Tag: Rachel

Elohim as Verb

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַתֹּ֣אמֶר רָחֵ֗ל נַפְתּוּלֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים ׀ נִפְתַּ֛לְתִּי עִם־אֲחֹתִ֖י גַּם־יָכֹ֑לְתִּי וַתִּקְרָ֥א שְׁמ֖וֹ נַפְתָּלִֽי׃

And Rachel said, “A fateful contest I waged with my sister; yes, and I have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali.
Genesis 30:8 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Genesis 30:8 introduces us to a Hebrew idiom that hasn’t been used before in the text.

The highlighted word here is “Elohim,” which has been consistently used to describe God. But God isn’t mentioned in the verse.

Here, “Elohim” is used as a verb intensifier.

Literally, the passage is “Naftulei **Elohim** niftalti im achoti.”

“With wrestlings-of God, I have wrestled with my sister.”

(Naphtali means “wrestling” or “struggling.”)

This use of “Elohim” like this happens elsewhere in scripture: Jonah 3:3. There, Nineveh is described as an “exceedingly great city.” (KJV)

It is literal a city “great to God.” It is a city that God *spares when it repents.* This seems significant.

Going back to Genesis 30:8, what can we understand from this use of “Elohim?”

Perhaps this is more than a great wrestling with her sister. Perhaps Rachel is wrestling with God here.

Isaac’s Prayer

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
Genesis 30:2 (NASB)

In the previous verse, Rachel cries out, “give me children, or I’ll die!”

This passage ties a past thread together. When Rebekah could not conceive, Isaac prayed for his wife and God answered. But in a way, Isaac was also praying for himself.

At this point in the story, Jacob has four sons, so the problem isn’t with him. God isn’t withholding children from *him.*

It is accurate, but it’s also a cruel thing for him say. Also, the text does not show that Isaac prayed for her.

We know Jacob favors Rachel, and he favors her sons when she has children later, but this callousness makes me wonder if Jacob is a bit like his father here: easily swayed.

Isaac favored Esau because he liked what Esau brought him.

Maybe Jacob favors Leah right now, and this is an unfair favoritism.

Bitterness of the Barren

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now when Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I am going to die.”
Genesis 30:1 (NASB)

The opening of Genesis 30 gives us insight into the way we are supposed to read and understand scripture.

The rabbis pose a question: “why is Rachel only jealous *now,* after Leah’s fourth son has been born? Why not earlier?”

The answer: the story is a narrative of the past that speaks into the present and future. All of it.

The readers know the story sets up the 12 tribes. Jacob has 4 women through whom the tribes will be born, so the math should be simple: 3×4. Each should have 3 children.

So when Leah’s story gives us FOUR sons, the reader should immediately see a problem: clearly God is at work in Leah, and Judah is the result. What is left for Rachel?

“Give me children, or else I am going to die!”

Rachel’s cry seems dramatic, but it’s a statement about blessing. Being fruitful and multiplying.

Her cry echoes Esau’s bitter cry about being passed over for blessing. Will she be cut off, like Esau was cut off?

The God of the Barren

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Jacob was incensed at Rachel, and said, “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you fruit of the womb?”
Genesis 30:2 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

I think this passage is meant to help us learn how to properly frame the unfortunate circumstance of barrenness, and to understand what prayer is supposed to do. Is Jacob speaking correctly here? Has God “denied” Rachel fruit of the womb?

When we pray to have children, are we praying that God overcomes some kind of problem in the world (our barrenness), and that God may choose to heal us or not? Or are we praying that God undoes what God is also in control over? Ie., “God, you have made me barren. Please make me fruitful instead.”

The way we view “barrenness” here directly impacts how we view a God who addresses it.
In the first view (barrenness is a condition of the world, and God may/may-not heal us), the personality of God is one who sees a problem that happened to you, and in God’s infinite wisdom may choose to rescue or not. And if not, our unheard prayers might feel like God either does not care or does not exist. Or perhaps we’re not praying hard enough.

In the second view, where God has closed the womb and caused the barrenness, the view of God is different. We desire a child, and God has said no, or not-yet. And in this setting, we can get mad at God because we don’t like the answer, and this is very different than being let down because God cannot hear us, or because we need to pray more faithfully.

