Legends of the Jews, Volume 1 — Chapter 6: Jacob, Part 7

With Leah and Rachel, Jacob received the handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah, two other daughters of Laban, whom his concubines had borne unto him.

[167] THE BIRTH OF JACOB'S CHILDREN

The ways of God are not like unto the ways of men.

A man clings close to his friend while he has riches, and forsakes him when he falls into poverty.

But when God sees a mortal unsteady and faltering, He reaches a hand out to him, and raises him up.

Thus it happened with Leah.

She was hated by Jacob, and God visited her in mercy.

Jacob's aversion to Leah began the very morning after their wedding, when his wife taunted him with not being wholly free from cunning and craft himself.

Then God said, "Help can come to Leah only if she gives birth to a child; then the love of her husband will return to her."

[168] God remembered the tears she had shed when she prayed that her doom, chaining her to that recreant Esau, be averted from her, and so wondrous are the uses of prayer that Leah, besides turning aside the impending decree, was permitted to marry Jacob before her sister and be the first to bear him a child.

There was another reason why the Lord was compassionately inclined toward Leah.

She had gotten herself talked about.

The sailors on the sea, the travellers along the highways, the women at their looms, they all gossiped about Leah, saying, "She is not within what her seeming is without.

She appears to be pious, but if she were, she would not have deceived her sister."

[169] To put an end to all this tattle, God granted her the distinction of bearing a son at the end of seven months after her marriage.

He was one of a pair of twins, the other child being a daughter.

So it was with eleven of the sons of Jacob, all of them except Joseph were born twins with a girl, and the twin sister and brother married later on.

[170] Altogether it was an extraordinary childbirth, for Leah was barren, not formed by nature to bear children.

She called her first-born son Reuben, which means "See the normal man," for he was neither big nor little, neither dark nor fair, but exactly normal.

[171] In calling her oldest child Reuben, "See the son," Leah indicated his future character.

"Behold the difference," the name implied, "between my first-born son and the first-born son of my father in-law.

Esau sold his birthright to Jacob of his own free will, and yet he hated him.

As for my first-born son, although his birthright was taken from him without his consent, and given to Joseph, it was nevertheless he who rescued Joseph from the hands of his brethren."

[172] Leah called her second son Shime'on, "Yonder is sin," for one of his descendants was that Zimri who was guilty of vile trespasses with the daughters of Moab.

[173] The name of her third son, Levi, was given him by God Himself, not by his mother.

The Lord summoned him through the angel Gabriel, and bestowed the name upon him as one who is "crowned" with the twenty-four gifts that are the tribute due to the priests.

[174] At the birth of her fourth son, Leah returned thanks to God for a special reason.

She knew that Jacob would beget twelve sons, and if they were distributed equally among his four wives, each would bear three.

But now it appeared that she had one more than her due share, and she called him Jehudah, "thanks unto God."

She was thus the first since the creation of the world to give thanks to God,[175] and her example was followed by David and Daniel, the descendants of her son Judah.

When Rachel saw that her sister had borne Jacob four sons, she envied Leah.

Not that she begrudged her the good fortune she enjoyed, she only envied her for her piety, saying to herself that it was to her righteous conduct that she owed the blessing of many children.

[176] Then she besought Jacob: "Pray unto God for me, that He grant me children, else my life is no life.

Verily, there are four that may be regarded as though they were dead, the blind, the leper, the childless, and he who was once rich and has lost his fortune."

Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said: "It were better thou shouldst address thy petition to God, and not to me, for am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?"

[177] God was displeased with this answer that Jacob made to his sad wife.

He rebuked him with the words: "Is it thus thou wouldst comfort a grief-stricken heart?

As thou livest, the day will come when thy children will stand before the son of Rachel, and he will use the same words thou hast but now used, saying, 'Am I in the place of the Lord?'

" Rachel also made reply to Jacob, saying: "Did not thy father, too, entreat God for thy mother with earnest words, beseeching Him to remove her barrenness?"

Jacob: "It is true, but Isaac had no children, and I have several."

Rachel: "Remember thy grandfather Abraham, thou canst not deny that he had children when he supplicated God in behalf of Sarah!"

Jacob: "Wouldst thou do for me what Sarah did for my grandfather?"

Rachel: "Pray, what did she?"

Jacob: "She herself brought a rival into her house."

Rachel: "If that is all that is necessary, I am ready to follow the example of Sarah, and I pray that as she was granted a child for having invited a rival, so may I be blessed, too."

[178] Thereupon Rachel gave Jacob Bilhah, her freed handmaid, to wife, and she bore him a son, whom Rachel called Dan, saying, "As the Lord was gracious unto me and gave me a son according to my petition, so He will permit Samson, the descendant of Dan, to judge his people, that it fall not into the hands of the Philistines."

[179] Bilhah's second son Rachel named Naphtali, saying, "Mine is the bond that binds Jacob to this place, for it was for my sake that he came to Laban."

At the same time she wanted to convey by this name that the Torah, which is as sweet as Nofet, "honeycomb," would be taught in the territory of Naphtali.

