Rachel/0

Rachel

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Unique Traits

The stories surrounding Rachel in Tanakh focus mainly on her interactions with Yaakov and Leah, highlighting the tension inherent in the family dynamic rather than Rachel's righteousness or character. Certain traits nonetheless stand out in the text, and Midrashic sources add others

Motherhood

Of all the Matriarchs, Rachel is the one most associated with motherhood. Several factors might contribute to this:

• Pain of infertility –Though all the Matriarchs were barren, it is Rachel's pain over her infertility which is most blatant in the text.  She is the only one to cry out to her husband that without children she is as if dead (Bereshit 30:1). Even when she finally bears Yosef, his name testifies both to the shame she had felt when barren and to her desire for more children (Bereshit 30:22-24).¹
• Death in childbirth – Rachel dies while bearing Binyamin, giving her life for her child, the ultimate sacrifice of a mother (Bereshit 35:16-18). The name she gives Binyamin "בֶּן אוֹנִי", reflects her deed:
• NetzivBereshit 35:18About R. Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin² notes that the word "און" can mean both "sorrow"³ and "vigor".⁴  In the moment of death, Rachel expresses how she sacrificed her vitality for her son, giving him life at the expense of her own. The name might also be a prayer that her son find strength despite the sorrow.
• Crying over her children – It is perhaps Yirmeyahu 31:14-16 and its poignant image of Rachel bitterly crying over her children in exile, which most captures Rachel in her role as mother.⁵  Even after death, Rachel cries over her missing children, unable to be comforted, and it is her tears and efforts which lead Hashem to bring them back.

Sensitivity and selflessness

Several Midrashim mention incidents not found in the Biblical text which express Rachel's consideration and love for her sister and her abyundnat selflessness:

Religiosity

The common assumption is that despite Rachel growing up in an idolatrous home, she herself believed in Hashem.

Family

Love of Yaakov

Yaakov's love for Rachel is emphasized repeatedly in the verses, with the fact mentioned explicitly three times (29:17, 20, 30), and the contrast to the unloved Leah stressing the fact even more.

Infertility and Desire for Children

Rivalry with Leah

I. Jealousy – Bereshit 30:1 explicitly mentions Rachel's envying of her sister.

II. Naming of children – Most readers assume that the names given by Rachel and Leah to their children reflect the strife and rivalry between the sisters. In naming her first three children (Reuven, Shimon, Levi), and again in naming her sixth, Leah explicitly expresses her distress and the desire to be loved by her husband. Rachel's naming of Yosef, in turn, expresses both the pain and shame her barrenness had caused, and her intense desire for more children  It should be noted, however, that none of these names betrays active jealousy or blame towards the sister who has what the other is lacking, but simply heartbreak over individual loss. Rachel's naming of Bilhah's children, might be an exception:

• Dan – Ibn Kaspi asserts that this name directly addresses the sibling rivalry, with Rachel claiming that the birth served to avenge her of her sister. In contrast, R"Y Bekhor Shor reads the name as expressing Rachel's acceptance of God's judgment and the decree of infertitiy, seeing in it no expression of ill will towards her sister at all.
• Naftali – Ibn Ezra and others understands the root "" to mean to wrestle or struggle, seeing Rachel as explicitly mentioning her struggles with her sister. Targum Onkelos, however, relates the word to "תפילה", prayer, claiming that Rachel is simply thanking Hashem for heeding her prayers and providinga child like he had for Leah.

III. Mandrakes – The story of the mandrakes similarly highlights the conflict between the sister's, as Rachel trades a night with Yaakov for Reuven's mandrakes (believed to have powers to aid in conception). Most read Leah's initial reaction "is it not enough that you have taken my husband,⁶ that you want also my son's mandrakes" as further revealing her bitterness. However, R. HIrsch and R. D"Z Hoffmann reads the sister's exchange as one of playful jest, with no real anger on either side, with R. Hirsch going so far as to paint a portrait of friendly sisters sewing and working together by day and taking turns with their husband by night.

IV. Midrashic Portrayal  / Leah's Role in Trickery

Possible Flaws

"Give me Children..."

In Bereshit 30:1 Rachel beseeches Yaakov, "Give me children; if not, I am dead!" Yaakov responds harshly, getting angry at her and saying, "Am I in place of God who has kept from you fruit of the womb?"  What did Yaakov find problematic about Rachel's words that he grows so angry?  Was Rachel's lament somehow misplaced, or is it Yaakov who is being insensitive?