This is different than prayers of healing for someone who is dying, or praying for respite from crushing poverty or war. Those are “bad things” from which we cry out to be rescued. Yes, God created the darkness and the light; God created Ra (evil) and Tov (good). But “rescue” is a different topic.
Praying for release from barrenness is… something else. It’s a reflection of our desire to live into God’s promise of “be fruitful and multiply.”

So when Jacob declares that it is God who closed Rachel’s womb, I think the text is giving us a theological axiom: we can’t be fruitful on our own. A branch must be connected to the vine to bear fruit, and it will not bear fruit any earlier than that.

But also, branches will bear fruit when connected to the vine. This is a promise: we will be fruitful and multiply.

Obviously, this is spiritual talk. I’m not saying everyone who wants a baby will have a baby. We are being told a physical story to understand a spiritual principle.
Notably, this is the THIRD time we’ve been told this same story. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each have wives who start out barren. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel each are longing for the promise.

Perhaps closeness to God is tied to that same longing. Perhaps the “no; not-yet” is a parable of our lived experience.

Love and Hatred

Posted on by jovial_cynic

“I have loved you,” says the Lord.
But you say, “How have You loved us?”
“Was Esau not Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”
Malachi 1:2-3 (NASB)

In Malachi 1, (and later in Romans), there’s this perplexing passage about God “hating” Esau, the brother of Jacob.

We wrestle with this text, because we are forced to ask: “am I Jacob in this passage? Or am I Esau? What does God think of me?”

The answer seems to matter, as the notion of being “hated by God” is heavy. It’s an impossible burden.

But perhaps we have a clue about the deeper meaning in Genesis 29.

Three times before we get to Jacob’s feelings about Leah, the text tells us that Jacob LOVED Rachel. We know he loves her.

Now the Lord saw that Leah was [a]unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children.
Genesis 29:31 (NASB)

[a] Lit hated

But when we get to Leah, it doesn’t merely tell us that Leah was “unloved.” In Hebrew, it says she was HATED.

It’s in this place of hatred that God opened Leah’s womb so she could be… fruitful. Blessed. So she could live out her purpose of mothering of the nation of God’s people. She is the mother of Judah, from which Salvation enters the world.

So when the text tells us that Esau is hated… perhaps we are meant to remember Leah.

Though hatred brings us to a place of desolation and barrenness, perhaps God is telling us about redemption. About healing.

Perhaps God will make all things new.

Laban’s Many Daughters

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Bilhah & Zilpah: maidservants of Rachel & Leah. What’s their story? How did Laban posses them, to give them to his daughters as wedding gifts?

The text doesn’t say, but Jewish tradition holds that they are Laban’s daughters w/ a second wife.

If it’s true, it appears that Laban pawned off ALL his daughters onto Jacob.

The Word “Love”

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיֶּאֱהַ֥ב יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶת־רָחֵ֑ל וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אֶֽעֱבׇדְךָ֙ שֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֔ים בְּרָחֵ֥ל בִּתְּךָ֖ הַקְּטַנָּֽה׃

Jacob loved Rachel; so he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Genesis 29:18 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Don’t get caught up with this word “love.”

The first two times the word shows up in Genesis, it’s about the love a father has for his son, and the love a man has for his wife.

The next four times it shows up, it’s about how much Isaac loves venison.

When we read that Jacob “loves” Rachel, we don’t need to assume that this is a reflection of the love God has for us.

Beauty and Work

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Leah and Rachel are described as different in appearance. Earlier, the text had contrasted Jacob and Esau also on the basis of their respective occupations (25:27, where yoshev ohalim seems to mean “raising livestock”; compare 4:20).
The Torah; A Woman’s Commentary on Genesis 29:17

It is fascinating that the Genesis narrative of “two brothers and two sisters” tells us so much about… us.

While I don’t think *everyone* is inherently sexist and view the value of women in terms of appearance and men in terms of occupation, perhaps as a society, we do.

Prior to the fall, value isn’t assigned to occupation and beauty. There was one job for humanity, and all of creation was good. It was all beautiful.

