TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS
SEASON SIX EPISODE EIGHT
LEAH AND RACHEL, PART TWO
At last, the sisters unite. But you’ll never believe what they do! I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
MUSIC
Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.
It was finally time for Jacob to leave Paddan-Aram, where he had lived for 21 years, to return to the Land of Canaan. At first, Rachel and Leah did not want to leave; after all, this was the only home they had known.
But then, something happened. Genesis 31.14 is our source. And it’s a doozy.
I’ve looked at this passage in Hebrew, in English translations and in various commentaries and they all come to the same point. Let me read it in English for you:
“Rachel and Leah said to Jacob, do we still have a share and an inheritance in the House of our Father? Does he not think of us as strangers? He has sold us and taken our money. But all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now, whatever God has said to you, do.”
Let’s unpack this. Apparently, Laban denied a share of his estate to his daughters. Normally, his estate would go to his eldest son, but we never read of any sons of Laban. So, who would get his estate? Possibly, it would be Jacob, his son-in-law. But Laban knew that Jacob had deceived him, so perhaps Laban wrote him out of his will as well, giving his property to God knows whom.
Rachel and Leah, rival sisters, united against a common enemy, their father. They told Jacob, their common husband, to do whatever he needed to do to take their rightful property with them to the Land of Canaan. And Jacob was ready to act. He had already mottled Laban’s sheep and sold property that he had acquired while in Padam-Aram. We learn this here for the first time as well. Jacob was not just Laban’s indentured servant for 21 years, he was also a landowner who had a business arrangement with his father-in-law.
The family tried to make a quick exit and flee to Canaan. It’s reminiscent of how Jacob fled to Padan-Aram; in both cases, they snuck away in the middle of the night. But this time, they got caught.
Laban was also angry because Rachel stole his teraphim, which sources interpret as the family’s idols. Now why would she take them?
Well, there are two possibilities. The first is that Rachel, and perhaps Leah, was still an idolator. This would not be surprising; after all, Rachel and Leah grew up amongst idolators.
Of course, the rabbis didn’t like this idea. They could not envision two of the Jewish matriarchs being idolators; they had to be as monotheistic as their husband. So, they came up with another idea: Rachel stole the terebinths, the family’s idols, to further torment her father. She worshipped God but who would Laban worship if he didn’t have his family idols? That would be torture for him.
When Laban discovered that the teraphim had been stolen, he pursued Jacob for seven days. When he finally confronted Jacob, contrary to God’s command, he was upset because he did not get a chance to give Jacob and his daughters a fond farewell. After arguing for a time, they came to terms and made a peace treaty. And then they went on their separate ways.
But before they made this treaty, Laban searched the encampment for the teraphim. He checked everyone’s tent. But when he entered Rachel’s tent, Rachel was sitting on a camel sack in which the idols were hidden. Laban wanted to search the sack, but Rachel lied by saying she was menstruating and could not get up. Laban accepted her excuse and left; Rachel kept the teraphim.
What happened to the teraphim? Nobody really knows. There is no evidence that Rachel actually used or worshipped them. The Torah never speaks of the teraphim again, so we are left to our imaginations.
Or is there something else? In Chapter 35, God instructs Jacob to return to Beth El, dwell there and make an altar to God. Furthermore, God told Jacob and his household to, “Discard the alien gods that are in your midst; cleanse yourselves and change your clothes…” The members of his household gave Jacob their alien gods – and earrings; Jacob buried them beneath the terebinth tree near Shechem. And that seems to be the end of the teraphim.
Later we read of Rachel’s death while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son. Rachel was buried where she died, in Bethlehem. Jacob sent up a monument over her grave; to this day it is a shrine for infertile women to pray to God to give them a child. And from that day forward, Jews erect a monument over a dead body.
As a side note, after Rachel’s death, Jacob pays his respects to Isaac, who is still alive! Can you believe it? Jacob and Esau buried him together in the Cave of Machpaleh, where his father Abraham and mother Sarah were also entombed.
What happened to Leah? After Rachel’s death, her story goes cold. We do not hear about her until the end of Chapter 49. Jacob is about to die. He summons his sons and instructs them to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, next to his parents, Isaac and Rebekah – and where Leah is buried. This is the only clue we have that Leah had died.
What then is the arc of their story? We see them first as rivals for the affections of Jacob. Then they are engaged in a competition for the number of children each of them bears. But then, they join in deceiving their father by helping Jacob blotting the sheep and stealing the teraphim. Then, Rachel dies; later, we assume that Leah also dies.
Leah never took agency; she never once complained about her situation. She agreed to marry Jacob and deceive her sister. She lorded her fertility prowess over her sister. And she followed her sister’s lead when they left home with the teraphim.
Rachel though is a different story. She is deceived by her father and sister. But when she sees that Leah has borne four children, she pleads with Jacob to intercede with God on her behalf, only to be rebuked. And then she steals the teraphim.
This is the only time that she takes agency, that she actually does something to better her situation. We can’t say for sure that her action was positive or effective but at least she acted.
Perhaps if she had lived past Benjamin’s birth, Rachel would have grown into a strong, independent woman like her aunt, Rebekah. We will never know. Here, the Torah gives us a heady dose of realism; women in the ancient world had little recourse to any infertility treatments and they often died in childbirth. The only good news is that Benjamin survived and lived to adulthood.
On our next episode, we will discuss Jacob’s daughter, Dinah. She too has an amazing story; the question of her agency looms large in her tale, too.
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I pray that you have a great week and remember, Hinei …, L’hitra’ot, till we meet again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.