[180] And the name had still a third meaning: "As God hath heard my fervent prayer for a son, so He will hearken unto the fervent prayer of the Naphtalites when they are beset by their enemies."

[181] Leah, seeing that she had left bearing, while Bilhah, her sister's handmaid, bore Jacob two sons, concluded that it was Jacob's destiny to have four wives, her sister and herself, and their half-sisters Bilhah and Zilpah.

Therefore she also gave him her handmaid to wife.

[182] Zilpah was the youngest of the four women.

It was the custom of that time to give the older daughter the older handmaid, and the younger daughter the younger handmaid, as their dowry, when they got married.

Now, in order to make Jacob believe that his wife was the younger daughter he had served for, Laban had given Leah the younger handmaid as her marriage portion.

This Zilpah was so young that her body betrayed no outward signs of pregnancy, and nothing was known of her condition until her son was born.

Leah called the boy Gad, which means "fortune," or it may mean "the cutter," for from Gad was descended the prophet Elijah, who brings good fortune to Israel, and he also cuts down the heathen world.

[183] Leah had other reasons, too, for choosing this name of double meaning.

The tribe of Gad had the good fortune of entering into possession of its allotment in the Holy Land before any of the others,[184] and, also, Gad the son of Jacob was born circumcised.

[185] To Zilpah's second son Leah gave the name of Asher, "praise," for, she said, "Unto me all manner of praise is due, for I brought my handmaid into the house of my husband as wife.

Sarah did likewise, but only because she had no children, and so it was also with Rachel.

But as for me, I had children, and nevertheless I subdued my passion, and without jealousy I gave my handmaid to my husband for wife.

Verily, all will praise and extol me."

[186] Furthermore she spoke: "As the women will praise me, so the sons of Asher will in time to come praise God for their fruitful possession in the Holy Land."

[187] The next son born unto Jacob was Issachar, "a reward," and once more it was Leah who was permitted to bring forth the child, as a reward from God for her pious desire to have the twelve tribes come into the world.

To secure this result, she left no means untried.

[188] It happened once that her oldest son Reuben was tending his father's ass during the harvest, and he bound him to a root of dudaim, and went his way.

On returning, he found the dudaim torn out of the ground, and the ass lying dead beside it.

The beast had uprooted it in trying to get loose, and the plant has a peculiar quality, whoever tears it up must die.

[189] As it was the time of the harvest, when it is permitted for any one to take a plant from a field, and as dudaim is, besides, a plant which the owner of a field esteems lightly, Reuben carried it home.

Being a good son, he did not keep it for himself, but gave it to his mother.

Rachel desired the dudaim, and she asked the plant of Leah, who parted with it to her sister, but on the condition that Jacob, when he returned from work in the evening, should tarry with her for a while.

It was altogether unbecoming conduct in Rachel to dispose thus of her husband.

She gained the dudaim, but she lost two tribes.

If she had acted otherwise, she would have borne four sons instead of two.

And she suffered another punishment, her body was not permitted to rest in the grave beside her husband's. Jacob came home from the field after night had fallen, for he observed the law obliging a day laborer to work until darkness sets in, and Jacob's zeal in the affairs of Laban was as great in the last seven years, after his marriage, as in the first seven, while he was serving for the hand of Rachel.

[190] When Leah heard the braying of Jacob's ass, she ran to meet her husband,[191] and without giving him time to wash his feet, she insisted upon his turning aside into her tent.

[192] At first Jacob refused to go, but God compelled him to enter, for unto God it was known that Leah acted from pure, disinterested motives.

[193] Her dudaim secured two sons for her, Issachar, the father of the tribe that devotes itself to the study of the Torah, whence his name meaning "reward," and Zebulon, whose descendants carried on commerce, using their profits to enable their brethren of Issachar to keep at their studies.

[194] Leah called this last-born son of hers Zebulon, "dwelling-place," for she said, "Now will my husband dwell with me, seeing that I have borne him six sons, and, also, the sons of Zebulon will have a goodly dwelling-place in the Holy Land."

[195] Leah bore once more, and this last time it was a daughter, a man child turned into a woman by her prayer.

When she conceived for the seventh time, she spake as follows: "God promised Jacob twelve sons.

I bore him six, and each of the two handmaids has borne him two.

If, now, I were to bring forth another son, my sister Rachel would not be equal even unto the handmaids."

Therefore she prayed to God to change the male embryo in her womb into a female, and God hearkened unto her prayer.

[196] Now all the wives of Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, united their prayers with the prayer of Jacob, and together they besought God to remove the curse of barrenness from Rachel.

On New Year's Day, the day whereon God sits in judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth, He remembered Rachel, and granted her a son.

[197] And Rachel spake, "God hath taken away my reproach," for all the people had said that she was not a pious woman, else had she borne children, and now that God had hearkened to her, and opened her womb, such idle talk no longer had any reason.

[198] By bearing a son, she had escaped another disgrace.

