אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף וכו' (בראשית לז, ב).
In this week's parsha we encounter the dynamic that forged what was to become Am Yisrael. In order to fully understand it, we need to backtrack a little, to parshat Vayeitzei.
Yaakov travels to Charan, at the bidding of his parents, both to flee Eisav's wrath and also to find a bride and establish a family. It is here we read about Yaakov's first encounter with Rachel. The psukkim say וְעֵינֵי לֵאָה רַכּוֹת וְרָחֵל הָיְתָה יְפַת תֹּאַר וִיפַת מַרְאֶה. וַיֶּאֱהַב יַעֲקֹב אֶת רָחֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֶעֱבָדְךָ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים בְּרָחֵל בִּתְּךָ הַקְּטַנָּה (בראשית כט, יז-יח).
From the outset, Yaakov never had any intention of marrying Leah, only Rachel. The Gemara (Bava Batra 123a) tells us that when Rachel and Leah were born, they were already betrothed. The elder daughter Leah was betrothed to the elder son Eisav and the younger daughter, Rachel, to the younger son Yaakov.
Just like Eisav and Yaakov were twins, so too were Leah and Rachel twins (סדר עולם רבה, פרק ב). Leah was the elder sister, but only by a minute or two. Unlike Eisav and Yaakov, who differed in physical appearance, Leah and Rachel were practically identical twins.
This is why it was possible for Lavan to switch them under the chuppah without Yaakov noticing until it was too late. Leah and Rachel were physically identical in every respect, except one. Leah had no eyelashes.
The passuk says וְעֵינֵי לֵאָה רַכּוֹת. Chazal (בראשית רבה ע, טז) tell us that Leah wanted to learn more about her intended groom, so she would frequent the crossroads, where passing travelers would give her news of Yitzchak's sons. The more she heard about Eisav, the more she was repelled and she spent most of her time crying and davening to HKB"H that she would not have to marry such a rasha.
As a result of this continual crying, her eyelashes fell out. This is why it was Rachel who tended the flocks, because Leah could not be outside in direct sunlight.
The above two psukkim are very difficult to understand - Rachel was "beautiful" and Leah had "soft eyes" and Yaakov therefore loved Rachel. Does this mean that Leah was not "beautiful"? From a distance of 5m or more, nobody could even discern eyelashes or the lack thereof and if they were identical twins, then Leah was undoubtedly "beautiful" too!
The Mefarshim go to great lengths to explain that it was not the outward physical beauty that Yaakov was interested in, but the inner, spiritual beauty. So what about Leah? Did she not also have inner, spiritual beauty?
You could say that it had nothing to do with that, it was simply a fait accompli that Yaakov was betrothed to Rachel from when she was born, so he never even looked at Leah - a tzaddik like Yaakov would never look at other women, beautiful or not. However, that is not the pshat of the passuk. The passuk tells us that וְעֵינֵי לֵאָה רַכּוֹת וְרָחֵל הָיְתָה יְפַת תֹּאַר וִיפַת מַרְאֶה and the question is why the Torah felt the need to tell us this?
The surprising answer is that - the Torah is telling us that Rachel was born perfect and Leah not. Just as Yaakov was born perfect and Eisav was born challenged, so too were Rachel and Leah.
Yaakov, from birth, was perfect - a tzaddik, an אִישׁ תָּם יֹשֵׁב אֹהָלִים, who until age 77 never left the walls of the yeshiva (he was 63 when he received Yitzchak's bracha and he remained an additional 14 years in yeshivat Shem ve'Ever before leaving for Charan). Yaakov was a genetic tzaddik from birth and he remained so his entire life. Eisav was born challenged and he never managed to surpass his handicaps.
Similarly, Rachel, from birth was born a tzaddikah. The Mefarshim go to great lengths describing her incredible level of tzniut, how she always tried to minimize herself, the deep love for her sister, to such an extent that she refused to embarrass Leah even at the cost of her own future. When the passuk says וְרָחֵל הָיְתָה יְפַת תֹּאַר וִיפַת מַרְאֶה this is what it means.
When Yaakov saw Rachel (her inner middot), he loved her, because he and Rachel were the same! A tzaddik and a tzaddikah, the perfect match made in Heaven.
