Commentaire sur La Genèse 29:18

אעבדך שבע שנים I WILL SERVE THEE SEVEN YEARS — These are the “few days” of which his mother had spoken to him (27:44)): “And thou shalt tarry with him a few days”. You can see that this is so, for it is written (v. 20) “And they (the seven years) were in his eyes (i.e. according to his view) the few days” of which his mother had spoken (Genesis Rabbah 70:17).

אעבדך שבע שנים ברחל, there can be no question that a righteous man such as Yaakov would not have the audacity to marry a woman and to found a family unless he were able to support her and to provide her with the requirements specified in Exodus 21,10 as spelled out in Yevamot 19. “a man is allowed to marry several wives provided he can look after them financially.” There is therefore no reason to believe that Lavan, who was himself a man of means, would give his daughters to sons-in-law who were unable to provide for them in the manner they had been accustomed to. If all this is so, how do we explain Yaakov’s referring to the time when he crossed the river Yabbok on his way to his uncle as having only his walking staff? (Genesis 32,10)? What Yaakov meant when he said this was that at the time he referred to he had not owned any livestock, nor any profession with which to earn his livelihood. The reason he offered to work for Lavan for 7 years was to use his work in lieu of a cash dowry he would pay her father for her hand in marriage, something that was customary in those days. Lavan’s daughters themselves referred to their father having sold them into marriage in Genesis 31,15. They were modest enough to know that Lavan had taken advantage of Yaakov by demanding an exorbitantly huge amount as dowry from him. We know also from Exodus 22,16 that a father used his daughter as a source of augmenting his income and when the value of such “merchandise” had been reduced through rape or seduction of the daughter (loss of virginity) he is entitled to financial compensation by the man who seduced his daughter (when he refuses to give her to the seducer in marriage in exchange for a regular dowry).

ויאהב יעקב את רחל. Jacob loved Rachel. The reason the Torah mentions her name again is to tell us that Jacob did not love Rachel on account of her beauty but on account of the fact that she was the life-partner destined for him.

ויאהב...אעבדך, in response to the question: “what shall be your wages?,” he answered Lavan that his wages would be in addition to food lodging and clothes that Lavan would give him his daughter Rachel as a wife. Even though Yaakov had spelled out which daughter, namely Rachel, he added the word הקטנה, “the younger one,” so that Lavan could not deceive him by giving him a different girl called Rachel. Some people question that seeing that the righteous marry with a view to producing children, why would Rachel’s exterior appearance have been of interest to Yaakov at all? After all they did not want their wives to be women who would excite their libidos, and it is clear from the fact that Yaakov was willing to delay marriage by seven years was due to his choosing a beautiful bride. He appears to have been angry at Lavan for having given him Leah instead, seeing that Leah was not as attractive as her sister. We have to answer this by saying that in choosing a beautiful woman as their brides, the righteous people had good intentions. They wanted their libidos to be aroused by them in order to produce many children together. Furthermore, they also wanted their children to be handsome like their mothers. Looking at beautiful people helps a person to remain in a joyous frame of mind, something which is a requirement for man for we know that people who are not in a joyful frame of mind cannot serve G’d in the best possible fashion. Even prophets cannot function as such unless they are in a state of joy, and on occasion they require stimulants such as music in order to put them in a more joyful frame of mind (Kohelet 5,19,--compare also Kings II 3,14-15)

אעבדך שבע שנים ברחל בתך, “I will serve you for seven years in return for your daughter Rachel.” Under normal circumstances it is not good manners, is inappropriate, to serve for a woman. The only reason that Yaakov agreed to this arrangement was that his father had commanded him not to marry a Canaanite woman but to marry one of Lavan’s daughters. He therefore told Lavan that if he would not give him Rachel as a wife now, he would not violate his father’s command by marrying some other local girl, but would serve for Rachel for seven years. The reason why he offered to wait seven years for consummation of this arrangement may have been that at the time Rachel was so young that he could not expect to have children from her at her tender age.

These are the “few days” that his mother had told him... Otherwise, he would be disobeying his mother’s command.

ויאהב יעקב את רחל, “Yaakov loved Rachel;” he already had set his eyes on her with a view to wedding her.

