Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Daily Aliya for Vayetzei, Revii (4th Aliya)

Aliya Summary: One spring day, Reuven picked jasmine plants from the field, and brought them to his mother. Rachel asks Leah for some of them, and Leah agreed, provided that Rachel relinquishes her turn with Jacob that night. Leah gave birth to another two sons – Issachar and Zevulun – and one daughter—Dinah. Eventually, Rachel, too, gave birth to a son, whom she named Joseph. At that point, Jacob asked Lavan for permission to take his wives and children and return to Canaan. Lavan acknowledges that he has been blessed because of Jacob.




For many years Rachel could not conceive, and when she finally did, the Passuk describes how "G-d remembered Rachel", which Rashi explains to mean that he remembered how Rachel gave her sister the signs to convince Yakov to marry Leah, and how selfless that act was. What's between the lines is that although Rachel had been praying for children for all those years, she never used her previous act of kindness as leverage, or as a complaint for her not having children. Rather, G-d independently remembered what she had done. All those years of her sister benefiting from her kindness, and not once did Rachel regret or even mention her actions that allowed her sister to thrive.

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