Commentaire sur La Genèse 30:6

דנני אלהים GOD HATH PRONOUNCED JUDGMENT UPON ME — He judged me and found me guilty; he judged me again and found me guiltless (Genesis Rabbah 71:7).

דנני אלוקים, G’d was just and fair in not granting me children.

ותאמר...דנני אלוקים, He compared my legal status with that of my sister and found me also as deserving to have children, just as she is deserving. Seeing she spoke about the legal aspect of G’d’s judgment, as opposed to the favours granted by G’d’s attribute of Mercy, i.e. ה', she used His attribute of Justice when referring to Him, i.e. אלוקים.

He has judged me and found me guilty, and found me innocent. In Bereishis Rabboh (71:7) it says: “He judged me and found me guilty — ‘Rochel was barren.’ He judged me and found me innocent — ‘And has given me a son.’” Accordingly, “Hashem has judged me” is one matter [i.e., “found me guilty”], and “He has also heard my voice” is another matter [i.e., “found me innocent”]. See Re’m.

דון heißt sowohl: das Recht an jemandem vollziehen, wie וגם את הגוי Es .כי ידין ד׳ als jemandes Recht zur Geltung bringen, wie וגו׳ דן אנכי ist zweifelhaft, wie es hier zu verstehen sei. Das וגם שמע וגוי spräche für die erste Bedeutung: Gott hat ein strenges Recht an mir geübt und mir selbst die Fähigkeit Mutter zu werden versagt, allein er hat nun doch auch meinen Wunsch erhört, indem er mir ein Kind gewährt, dem ich wenigstens geistig Mutter werden und das, wenn ich es auch nicht geboren, ich doch pflegen und erziehen kann als meinen Beitrag zum Jakobshause.

דנני, “He has judged me;” she acknowledges that she had been appropriately punished for having been jealous of her sister. Nonetheless she had also then been rewarded. (Compare B’reshit Rabbah 71,7)

וגם שמע בקולי, but even so He did accept my prayer.

וגם שמע בקולי, to the prayer I offered to Him concerning this child. Even if I had not been worthy, He accepted my prayer.

ויתן לי בן, someone who will look after me in my old age., seeing he has been born on my knees, i.e. will be raised by me. When Yaakov’s senior wives, Rachel and Leah made such statements, they thereby signaled their agreement to freeing their handmaids who had possessed slave status up until then. They did this by referring to the sons of the handmaids as בנים, children, rather than as עבדים, slaves. If their mothers had been slaves, the children would have to be viewed and treated as slaves. We have proof of this from Exodus 21,4 האשה וילדיה תהיה לאדוניה, “the woman and her children will belong to her master.” This is the reason why these matriarchs did no longer have the mothers of the handmaids’ sons perform menial tasks for them as they did before these women were given to Yaakov to have children with. This was quite different from when Avraham had said to Sarah that Hagar, mother of Ishmael was “in your hand, do to her what you like,” i.e. she continued in her status as slave. They are always listed as בני יעקב, and participate fully in the inheritance, as opposed to a slave who cannot inherit as anything given to him automatically belongs to his master. In the case of Ishmael, the Torah had made sure by saying כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע “for your (Avraham’s) seed will be perpetuated through Yitzchok, that we would understand that Ishmael was not Avraham’s heir. (21,12)

ויתן לי בן, seeing that I intend to relate to him as if he were the fruit of my own womb. He is part of my family. [according to tradition both Zilpah and Bilhah were sisters to Rachel and Leah paternally, though they did not have the same mother. Ed.]