresses to Leah's future husband, Jacob, and whose children she and Rachel would raise as their own, as one source[which?]lists them as being daughters of Laban, but not his wife Adinah, and another lists them as being the daughters of Rotheus, a man who was close to Laban but not related to him. If Zilpah and Bilhah were indeed half-sisters of Leah, this would make Leah's adoptive sons,GadandAsher,and Rachel's adoptive sons,DanandNaphtali,her nephews. According to Genesis 28:2,[7]the family resided inPaddan Aram,an area believed to correspond with the historicalUpper Mesopotamia.[8]
Prior to her and Rachel's mentioning, the book of Genesis details how their first cousin and future husband, Jacob, with the help of his mother, Rebecca, willfully deceives his dying father, Isaac, into giving him his twin brother Esau's birthright. Fearful of his brother's wrath, Jacob flees his homeland forHaran,where he meets his maternal family, including Laban and his daughters. Biblical passages are dismissive of Leah and favorable of Rachel, with Rachel said to be beautiful and of Leah, only that she had "weary", "tired" or "tender" eyes.[b]Jacob is eager to marry Rachel and agrees to provide seven years' labor to her father if he can marry her. Laban initially agrees but, on the night of what would've been Jacob and Rachel's wedding, Laban reneges; he insists Jacob marry Leah instead, as she is older. Jacob is ultimately allowed to marry Rachel, which he does immediately after the festivities related to his wedding to Leah end, in exchange for another seven years' labor.
Leah's life as Jacob's wife was distressful. So lonely was she that even the Lord took notice of it and blessed her with many children as consolation. Due to the extreme emotional distress suffered by both Leah (and Rachel) during the marriage, Yahweh later strictly clarified his opposition to uncovering the nakedness of a woman and her sister while both were still living (Genesis 30:1, Leviticus 18:18).
Despite Rachel's infertility, Jacob still favored Rachel over her. He also favored Rachel's sons,JosephandBenjamin,over Leah's, and made no attempts to hide that from her or his other children. According to 1 Chronicles 5:1,[9]Jacob took the firstborn's birthright, which entitles a firstborn to a larger inheritance in Jewish law, fromReuben,his oldest son, to Joseph, who was his second-youngest son, and, in Genesis 33:2,[10]when he is confronted by Esau, puts Leah, along with Zilpah and Bilhah and all of their sons, in front of himself, Rachel, and Joseph, to be used as something of a buffer or a shield to protect himself in the event the confrontation turned violent.
Appearance[edit]
TheTorahintroduces Leah by describing her with the phrase, "Leah had tender eyes" (Biblical Hebrew:ועיני לאה רכות) (Genesis 29:17).[11]It is argued as to whether the adjective "tender" (רכות) should be taken to mean "delicate and soft" or rather "weary"[12]or "weak".[13]
The commentary ofRashicites a Rabbinic interpretation of how Leah's eyes became weak. According to this story, Leah was destined to marry Jacob's older twin brother,Esau.In theRabbinicmind, the two brothers are polar opposites; Jacob being a God-fearing scholar and Esau being a hunter who also indulges inidolatryandadultery.But people were saying, "Laban has two daughters and his sister,Rebekah,has two sons. The older daughter (Leah) will marry the older son (Esau), and the younger daughter (Rachel) will marry the younger son (Jacob). "[14]Hearing this, Leah spent most of her time weeping and praying to God to change her destined mate. Thus the Torah describes her eyes as "soft" from weeping. God hearkens to Leah's tears and prayers and allows her to marry Jacob even before Rachel does.
Marriage to Jacob[edit]
Leah becomes Jacob's wife through a deception on the part of her father, Laban. In the Biblical account, Jacob is dispatched to the hometown of Laban—the brother of his mother Rebekah—to avoid being killed by his brother Esau, and to find a wife. Out by the well, he encounters Laban's younger daughter Rachel tending her father's sheep, and decides to marry her. Laban is willing to give Rachel's hand to Jacob as long as he works seven years for her.
On the wedding night, however, Laban switches Leah for Rachel. Later Laban claims that it is uncustomary to give the younger daughter away in marriage before the older one (Genesis 29:16–30).[15]Laban offers to give Rachel to Jacob in marriage in return for another seven years of work (Genesis 29:27).[16]Jacob accepts the offer and marries Rachel after the week-long celebration of his marriage to Leah.
Motherhood[edit]
Leah was the mother of six of Jacob's sons, including his first four (Reuben,Simeon,Levi,andJudah), and later two more (IssacharandZebulun), and a daughter (Dinah). According to the scriptures, God saw that Leah was "unloved" and opened her womb as consolation. Through her sons Levi and Judah, she is thus the matriarch of both the priestly (Levite) and royal (Judahite) tribes in Israel.
Seeing that she was unable to conceive, Rachel offered her handmaidBilhahto Jacob, and named and raised the two sons (DanandNaphtali) that Bilhah gave birth to. Leah responded by offering her handmaidZilpahto Jacob, and named and raised the two sons (GadandAsher) that Zilpah gave birth to. According to some commentaries, Bilhah and Zilpah are actually half-sisters of Leah and Rachel.[17]
One day, Leah's firstborn son Reuben returned from the field withmandrakesfor his mother. Leah had not conceived for a while, and the plant, whose roots resemble the human body, was thought to be an aid to fertility.[18]Frustrated that she was not able to conceive at all, Rachel offered to trade her night with their husband with Leah in return for the mandrakes. Leah agreed, and that night she slept with Jacob and conceivedIssachar.Afterwards she gave birth toZebulunand to a daughter,Dinah.[19]After that, God remembered Rachel and gave her two sons,JosephandBenjamin.
