cellio | reading torah

I'll be chanting torah in a couple weeks (Vayeitzei), and preparing the portion reminds me of why the book of Bereishit (Genesis) is so cool. Drama! And the trope helps to reinforce it! I try to make a point of understanding what I'm chanting on a word-by-word basis, and as I've done that with this portion the pieces have just fallen into place. Which doesn't mean I don't have the usual memorization challenge, but this time the associations are a little stronger. This is the portion where Lavan dupes Yaakov by giving him the wrong bride and therefore getting an extra seven years' labor out of him, and it feels like, when chanted, the sneakiness and then the confrontation just come through clearly even in a language most people don't understand. Neat.

At first I thought that Yaakov was being way too cooperative in all this; I mean, he was pretty clearly cheated, yet he didn't try to annul the marriage with Leah and demand the bride he was promised. (These days I suppose someone would sue, too.) But I'm not convinced he's being a wuss; I think he might be showing exceptional care for Leah's feelings. Her father is a lout, but that's not her fault -- yet she's the one who would suffer if Yaakov succeeded in dumping her. So, maybe, for her sake he accepts her, so long as he also gets the wife he loves.

This could be wrong, of course. The torah makes it clear that the patriarchs are real people with real flaws, and Yaakov seems to have more than others. So maybe he's being a wuss, or maybe he's starting to get that first important clue about other people's feelings. Maybe.

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The naming-speeches that Leah gave her first few children, if memory serves, have a running theme of "now that I have given heirs to my husband, maybe he will start loving me." His response to Rachael's "give me children lest I die" plea was, translating very loosely, "hey, God made you sterile, leave me out of it".

At this stage of his life, at least, Yaakov is not a Sensitive Bronze-Age Guy.

Given that Yaakov is (a) a young man of presumably normal testosterone levels (b) in an agrarian culture where polygyny is normal (c) who is going to have to work another seven years for Rachael no matter what, he would be unlikely to see any disadvantage to remaining married to Leah; the obvious advantage, more heirs, is a Very Very Big Deal in an agrarian society. It is also not-inconceivable that before she experienced what it was like being a co-wife, Rachael would not have wanted Yaakov to divorce her sister.

Leah knows that she's not the one Yaakov wanted; she did have to participate in the deception, after all. So I don't automatically assume that Yaakov treated her badly in the marriage.

Yaakov isn't Sensitive Bronze-Age Guy; he's treated people badly before this incident too (like his father and brother). On the other hand, I don't think it was a foregone conclusion that he had to work another seven years; he had an agreement with Lavan and Lavan violated it, so he would have been within his rights to take Rachel and go. Why didn't he?

Yes, there would certainly be advantages to taking both and going. Staying another seven years working for someone who just cheated you, however, isn't quite a no-brainer. There must be something else going on.

It is also not-inconceivable that before she experienced what it was like being a co-wife, Rachael would not have wanted Yaakov to divorce her sister.

Good point.

One thought... Yaakov probably didn't have the forces to take Rachel by force if Lavan had any way to justify what he'd done to those around him.

His uncle was wealthy for his time and area. Wealth attracts Guidos and Nunzios to work for the wealthy.

Yaakov's choices were probably along the lines of 'take off now with Leah' or 'stay and get Rachel'

plus, had he started messing with his uncle's flock yet, playing Bronze-Age Mendel to get the large flock he wanted?

reading torah

not to slag on a patriarch, but...

Re: not to slag on a patriarch, but...

Re: not to slag on a patriarch, but...