• Rachel erred – Many commentators assume that Yaakov's anger was justified and that Rachel had erred:
• RadakBereshit 30:2About R. David Kimchi and R. Avraham b. HaRambamBereshit 30:2About R. Avraham Maimonides⁷ explain that in turning to Yaakov rather than Hashem, Rachel betrayed that she did not recognize that the matter was in Hashem's hands and not his. She should have instead asked him to pray for her.
• RambanBereshit 30:1-2About R. Moshe b. Nachman,⁸ in contrast, assumes that Rachel had in fact asked that Yaakov pray to Hashem, but her mistake was is in viewing Yaakov's prayer as some type of automatic magical remedy. Yaakov taught her that even the prayers of the righteous are not always answered.⁹
• Finally, Akeidat YitzchakBereshit Peirush 3:1About R. Yitzchak Arama suggests that Rachel did not realize that her primary purpose in life was not simply to bear children, but to fill her life "בדברי שכל וחסידות". Her barrenness was not a reason to think her life was not worth living.
• Yaakov Erred – Bereshit Rabbah71:7About Bereshit Rabbah maintains that Yaakov was in the wrong, presenting Hashem as responding to Yaakov, "כך עונין את המעיקות?!" 
• Misunderstanding – R"Y Bekhor ShorBereshit 30:1-3About R. Yosef Bekhor Shor¹⁰ asserts that Yaakov misunderstood his wife, assuming that she was expecting him to somehow do what Hashem had not, when Rachel had meant only that he should take her maidservant and sire children from her so that Rachel could be their surrogate mother.

Taking the Terafim

Bereshit 31 describes Yaakov's flight from Lavan's house. Surprisingly, the Torah adds that Rachel took advantage of Lavan's absence to steal ("וַתִּגְנֹב") his terafim ("תְּרָפִים"). The chapter provides neither motivation nor justification for Rachel's actions. What are "terafim" and why might Rachel have taken them? How are we to understand the theft? [For full discussion, see Rachel's Stealing of the Terafim.]

• Justified – Many commentators maintain that Rachel's motives were pure and that the ends justified the means.
• Personal survival – Tanchuma and others suggest that terafim were used for divination and Rachel stole them so that her father could not use them to divine the whereabouts of the family when they fled. As her deed was motivated by a  desire to save her family, Rachel's actions were justified.
• Religious motivations – Bereshit Rabbah asserts that he terafim were idols and that Rachel took them so that her father would no longer worship them.
• Not justifed  – A smaller number of commentators present Rachel as acting with less worthy goals, and that she took the terafim for her own personal use.
• Fertility – Hoil Moshe mantains that the terafim were believed to have powers to bless barren women with children and that Rachel took them hoping they would help her conceive again.
• Foreign worship – Ibn Ezra more radically suggests that Rachel (and the other wives and children) had learned idolatrous worship from her father and had not yet totally forsaken it.  According to such a reading, monotheism was not a given for some of the Patriarchs/ Matriarchs, but rather the the result of a religious journey.

Trading for the Mandrakes

Commentators debate whether Rachel acted correctly or incorrectly in trading a night with Yaakov for the mandrakes:

• Lack of faith
• Degradation of Yaakov – Bereshit Rabbah blames Rachel for belittling a night with the righteous Yaakov, claiming that she was punished for this by not being buried with him. 
• Proper - Seforno Bereshit 30:22

¹ The name Yosef has a dual explanation.  Rachel says, "אָסַף אֱלֹהִים אֶת חֶרְפָּתִי" (Hashem has gathered my shame) and also requests, "יֹסֵף י״י לִי בֵּן אַחֵר" (Man Hashem grant me another child).

² Most other commentators refer only to the meaning "sorrow"  (see, for example, RashiBereshit 35:18About R. Shelomo Yitzchaki, Ibn EzraBereshit First Commentary 35:18About R. Avraham ibn Ezra or R"Y Bekhor Shor). Cf. MalbimBereshit 35:18About R. Meir Leibush Weiser who points only to the meaning "strength".

³ Compare the word's usage in Devarim 26:14.

⁴ See the word's usage in Bereshit 49:3 and Devarim21:7.

⁵ It should be noted that though most commentators assume that Yirmeyahu is referring to Rachel, wife of Yaakov, presumably crying to Hashem in the heavens, R"Y KaraAbout R. Yosef Kara disagrees and suggests that the verse is simply referring to the descendants of Rachel, those tribes who were themselves exiled. They are called after their mother just as one might say "Shimon" to refer to the tribe of Shimon rather than the individual. [According to him, then, the verse sheds no insight into Rachel herself.]

⁶ Commentators debate to what Leah is referring to.

⁷ Compare also RalbagBereshit Beur HaParashah 30:1About R. Levi b. Gershom.

⁸ See also R. HirschBereshit 30:1-3About R. Samson Raphael Hirsch and R. D" Z HoffmannBereshit 30:1-2About R. David Zvi Hoffmann similarly.  They suggest that Rachel had asked Yaakov to pray for her, assuming that until now he had not done so, not caring enough for her distress.  Yaakov responds that he did in fact pray, but that prayers are not always answered in the affirmative.

⁹

¹⁰ See also SefornoBereshit 30:1-3About R. Ovadyah Seforno and Shadal.Bereshit 30:1About R. Shemuel David Luzzatto