Leah and Rachel were identical twins but Leah, from birth, was handicapped. Eisav was physically handicapped, born with physical character traits and urges that made his life more challenging. Leah was born with the same spiritual beauty and middot as Rachel, but she was handicapped by circumstances. From birth Leah was the "underdog", constantly battling against circumstances, to enable her inner spirituality shine for all the world to see.
To facilitate this, Leah sometimes had to resort to deceitful tactics which, how shall we say, are not exactly aligned with the behavior of a tzaddikah, for example – consenting to Lavan switching her under the chuppah. If Leah would have refused to cooperate, the wedding would never have taken place and she would have been doomed to living the rest of her life not accomplishing her destiny.
Her motivations were pure and good, but resulted in her continually living with inferiority. After she was switched under the chuppah and Yaakov married her, she became the hated wife - the passuk says it explicitly וַיַּרְא ה' כִּי שְׂנוּאָה לֵאָה וכו' (בראשית כט, לא).
Unlike Rachel, who from the outset enjoyed privileged status as Yaakov's "wife", Leah was constantly trying to "fix" things to endear herself to Yaakov. How effective was this?
When Yaakov reunited with Eisav, he placed Rachel and her sons at the very rear, furthest from Eisav. Even after Rachel and Leah died and Yosef was sold into slavery in Egypt, the brothers were still relaying the narrative that it was Rachel who was the true wife and not Leah וַיֹּאמֶר עַבְדְּךָ אָבִי אֵלֵינוּ אַתֶּם יְדַעְתֶּם כִּי שְׁנַיִם יָלְדָה לִּי אִשְׁתִּי (בראשית מד, כז).
If we were to explain it in modern terms, perhaps the best way to describe the difference between Rachel and Leah is the difference between a "tzaddikah from birth" vs. a "ba'alat teshuva". The first is on a totally higher plane and the second is constantly striving to reach that plane.
This reality continued with the children.
The children of Rachel were perfect tzaddkkim from birth. The 2nd passuk in our parsha says אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף. Yosef? What about Reuven, Yehuda, Levi, Yissachar? Were they not also תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב? The answer is that Yaakov considered Yosef as his true firstborn and heir, not the other 11 sons.
Yosef was the first son of the only one Yaakov considered his true "wife", but that was not all. Rashi (ibid.) says that in physical appearance, Yosef looked identical to Yaakov (just like Yitzchak looked identical to Avraham, his father). R' Bachyei says that Yosef encompassed all the middot of all the other brothers.
Similarly, Binyamin was a tzaddik from birth. Binyamin was the only one who was not involved with selling Yosef. Yosef and Binyamin were the forerunners of a lineage of leaders and kings, Yehoshua and Shaul. The future Beit HaMikdash was built in the territory of Binyamin. One of the future mashiachs is descended from Yosef.
The children of Leah were constantly getting into trouble. Reuven switching his father's bed from the tent of Bilhah to Leah's. Shimon and Levi killing the inhabitants of Schem. Selling Yosef into slavery. Yehuda and Tamar.
Is it any wonder that Yaakov favored Yosef over the other brothers. It was a repeat of Yaakov-Rachel. Yaakov-Yosef were like-to-like, they were one and the same, tzaddik to tzaddik.
It was in this melting pot that Am Yisrael was forged.
If everything was so hunky dory, then when Yaakov settled down with his family in the land of his father וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו, the era of mashiach should have commenced. You had all the Twelve Tribes, living in Eretz Yisrael. The passuk says that Yaakov built a "house" וַיִּבֶן לוֹ בָּיִת וּלְמִקְנֵהוּ עָשָׂה סֻכֹּת (בראשית לג, יז), a house for HKB"H – a Beit HaMikdash!
However, this is not what happened. Instead, we see the opposite, what seems like a total collapse of the dream. Sibling rivalry, hatred and family implosion.
Prior to this, when Yaakov was still living with his family in Charan, we hear nothing about strife between the sons. We do read about a few clashes between the wives, which were eventually peacefully resolved, like the incident of the דוּדָאִים.
Rashi (ibid.) says that davka because Yaakov wanted to settle down and live in tranquility in Olam HaZeh, which is not the ikar, these misfortunes befell him.
I would like to suggest that the era of Mashiach was not yet ripe, that the Twelve Tribes had not yet built the necessary infrastructure that laid the foundation for the future Am Yisrael. That it was davka in this melting pot of the complex reality of Yaakov's family, that Am Yisrael was forged. That if circumstances had been different, this would not have been possible.
