Musar su Genesi 30:63

Behold, it is obvious that if the Creator created for this affliction only this remedy, then it is impossible under any circumstances for a man to heal himself from this affliction without employing this treatment. One who thinks to save himself without Torah study is only mistaken, and will see his error only in the end, when he dies in sin.

But if he toils in the Torah, when he sees its ways, commandments, and warnings, behold, on its own, eventually a renewal will awaken within him which will bring him to the good path. This is what our sages of blessed memory stated: "would that it were that they abandoned Me but kept My Torah, for the light within it would bring them back to the good" (Eicha Raba 2).

Therefore, anticipating this, he fled to Shem and Ever and studied Torah there with great diligence for fourteen years. For all of these years he did not once lay down to sleep a full sleep, as Scripture testifies about him (Ibid. 28:11): "And he slept in that place," as Rashi explains there. And, with such learning, though he remained in the house of Lavan afterwards for several years, nothing could harm him. [According to our words, the figure of fourteen years is very apt. For since they were meant to offset the years that he would have to remain in the house of Lavan, and it is known that this would be fourteen years, Jacob knowing that he could not return to his house so long as Joseph had not been born, he [Joseph] being as "flame" and Esav as "straw" [see Ovadiah 1:18], and as it is written (Bereshith 30:25): "And it was, when Rachel bore Joseph, that Jacob said to Lavan: "Send me away, etc.'", (as Rashi explains), and it is known that Joseph was in the fourteenth year, as it is written (Ibid. 31:41): "I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, etc." — therefore, Jacob first learned Torah fourteen years without interruption, so that the merit of these fourteen years would stand for him in the house of Lavan, as mentioned above.]

And the reason that Joseph reigned and his other sons humbled themselves to him stemmed from Jacob our father himself. Because he became angry with Rachel upon her saying to him (Bereshith 30:1): "Give me sons," he was told by G-d (as related in the Midrash, Bereshith Rabbah 71:10): "Is this the way to answer those who are oppressed? Upon your life, your sons will stand before her son [Joseph]!"

Nachmanides, in his commentary on Numbers 2,2, states that the flag of the camp of Yehudah featured the image of a lion, in accordance with Genesis 49,9, which compares him to a lion. The flag of the camp of Reuben featured the image of Adam, reminding us of the דודאים containing the letters "אדם," as we read in Genesis 30,14. The flag of the camp of Ephrayim featured the image of an ox, שור, seeing Moses had described Joseph as בכור שורו הדר לו, in his blessing in Deut. 33,17. Lastly, the flag of the camp of Dan featured the image of an eagle, based on Deut. 32,11, "כנשר יעיר קנו,” "like an eagle who rouses his nestlings." This was appropriate since Dan's position as the rearguard of the army required him both to protect the rear and hurry up the slow moving ones in front of him to move faster. The overall effect of these camps and their flags corresponded to the vision of Ezekiel of the מרכבה, as we have mentioned earlier. [Although Yonathan ben Uzziel has the flag of Dan displaying a snake instead of an eagle, as in Genesis 49,17, this need not contradict Nachmanides, since the Tziyoni quotes Kabbalists as saying that the body of the picture was indeed a snake, but that the snake had the wings of an eagle. The latter suggests the attribute of mercy, רחמים.]

Jacob made this point in Genesis 30,2,when he said to Rachel: התחת אלוקים אנכי? "Am I under the personal supervision of G–d?" Rachel had asked Jacob to offer prayer so that she could conceive and bear children. She thought G–d had made her barren because He wanted to hear the prayer of the righteous Jacob (as our sages have explained about all the difficulties our matriarchs experienced in having children). Jacob had to explain to Rachel that G–d had withheld children from her not because He waited for Jacob's prayer, since Jacob could not compare himself to Isaac and Abraham who were on Holy Soil when they prayed. He, Jacob, was in exile, not a place from which G–d desires prayer to emanate. He, Jacob, was not under the guidance of אלוקים, but under the guidance of one of the שרים as long as he was away from ארץ ישראל.

After having seen the ladder in his dream, Jacob understood a number of things; among them he understood the meaning of the four exiles he had seen in his vision, and he understood the eventual redemption. This is why he said: "Indeed G–d is in this place, אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, but I did not know it." He expressed his new found-understanding that the third Temple would lead to the realization of הזה and יש. He realized that this והתהלכתי בתוככם would be fulfilled במקום הזה. These two realizations all resulted from the וישכב, when he lay down to sleep. Concerning this experience we find an allusion in Jeremiah 31,16: יש שכר לפעולתך, "there is a reward for your labor." An example of the reward for וישכב, is the incident of Leah having traded the mandrakes her son Reuben had found in order to have an extra night with Jacob. Rachel had agreed with the words : לכן ישכב עמך, "therefore he may lie with you." When Leah became pregnant as a result of that night, and Issachar who founded the tribe that excelled in Torah study was born, she stated: נתן אלוקים שכרי, "G–d has given my reward." It was Issachar who would excel in bringing about the period described as ומלאה הארץ דעה, that the earth would become full of knowledge (of G–d).

I have explained the whole subject elsewhere in connection with Rachel's accusing Jacob of not having prayed for her to have children as Isaac had done for Rebeccah who had been barren. The Torah describes Jacob as becoming angry at Rachel as a result of her accusations (30,2). Why should Rachel's request have aroused Jacob's ire? How did Jacob understand the Talmud which teaches that the reason that the matriarchs were barren was to provoke them or their husbands into prayer so that G–d would grant them children (Yevamot 64)?

Jacob's choice of words, when he asked Laban to give him his wife at the end of seven years of service, is truly puzzling. Even the most boorish person would not use such crass language. Genesis 29,21 sounds as if Jacob said: "Hand over my wife for I have completed my years." We must also wonder at Leah's choice of words in 30,16: "To me you must come this night, for I have hired you for the mandrakes of my son."

In Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis 30:8) it is taught that every individual to whom the term tamim — “flawless” or tamimus — “completion” applies, completed a unit of seven “weeks,” corresponding to the forty-nine days. Three days prior to the giving of the Torah Israel was commanded in the mitzvah of “separation” [hagballah], at which time they purified themselves like a woman purifying herself for her husband after menstruation. On the fiftieth day Israel merited to enter the last of the fifty Gates of Understanding, which is called the “Tree of Life that is in the midst of the garden” (Bereishis 2:9). Although there is a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua (Rosh HaShanah 11a) regarding whether the world was created in Nissan or Tishrei, both agree that it was not actualized until Nissan. Therefore it is from the first of this month that we number the months. Thus Nissan is called the “first [lit. head] of the months.”

We are now able to understand an allusion to the future contained in 30,39 in which a procedure used by Jacob to encourage the sheep to give birth to certain skin patterns is described. Rabbi Oshiyah says in Bereshit Rabbah 73,10 that the water the sheep drank was turned into sperm inside of them. How can we understand the remarks of Rabbi Oshiyah which suggest that G–d created a new instrument of impregnating animals, something that had not been created during the six days of creation!? Did not Solomon in Kohelet 1,9 say that there is nothing new added on this planet?