ברחל בתך הקטנה (literally, for Rachel, thy daughter, the younger one) — What reason was there for mentioning all these detailed descriptions of Rachel? Because he (Jacob) knew that he (Laban) was a deceiver. He said to him, “I will serve thee for Rachel”: and should you say that I mean any other Rachel out of the street, therefore I say “your daughter”. Should you say, “I will change Leah’s name and call her Rachel”, I say “your younger one”. In spite of this, however, all these precautions did not avail, for he did actually deceive him (Genesis Rabbah 70:17).

בתך הקטנה, although she was very young at this time, within the seven years of Yaakov’s service for her she would mature and be able to be a wife for him in the full meaning of the word.

ברחל בתך הקטנה, “for your younger daughter Rachel.” He did not want to marry Leah, seeing she was the older of the two and therefore was meant for his older brother Esau. It would have been impolite to speak about her directly; this is why he chose to add the words “your younger daughter.”

And you may know... for it is written: They seemed to him... Rashi is saying that by nature, Yaakov’s love of Rochel should make [even] a few days seem long—as it is written (Mishlei 13:12), “A delayed hope makes the heart sick.” [Why did seven years seem to him like a few days?] Perforce, it is referring to the “few days” that his mother had told him.

Alternatively, we may approach the verse by citing Shabbat 25 where we are told that a Torah scholar should have an outwardly attractive wife so as to minimise temptations by the evil urge. Even though Jacob was on a spiritually far higher level and did not present much of a target for the evil urge, it is prudent to take whatever precautions against the evil urge that are feasible.

אעבדך, “I will serve you;” the letter ב in this word is vocalised with a chataph kametz, an abbreviated vowel kametz. (Not in our editions of the chumash).

And lest you say, “I will change Leah’s name...” therefore, I say “the younger one.” You might ask: Why did he not just say, “Your younger daughter”? The answer is: Had he not said “Rochel,” Lavan would have given him Zilpah. She also was his daughter, but from a concubine, as Rashi explains on v. 31:50. And she was even younger than Rochel. But if so, why did Yaakov not fear Lavan might change Zilpah’s name to “Rochel,” and give her instead, since she was his youngest daughter? The answer is: Zilpah was not his true daughter as she was from a concubine. And her name was not really “Rochel” so he would have to change her name. Yaakov did not fear a double deceit by Lavan. Another answer [why Yaakov said “Rochel”]: If Yaakov had only said, “Your younger daughter,” perhaps Lavan’s wife would have another daughter, whom Lavan would give him. The marriage would be after seven years of work, and though she would be a minor, she would be fit for relations — as Yitzchok married Rivkah when she was just three. And then Lavan would not be tricking him at all, as the stipulation was to give his youngest daughter! Therefore Yaakov said: “For Rochel, your younger daughter.”

אעבדך שבע שנים, "I shall serve you for seven years, etc." This צדיק had a habit of humbling himself by using the number seven. When he bowed down to Esau later on he is also reported as having done so seven times (Genesis 33,3). This is the mystical connection with Proverbs 24,16: "the righteous will rise even if he falls seven times." Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate that he considered Rachel worth more than the maximum servitude that a Hebrew servant serves with his master (Exodus 21,2).

שבע שנים, “for seven years.” He should not have offered to serve Lavan for more than a year or maximum two years. Yaakov felt that Lavan would not give him a beautiful girlsuch as Rachel for a relatively cheap price. He also wanted Rachel to know how highly he prized her as a wife to be. This is why he volunteered seven years of work.

ברחל בתך הקטנה, for your smaller daughter Rachel. "For Rachel, and not for Leah; for your daughter and not another girl called Rachel; for the small one, and not someone whose name you have changed. הקטנה, the one who is the small one now and not someone whose name you may change."

ברחל בך הקטנה, “for your small daughter Rachel.” The use of the word: “the small” one, instead of “the younger one,” implied that her father did not think very highly of her. This is why she was assigned the duties of a shepherd. He volunteered to perform the duties that she had been assigned previously by being a shepherdess. An alternate exegesis: why did he add the word: ברחל. Who did not know that this was her name? Yaakov reasoned that if he were to marry Lavan’s older daughter, Esau would have another complaint against him by claiming that he had not only stolen his birthright, but also the woman designated for him as the firstborn son of Rivkah. [This seems very weak, as the Torah had already told us that Yaakov was in love with Rachel from the moment he met her. Ed.]