Am Yisrael cannot be built on a foundation of only tzaddikim or only ba'alei teshuva, it requires a harmonious combination of both.
It was necessary for Reuven to mess up, for Shimon and Levi to mess up, for Yehuda to mess up and for Yosef to be sold into slavery, to develop the framework for Am Yisrael.
Yes, the sons of Leah were prone to "messing up", just like their mother was prone to using questionable tactics to achieve her purpose. However, by messing up, they created the essential building block of teshuva in Am Yisrael. Without this building block, the eternity of Am Yisrael would have been threatened.
Reuven lived the rest of his life בְּשַׂקּוֹ וּבְתַעֲנִיתוֹ trying to make amends for his sin with Bilhah. Levi did teshuva and channeled his zealous nature in a positive direction, becoming the Torah leader in Am Yisrael. Yehuda, instead of trying to save face, admitted his error with Tamar and thus acquired the necessary skill set for monarchy.
Leah's sons were not born perfect like Rachel's. They managed, however, to transcend their handicaps and eventually rose to the same supreme level, by virtue of their own efforts, not simply by accident of birth. As a result, they assumed most of the leadership roles in Am Yisrael, Keter Torah (Yissachar), Keter Kehuna (Levi) and Keter Malchut (Yehuda).
Yosef was the perfect tzaddik, born to the perfect mother, Rachel. However, this "accident of nature" was insufficient to ensure the eternity of Am Yisrael. Yosef, the perfect tzaddik had to be lowered in stature, cast into the depravity of Egypt to test the veracity of his tzaddikut and have him emerge unscathed. The purpose of this was to develop a sense of humility and mutual responsibility toward his other brothers.
These are the essential building blocks that forged Am Yisrael. The mechanism of teshuva, to be able fix things, even when Am Yisrael "mess up". The mechanisms of humility and mutual responsibility.
Am Yisrael is an integral mixture of the sons of Rachel (Bilhah) and the sons of Leah (Zilpah). The future vision of Am Yisrael is built with this structure – Mashiach ben Yosef (Rachel) and Mashiach ben David (Leah).
Next week we celebrate Channukah, the festival of the oil. Am Yisrael are compared to olives זַיִת רַעֲנָן יְפֵה פְרִי תֹאַר קָרָא ה' שְׁמֵךְ (ירמיהו יא, טז). Why is this?
Olives on their own, when picked straight from the tree are inedible, even harmful. However, if you give the olives a few "smacks on the head" in a mortar and pestle, what comes out? שֶׁמֶן זַיִת זָךְ כָּתִית לַמָּאוֹר, a few drops of the purest oil, fit for lighting the Menorah in the Mikdash (the meaning of כָּתִית is כָּתוּשׁ, Menachot 86a).
If you then take these "smacked" olives and grind them up further in a mill, squash the resulting mush into sacks and pile rocks on them, or place them under a press and apply pressure, more oil comes out, much more than from the first smack.
This is Am Yisrael in a nutshell. It would be nice if the oil would gush out on its own, without any outside influence. However, this never happens. We need a "mild" wakeup call from Above and this should do the trick and awaken Am Yisrael from our slumber. However, sometimes a little "smack on the head" is not sufficient. Sometimes we need to be pounded into a pulp and squashed for it to happen. However, in the end - the oil always comes out, Am Yisrael always returns to their essence.
Parshat Vayeishev is the secret formula for Am Yisrael - the forging of our nation. It was not a once-off occurrence. The same process we read about in this week's parsha takes place in each and every generation, over and over again.
HKB"H, like with the olive oil, gives us the necessary "reminders" and pressure so that we will return to our essence.
Even though Am Yisrael has elements that have "messed up", there is a way to fix things and make it right. Those that do so, achieve an even higher level than those who were born at the higher level. The "elites" in Am Yisrael, those by virtue of birth or their own labor, are required to develop a greater sense of humility and mutual responsibility.
This is the melting pot of Vayeishev, it is the same melting pot we are experiencing in our own generation at an unprecedented, accentuated and highly visible level. This is indicative of the proximity to the impending Geulah which is rapidly approaching and everything is becoming more concentrated and condensed.
The good news and the miracle of Channukah is - in the end, the oil always emerges. Am Yisrael always triumphs.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
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