Commento su Genesi 30:1

ותקנא רחל באחתה RACHEL ENVIED HER SISTER — She was envious of her because of her good deeds, thinking, “Unless she were more righteous than I am she would not have been privileged to bear children (Genesis Rabbah 71:6).”

GIVE ME CHILDREN. The commentators⁹⁸Rashi and Ibn Ezra. said that this means that Rachel asked Jacob to pray on her behalf. Or else I die — Rashi comments: “For one who is childless may be considered as dead.” This is a Midrash of our Rabbis.⁹⁹Bereshith Rabbah 71:19.
But I wonder. If so, why was Jacob angry with her? And why did he say, Am I in G-d’s stead?¹⁰⁰Verse 2 here. for G-d hearkens to the righteous.¹⁰¹See Psalms 69:34. [I wonder concerning] that which Jacob said [to Rachel, as quoted in Rashi:¹⁰⁰Verse 2 here. “You say that I should do as did my father, who prayed on behalf of Rebekah, but I am not circumstanced as my father was. My] father had no children at all. I, however, have children. It is from you that He had withheld children and not from me.” Do not the righteous pray on behalf of others? There were Elijah¹⁰²I Kings 18:21. and Elisha¹⁰³II Kings 4:33. who prayed on behalf of strange women.
It would appear that on account of Jacob’s answer, our Rabbis took him to task, saying in Bereshith Rabbah:¹⁰⁴71:10. “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Jacob, ‘Is this the way to answer a woman who is oppressed by her barrenness? By your life! Your children are destined to stand before her son Joseph!’”
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, Rachel asked of Jacob that he give her children, but her intent was truly to say that he should pray on her behalf and continue indeed to pray until G-d would, in any case, grant her children, and if not, she would mortify herself because of grief. In her envy she spoke improperly, thinking that because Jacob loved her he would fast, put on sackcloth with ashes,¹⁰⁵Esther 4:1. and pray until she would have children, so that she should not die of her grief.

מתה אנכי, in this verse when the word מתה is in the present tense, the stress is on the last syllable, whereas in Genesis 48,7 where the same word occurs in the past tense, the stress is on the first syllable.

מתה אנכי, a figure of speech, meaning the same as הן אני עץ יבש, “here I am a dried out tree,” in Isaiah 56,3.

ותרא רחל כי לא ילדה, Rachel saw that she had not borne children, etc. The Torah adds the word ליעקב, for Jacob, since it was clear that Jacob was not the one who was sterile. The cause therefore had to lie with her. When the Torah describes Rachel as jealous of her sister, this indicates that had Leah not been her sister Rachel would have attributed the fact that she did not conceive to genetic differences between her and another wife of Jacob. She could not account for such genetic differences when her sister was involved, i.e. someone who was genetically similarly equipped (she thought).

ותרא..ותקנא רחל באחותה, she saw that during the period that Leah bore 4 sons for Yaakov she had not even born him a single one.

הבה לי בנים, “get me children!” Rachel demanded that Yaakov pray on her behalf, failing which she would die She considered any woman who had no children as “dead.” Nachmanides expresses his amazement at such an interpretation as he cannot understand why this was something that would infuriate Yaakov, as the Torah reports in the next verse when he upbraids her by asking if he was in place of the G’d Who had denied her children. One even prays on behalf of people to whom one is not married, so why should he feel offended by her demand that he pray on behalf of his wife? As to the comment by the Midrash that Yaakov rejected the comparison with Yitzchok praying for Rivkah to have children as inappropriate, seeing that Yitzchok at the time did not have children, whereas he, Yaakov did have already four children, surely that is not a reason why he should not pray on behalf of his favorite wife!? According to the plain meaning of the text, Rachel demanded children from her husband. She threatened that if he refused to pray on her behalf she would kill herself. She would not lay a hand on herself, but she explained that she would simply die from frustration and shame, and would blame her death on her husband. Yaakov’s anger was aroused because she so misunderstood the power of prayer that she felt that the prayer of a צדיק automatically commits G’d to fulfill it. Yaakov thought that Rachel used the threat of her death as a ploy, something not unknown when women are denied having their way. At any rate, after telling Rachel that the matter was not really in his hands, seeing that G’d had granted him children but not from her, she decided to pray on her own behalf. This is what the Torah means in verse 22 that G’d “listened to her,” as a result of which she bore Joseph.

She was envious of her good deeds. [Rashi knows this] because envy is [otherwise] forbidden.

הבה לי בנים. Sie glaubte wohl, es sei ihm gleichgültig, da er doch durch Lea Kinder habe, und lasse er es daher an dem rechten Wunsch und an der rechten Bitte vor Gott fehlen. Hatte doch auch seine Mutter erst auf das Gebet seines Vaters Kinder erhalten.

ותקנא רחל באחותה, “Rachel became jealous of her sister;” she had not become jealous until after Leah had given birth to her fourth son. The reason was that by doing so she had received more than her “fair” share of the 12 sons Yaakov was supposed to sire.

הבה לי GIVE ME [CHILDREN ] — Did, then, your father act so towards your mother? Did he not pray on her behalf (Genesis Rabbah 71:6).

If not I am dead. According to the Sages (Baba Basra 116a) a person who leaves offspring is not said to “die” but only to “lie down,” because he will still be remembered.

Did your father act this way to your mother. Rashi derives this from Yaakov’s answer: “Who has withheld from you.” This implies, as Rashi says there, that Yaakov was saying: “You tell me to act as my father did. I am not like my father. It is from you that Hashem has withheld children, not from me,” implying that she had mentioned his father.

The word ליעקב may have an additional meaning here. Her major concern was the fact that she was unable to bear children for an outstandingly righteous man such as Jacob. Had Jacob not been clearly righteous, she would have attributed his bad luck to a character defect in her husband. Knowing that she herself was righteous she could not understand why the promise contained in Psalms 125,3 that "the scepter of the wicked will not be allotted to the fate of the righteous," would not apply to their union. Had Jacob not been so clearly a pious man she could have attributed their lack of success to a shortcoming in Jacob. As it was this was impossible. Therefore, she was jealous of her sister who had succeeded where she had failed.

מתה אנכי I AM A DEAD WOMAN — One may infer from this that he who is childless may be regarded as dead (Genesis Rabbah 71:6).

From here, that one who has no children is considered as if dead. Otherwise, [if it meant that she is presently dying,] why did she ask for children? מתה is an adjective, not a present tense intransitive verb [conveying that she is dying]. And it is not a transitive verb [conveying that if Yaakov does not give her children, she will kill herself].