For the Refua Shlema of Mordechai Tzvi ben
Sara & Binyamin ben Blanka.
What does it mean to really love someone?
The Torah answers that, obviously. Our Parasha
is packed with interesting things to learn to become BETTER PEOPLE! Judaism is
not all about rebuke, as most people think unfortunately. One thing is the
power of love between the sisters, our Emahot
(Mothers): Rachel and Leah.
What was the story? As we already know from
last Erev Shabbat’s CLD (last Friday), Rivka gave birth to Esav and Yaakov
Avinu, the famous twin pair. At the age of 84 Yaakov married Rachel and Leah.
But what is the inside story from the Gemara that breaks everything down?
In reality, when someone looks at the Parasha
with Mepharshim (commentary), they see that Leah was supposed to be married to
Esav and Rachel was supposed to be married to Yaakob Avinu. Everyone knew the
sons of the Gdol HaDor (biggest Rabbi of the generation), Yitzchak, were
supposed to marry their cousins, Rachel and Leah. However, it was supposed to
be like this: the older one, Esav the Rasha (wicked) marries the older
daughter, Leah; and Yaakov Avinu, the younger one marries the younger daughter,
Rachel.
When Leah heard of this news, she was startled
and scared for her life! She was a tzadeket, 100% righteous, pure, beautiful
spiritually and physically. How will she let herself fall into the home of such
a wicked person, Esav the Rasha!?!? No way. What did she do? She cried and
cried and cried to HASHEM. If there is nothing you learn from the CLD just take
this lesson: No matter where you are physically/spiritually in the world at any
stage of your life, you can ALWAYS depend on Hashem for support! This is
exactly what Leah did. And exactly what happened was a miracle.
The Gemara says that Rachel gave over the
secret messages to Leah on her wedding night (that would show Yaakov that it is
really Rachel and would prevent any trickery from happening), and then Lavan
switched Rachel with Leah at the bride’s spot. YES, Rachel gave up her WEDDING
DREAM, to be married to the biggest Rabbi’s son, the Father of ISRAEL, Yaakov
Avinu, just so her sister will be happy.
Where can we find love equivalent to Rachel’s
love for her sister in our world today?!
Fast forward years and years later. Even
though Rachel still ended up being married to Yaakov Avinu, she had major
issues. She was left Akara (barron)
for years. Everyone knew (check last Friday’s CLD) that there was supposed to
be 12 Shvatim (tribes) coming from Yaakov and his wives. So what does Rachel
see before her eyes? Leah keeps on popping out Baby Boy after Baby Boy,
reaching a total of SIX BOYS. Half of the Shvatim came from Leah!
In the meantimes Rachel becomes so desperate
that she makes her maidservant, Bilhah, marry Yaakov and Bilhah gives birth to
two boys (8 in total now). Then Leah does the same thing with her maidservant,
Zilpa, and gives birth to two more boys (10 in total). At this point Rachel
sees she is still left barron and it looks like there is no help in sight.
Leah becomes pregnant.
Will Hashem let this happen?! Both
Maidservants will have more Shvatim under their name than Rachel Imenu, HOW CAN
THAT BE?! And then what makes it even worse? LEAH GETS PREGNANT AGAIN! Rachel
sees the belly. There is no hope in sight.
What does Leah do? She prays to Hashem that
she will have a Baby Girl (Dinah) just so Rachel’s womb will open and she will
give birth to the other 2 Shvatim (Yosef and Binyamin). Hashem switches the
gender of the fetus to a girl, hearing the prayer, and gets Rachel pregnant.
Ashrei Am Yisrael, Praised is Am Yisrael for
loving eachother to the point of sacrificing everything! B’H we will learn from
this story how important our Tefillah (prayer) is and how much potential we
have to change the functions of this world and nature itself.
SHAVUA TOV!
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