She had said to herself: "Jacob hath a mind to return to the land of his birth, and my father will not be able to hinder his daughters who have borne him children from following their husband thither with their children.

But he will not let me, the childless wife, go, too, and he will keep me here and marry me to one of the uncircumcised."

[199] She said furthermore, "As my son hath removed my reproach, so Joshua, his descendant, will roll away a reproach from the Israelites, when he circumcises them beyond Jordan."

[200] Rachel called her son Joseph, "increase," saying, "God will give me an additional son."

Prophetess as she was, she foresaw she would have a second son.

But an increase added on by God is larger than the original capital itself.

Benjamin, the second son, whom Rachel regarded merely as a supplement, had ten sons, while Joseph begot only two.

These twelve together may be considered the twelve tribes borne by Rachel.

[201] Had Rachel not used the form of expression, "The Lord add to me another son," she herself would have begotten twelve tribes with Jacob.

[202] JACOB FLEES BEFORE LABAN

Jacob had only been waiting for Joseph to be born to begin preparations for his journey home.

The holy spirit had revealed to him that the house of Joseph would work the destruction of the house of Esau, and, therefore, Jacob exclaimed at the birth of Joseph, "Now I need not fear Esau or his legions."

[203] About this time, Rebekah sent her nurse Deborah, the daughter of Uz, accompanied by two of Isaac's servants, to Jacob, to urge him to return to his father's house, now that his fourteen years of service had come to an end.

Then Jacob approached Laban, and spoke, "Give me my wives and my children, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country, for my mother has sent messengers unto me, bidding me to return to my father's house."

[204] Laban answered, saying, "O that I might find favor in thine eyes!

By a sign it was made known unto me that God blesseth me for thy sake."

What Laban had in mind was the treasure he had found on the day Jacob came to him, and he considered that a token of his beneficent powers.

[205] Indeed, God had wrought many a thing in the house of Laban that testified to the blessings spread abroad by the pious.

Shortly before Jacob came, a pest had broken out among Laban's cattle, and with his arrival it ceased.

[206] And Laban had had no son, but during Jacob's sojourn in Haran sons were born unto him.

[207] All the hire he asked in return for his labor and for the blessings he had brought Laban was the speckled and spotted among the goats of his herd, and the black among the sheep.

Laban assented to his conditions, saying, "Behold, I would it might be according to thy word."

The arch-villain Laban, whose tongue wagged in all directions, and who made all sorts of promises that were never kept, judged others by himself, and therefore suspected Jacob of wanting to deceive him.

[208] And yet, in the end, it was Laban himself who broke his word.

No less than a hundred times he changed the agreement between them.

Nevertheless his unrighteous conduct was of no avail.

Though a three days' journey had been set betwixt Laban's flocks and Jacob's, the angels were wont to bring the sheep belonging to Laban down to Jacob's sheep, and Jacob's droves grew constantly larger and better.

[209] Laban had given only the feeble and sick to Jacob, yet the young of the flock, raised under Jacob's tendance, were so excellent in quality that people bought them at a heavy price.

[210] And Jacob had no need to resort to the peeled rods.

He had but to speak, and the flocks bare according to his desire.

[211] What Laban deserved was utter ruin, for having permitted the pious Jacob to work for him without hire, and after his wages had been changed ten times, and ten times Laban had tried to overreach him, God rewarded him in this way.

[212] But his good luck with the flocks was only what Jacob deserved.

Every faithful laborer is rewarded by God in this world, quite regardless of what awaits him in the world to come.

[213] With empty hands Jacob had come to Laban, and he left him with herds numbering six hundred thousand.

Their increase had been marvellous, an increase that will be equalled only in the Messianic time.

[214] The wealth and good fortune of Jacob called forth the envy of Laban and his sons, and they could not hide their vexation in their intercourse with him.

And the Lord said unto Jacob, "Thy father-in-law's countenance is not toward thee as beforetime, and yet thou tarriest with him?

Do thou rather return unto the land of thy fathers, and there I will let My Shekinah rest upon thee, for I cannot permit the Shekinah to reside outside of the Holy Land."

[215] Immediately Jacob sent the fleet messenger Naphtali[216] to Rachel and Leah to summon them to a consultation, and he chose as the place of meeting the open field, where none could overhear what was said.

[217] His two wives approved the plan of returning to his home, and Jacob resolved at once to go away with all his substance, without as much as acquainting Laban with his intention.

Laban was gone to shear his sheep, and so Jacob could execute his plan without delay.

That her father might not learn about their flight from his teraphim, Rachel stole them, and she took them and concealed them upon the camel upon which she sat, and she went on.

And this is the manner they used to make the images: They took a man who was the first-born, slew him and took the hair off his head, then salted the head, and anointed it with oil, then they wrote "the Name" upon a small tablet of copper or gold, and placed it under his tongue.

The head with the tablet under the tongue was then put in a house where lights were lighted before it, and at the time when they bowed down to it, it spoke to them on all matters that they asked of it, and that was due to the power of the Name which was written upon it.

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