Kommentar zu Bereschit 30:11

בא גד FOR MY HAPPINESS! — Good luck has come, as (Shabbat 67b) “Be lucky, my luck (גד גדי) and tire not”. Similar, also, is (Isaiah 45:11) “That prepare a table for fortune (גד)”. The Midrashic explanation is that he was born with the sign of the covenant upon him. It would then be like (Daniel 4:11) “cut down (גדו) the tree”. I do not know why it (בגד) is written as one word. Another comment on בגד is: why is it read as one word? It may be connected with the root בגד which denotes faithless as though Leah said to Jacob, “You proved faithless to me when you married my handmaid”, like a man who is faithless (בגד) to the wife of his youth).

בא גד, “we have been granted good fortune.” We find the word גד used in a similar sense in Isaiah 65,11 העורכים לגד שלחן, “Who set a table for Luck.” Also the Talmud Shabbat 67 גד גדי וסינוק לא, “be lucky and do not suffer from fatigue,” uses the word גד in this sense. Anyone who translates the word as derived from גדוד, related to a troop, is in error. Even though names usually reflect a popular manner of speaking, such as ראובן being related to ראה, saw, (compare 29,32) or שמעון as related to שמע, (29,33) unless Leah had mentioned the word גדוד when naming this son we would not be able to trace the word גד as an abbreviation of גדוד, (using the letter ד twice) justifying such a comparison. The expression יגודו על נפש צדיק in Psalms 94,21 “they band together to do away with the righteous,” where it does stem from the word גדוד, does so because of the dagesh in the second ד.replaces the missing second ד. We find a parallel construction in Psalms 106,43 וימכו בעונם, where the dagesh in the letter כ of the word וימוכו substitutes for the missing second letter כ of the root מכך. Job 30,12 and 16,13 also have similar constructions where a dagesh substitutes for a missing root letter.

בא גד, this one came coincidentally, for I had not planned to ring him into the world, seeing that I had stopped giving birth. The reason why the word is spelled as a single word with the letter א missing, is to indicate that the conception and pregnancy was not planned but occurred gratuitously. Her pregnancy had somehow become terminated after it had begun. We find a similar construction of the word בגד in Job 6,15: אחי בגדו כמו נחל, “my comrades are fickle like a wadi.”

ותלד...ותאמר...בגד, the 2 words בא גד have been condensed into a single word, the letter א having been omitted. The meaning of the expression is “this one came or brought with him with good fortune.” It is read as if it had been written as two separate words, i.e. “good fortune has arrived.” The phrase העורכים לגד שלחן, in Isaiah 65,11 is also to be understood as “who set a table for luck?” Rabbi Moshe hacohen Gigatilia says that the word גד refers to a star so named in the language of Kedar. This is a star presumed to forecast good fortune. If we wanted to explain the word גד in terms of גדוד, we could still explain it as having a similar meaning, i.e. בא גודד הגדוד, “with the arrival of this one there is a full troop of sons.”

ותאמר לאה בגד, “Leah said: ‘good fortune has come.’” Some commentators, in zeroing in on the name גד, point out that members of the tribe of Gad were the first ones to receive their ancestral portion of land in the land of Israel, as documented in Numbers 32,2 “the members of the tribes of Gad and Reuven came, etc.” Other commentators hold that that the word בגד means that Leah said: “now I know that my husband has betrayed me, seeing that he has taken my maid servant as a competing wife.” When Avraham took Hagar he had not had any children by Sarah. When Rachel gave her maid servant to Yaakov, she too had not born any children for him. But I have born my husband four children, so there was no reason for him to take her as a wife. If, nonetheless I have started being capable of having children again this must be my reward for allowing him to take my maid servant. When she bore another son she called him אשר to reinforce this feeling of joyous gratitude to G’d Who had blessed her with 6 sons.

He was born circumcised... Accordingly, גד means “cutting,” that is to say that the cutting of his circumcision was already done.

גדד von גד: scharf, rasch, plötzlich, trennend in etwas ein- fahren, einschneiden. Daher גדור: eigentlich ein Truppenkeil, ein Haufe Gewaffneter, der rasch und plötzlich in das Gebiet eines andern einfällt, und גוֹד: einen solchen Keil bilden, oder einen solchen Einfall machen. Wie die Begriffe des Bestimmens, Verhängens gerne durch Schneiden, Trennen, wie כרת ,חרץ ,גזר, als ein Scharfes, Absolutes ausgedrückt werden, so fand auch der Begriff eines plötzlich in die Ver- hältnisse einfallenden Geschickes seinen Ausdruck in עורכים לגד שולחן :גד, sie decken dem Glücke, dem Zufalle, den Tisch (Jes. 65, 11). Und so heißt auch hier (א)בָ wohl: ein unerwartetes Glück ist gekommen. Es war dies ein Sohn, auf den sie unter gewöhnlichen Umständen nicht hätte rechnen dürfen. War sie ja nur durch das Beispiel ihrer Schwester zu ihm gekommen.

ותאמר לאה בגד, Leah said: “he betrayed,” i.e. this son is the result of my husband’s betrayal. [based on the word בגידה, “treachery. Ed.] Leah felt that although she had given Yaakov her servant maid to sleep with, he should not have accepted that offer. Did I not bear him four sons already? While it is true that he slept with Rachel’s servant maid also, this was understandable, as she had not born him any children. She called the son גד. [If I understand our author correctly, Leah was happy to be the “mother” of another son, but unhappy about how she had to come by him, i.e. vicariously. Ed.] She called the second son her servant maid had born, אשר, i.e. source of happiness, as by now she had reconciled herself to have given Yaakov her maidservant (This interpretation is close to the one offered in the midrash hagadol)

The word: בגד, which is spelled as a single word instead of as two words: i.e. בא גד, but is read as one word. If we read this word as two words, the meaning is: בא גד, “a troop arrived,” i.e. my four sons have now been joined by another one that forms part of my little army.