Rivalry with Rachel[edit]
On ahomileticallevel, the classicChassidictexts explain the sisters' rivalry as more than marital jealousy. Each woman desired to grow spiritually in heravodatHaShem(service of God), and therefore sought closeness to thetzadik(Jacob) who is God's personal emissary in this world. By marrying Jacob and bearing his sons, who would be raised in thetzadik's home and continue his mission into the next generation (indeed, all 12 sons becametzadikimin their own right and formed the foundation of the Nation of Israel), they would develop an even closer relationship to God. Therefore, Leah and Rachel each wanted to have as many of those sons as possible, going so far as to offer their handmaids as proxies to Jacob so they could have a share in the upbringing of their handmaids' sons, too.[20]
Each woman also continually questioned whether she was doing enough in her personal efforts toward increased spirituality, and would use the other's example to spur herself on. Rachel envied Leah's tearful prayers, by which she merited to marry thetzaddikand bear six of his twelve sons.[17][20]TheTalmud(Megillah13b) says that Rachel revealed to Leah the secret signs which she and Jacob had devised to identify the veiled bride, because they both suspected Laban would pull such a trick.[21]
Death and burial[edit]
Leah died some time before Jacob (according to Genesis 49:31).[22]She is thought to be buried in theCave of the PatriarchsinHebronalongside Jacob. This cave also houses the graves ofAbrahamandSarah,andIsaacandRebekah.[23]
Medieval Christian symbolism[edit]
In medieval Christian symbolism, Rachel was taken as a symbol of the contemplative (monastic) Christian life, and Leah as a symbol of the active (non-monastic) life.[24]Dante Alighieri'sPurgatorioincludes a dream of Rachel and Leah, which inspired illustrations byDante Gabriel Rossettiand others:
"... in my dream, I seemed to see a woman
both young and fair; along a plain she gathered
flowers, and even as she sang, she said:
Whoever asks my name, know that I'm Leah,
and I apply my lovely hands to fashion
a garland of the flowers I have gathered. "[25]
Notes[edit]
- ^Hebrew:לֵאָה,Modern:Lēʼa,Tiberian:Lēʼā,ISO 259-3Leˀa;Syriac:ܠܝܐLa'ya;from𒀖littu(Akkadianfor 'cow')[1][2][3]
- ^ab"Leah had tender eyes" (Biblical Hebrew:ועיני לאה רכות) (Genesis 29:17).[6]It is debated as to whether the adjective "tender" (רכות) should be taken to mean "delicate and soft" or "weary". Some translations say that it may have meant blue or light colored eyes. Some say that Leah spent most of her time weeping and praying to God to change her destined mate; thus the Torah describes her eyes as "soft" from weeping. See the section#Appearancefor further reading.
References[edit]
- ^Meyers, Carol L.;Craven, Toni; Kraemer, Ross Shepard, eds. (2001),Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament,Grand Rapids, Michigan:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,p.108,ISBN9780802849625
- ^Hepner, Gershon (2010),Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel,Bern:Peter Lang,p.422,ISBN9780820474625
- ^"ab [COW]",The electronicPennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,OCLC163207721
- ^Veldhuis, Niek (2002)."Studies in Sumerian Vocabulary: dnin-ka6; immal/šilam; And še21.d".Journal of Cuneiform Studies.54.American Schools of Oriental Research: 67–77.ISSN0022-0256.JSTOR1360043.Retrieved2023-12-12.
- ^Noegel, Scott B. (1997-01-01)."Sex, Sticks, and the Trickster in Gen. 30:31-43".Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society.25(1): 15.Retrieved2023-11-03.however, note that references to bovines and their fertility would not have been an unkindassociationin the ancient near East, where the cultural attitude toward cattle is reflected by the ubiquity of boviform gods.
- ^Genesis 29:17
- ^Genesis 28:2
- ^"Paddan-Aram".jewishvirtuallibrary.org.Retrieved2020-04-30.
- ^1 Chronicles 5:1
- ^Genesis 33:2
- ^Genesis 29:17
- ^Bivin, David, "Leah's Tender Eyes," at jerusalemperspectiveArchived2007-05-26 at theWayback Machine
- ^Noegel, Scott B. (1997-01-01)."Sex, Sticks, and the Trickster in Gen. 30:31-43".Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society.25(1).Retrieved2023-11-03.
- ^"What's in A Name,"Archived2011-05-15 at theWayback MachineVayetzei(Genesis 28:10-32:3) ataish
- ^Genesis 29:16–30
- ^Genesis 29:27
- ^abGinzberg, Louis (1909)The Legends of the Jews,Volume I, Chapter VI: Jacob, atsacred-texts
- ^MandrakeArchived2007-09-30 at theWayback Machinein theAmerican Bible Society Online Bible Dictionary,1865, Broadway, New York, NY 10023-7505 atbibles
- ^Alihassan, N. (2017).Prophets in Islam.Notion Press.ISBN9781946822680.
- ^abFeinhandler, Yisrael Pesach,Beloved Companions,Vayetze - III, "Jealousy Can Be a Tool for Spiritual Growth," atshemayisrael
- ^Wagensberg, Abba (2006),"Between The Lines,"inToras Aish,Volume XIV, No. 11, 2006 Rabbi A. Wagensberg & aish
- ^Genesis 49:31
- ^Richman, Chaim (1995),"Focus on Hebron,"Archived2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine1995Light to the Nations,Rabbi Chaim Richman - All Rights Reserved, Reprinted fromThe Restorationnewsletter, July, 1995 (Tammuz/Av, 5755) atlttn.orgArchived2010-08-31 at theWayback Machine
- ^Dorothy L. Sayers,Purgatory(translation ofDante'sPurgatorio), notes on Canto XXVII.
- ^Dante'sPurgatorio,Canto XXVII, lines 97–102, Mandelbaum translation.
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