창세기 30:3의 주석

על ברכי UPON MY KNEES — as the Targum takes it: she will bear children and I will rear them.

בוא אליה, this was Rachel’s answer to her husband’s accusation. She had not meant that it was within Yaakov’s power to make her pregnant, but she wanted to nurse a child by the next best method, that of becoming foster mother to her handmaid’s child.

ותאמר הנה אמתי, She said: "here is my bondwoman, etc." She was careful to say: "my bondwoman Bilhah," before mentioning that Jacob should sleep with her, instead of saying: "sleep with my bondwoman Bilhah," as Sarai had done at the time (Genesis 16,2). I have explained there that Rachel did not mean for Bilhah to be still called a bondwoman after she had slept with Jacob. She gave Bilhah to Jacob to become a wife to him; any sons of her should be free men. Leah acted similarly when giving her bondwoman Zilpah to sleep with Jacob.

ותאמר, she said that after Yaakov had explained to her that her failure to have children was G’d’s doing, she suggested what Sarah had suggested to Avraham, that she was willing to become a vicarious mother through her servant maid having a child by him. She therefore asked Yaakov to sleep with Bilhah.

הנה אמתי בלהה, בא אליה ואבנה גם אנכי, “here is my maidservant Bilhah, sleep with her and I too will be built through her (child).” Sarah, when suggesting that Avraham sleep with Hagar, had phrased it differently, saying “perhaps I will be built up though her.” (Genesis 16,7). Rachel appeared certain that Bilhah would have a son. The reason for her feeling certain that she would succeed was that Avraham had not yet been told by G’d that he would have a son by Sarah. Rachel, having revealed to her sister the secret code between her and Yaakov so that she would not be embarrassed under the wedding canopy, was certain that this merit would work in her favour now. Her preparedness to allow a competitor to sleep with her husband would, she was sure, produce in the desired result. Some commentators believe that Rachel’s certainty was based on the extra letter ה in Bilhah’s name, this being an allusion to offspring as per הא לכם זרע, or כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמו, this world having been created under the aegis of the letter ה. Rachel, רחל was the only of one of the matriarchs who did not have the letter ה in her name. She meant to make up for this deficiency by giving בלהה to her husband as her alter ego.

She said to him, “Your grandfather Avraham, had children from Hagar...” I.e., although he had children from Hagar he interceded for Sarah. So you too, although you have children, you should do the same for me.

ואבנה גם אנכי AND I ALSO MAY HAVE CHILDREN — What force has “also”? She said to him, “Your grandfather, Abraham, had children from Hagar and yet he girded up his loins (actively interceded) for Sarah and she afterwards was blessed with a child”. He replied, “But my grandmother brought an associate wife unto her house”. She retorted, “If that is what prevents me being blessed with children, הנה אמתי BEHOLD MY HANDMAID” etc.

ואבנה גם אנכי ממנה, so that I will have a share in posterity just as has my sister through her children.

ותלד על ברכי, whomsoever she will give birth to shall be considered as having been born on my knees, my becoming his foster mother seeing he will be part of my family.

If we find that even Sarai did use the term "wife" in connection with Hagar (Genesis 16,3), she countermanded such an interpretation by saying that she should be a wife only vis-a-vis Abraham. She was to remain a slave-woman vis-a-vis herself. Compare my commentary there.

ואבנה נם אנכי AND I ALSO MAY HAVE CHILDREN through her as Sarah was built up through her handmaid (Genesis Rabbah 71:7).

ממנה, a recipe found in Megillah 13 for barren women to be jealous of other women who have no problem conceiving in order for their own organs to respond in a manner that helps them conceive.

ואבנה גם אנכי, so that I too will be built through her (Bilhah). The word גם here refers to Leah, Rachel saying that she too, as a foster mother, would consider herself as “built,” i.e. as leaving something of herself to posterity. We have explained the meaning of the word ואבנה in Genesis 16,2.

If you were to point out that we find Bilhah described as a bondwoman even after she had slept with Jacob (30,7) and already bore him a second son, this simply means that she used to be Rachel's bondwoman. The Torah there was also interested in pointing out that the matriarchs attributed such righteousness to their husbands and it is certain that the Torah did not need to be afraid that someone would misunderstand having previously outlined what Rachel had in mind (compare what we have written in Genesis 37,2).