In Genesis 6, the “sons of God saw that the daughters of man were Tov,” and we get a glimpse of the powerful being drawn to women and seizing them for themselves. This is echoed in Genesis 12, and even louder in Esther.

Somehow, a woman gets defined by her appearance. This appears to be a result of the fall.

But a man’s “value” is also be seen a result of the fall. The cursed ground becomes unfruitful, and the work is in vain. Yet we labor and labor, looking for worth.

My Jewish friends have a saying: “Torah is not our book about God. It is God’s book about us.”

In it, we should see ourselves. What happens when we value beauty over character? Or equate work with worth? When we take advantage of weakness? The text shows us. We must learn.

Rolling Away the Stone

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר לָהֶ֖ם הֲשָׁל֣וֹם ל֑וֹ וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ שָׁל֔וֹם וְהִנֵּה֙ רָחֵ֣ל בִּתּ֔וֹ בָּאָ֖ה עִם־הַצֹּֽאן׃
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֵ֥ן עוֹד֙ הַיּ֣וֹם גָּד֔וֹל לֹא־עֵ֖ת הֵאָסֵ֣ף הַמִּקְנֶ֑ה הַשְׁק֥וּ הַצֹּ֖אן וּלְכ֥וּ רְעֽוּ׃

He continued, “Is he well?” They answered, “Yes, he is; and there is his daughter Rachel, coming with the flock.”
He said, “It is still broad daylight, too early to round up the animals; water the flock and take them to pasture.”
Genesis 29:6-7 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

When Rachel is introduced, we read that she is tending Laban’s flock. She is presented to us in contrast to the hired hand shepherds whom Jacob rebukes for the way they are managing the sheep.

וַיֹּאמְרוּ֮ לֹ֣א נוּכַל֒ עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ כׇּל־הָ֣עֲדָרִ֔ים וְגָֽלְלוּ֙ אֶת־הָאֶ֔בֶן מֵעַ֖ל פִּ֣י הַבְּאֵ֑ר וְהִשְׁקִ֖ינוּ הַצֹּֽאן׃

But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are rounded up; then the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well and we water the sheep.”
Genesis 29:8 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

The hired hands tell Jacob that they actually cannot water the sheep. According to the rabbis, the stone over the well is too heavy, and requires more people to move it. They must wait for more people to arrive to help.

וַיְהִ֡י כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ רָאָ֨ה יַעֲקֹ֜ב אֶת־רָחֵ֗ל בַּת־לָבָן֙ אֲחִ֣י אִמּ֔וֹ וְאֶת־צֹ֥אן לָבָ֖ן אֲחִ֣י אִמּ֑וֹ וַיִּגַּ֣שׁ יַעֲקֹ֗ב וַיָּ֤גֶל אֶת־הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מֵעַל֙ פִּ֣י הַבְּאֵ֔ר וַיַּ֕שְׁקְ אֶת־צֹ֥אן לָבָ֖ן אֲחִ֥י אִמּֽוֹ׃

And when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the flock of his uncle Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his uncle Laban.
Genesis 29:10 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Rachel, being a young woman, would be of little help, so what we see in v10 might be viewed as a miraculous “rolling away of the stone.” Jacob is motivated by a need to tend to the sheep and to demonstrate strength to Rachel.

Jacob heaving this heavy stone away from the well is the same act as Rebekah watering all of Eliezer’s camels earlier in Genesis.

Genesis 29:10 is an echo of Genesis 24:19.

This is an image of righteousness. Perhaps, the Empty Tomb of the Gospels can be called a Well of Living Water.

Beautiful Rachel

Posted on by jovial_cynic

עוֹדֶ֖נּוּ מְדַבֵּ֣ר עִמָּ֑ם וְרָחֵ֣ל ׀ בָּ֗אָה עִם־הַצֹּאן֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לְאָבִ֔יהָ כִּ֥י רֹעָ֖ה הִֽוא׃

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s flock—for she was its shepherd.
Genesis 29:9 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

When Genesis introduces Rachel, it doesn’t tell us how beautiful she is. It tells us her role: she is a shepherdess. Her name means “ewe.”

She is shown as both a sheep and as a good shepherd leading her father’s flock, in contrast to the hired hands from the previous verses.