Komentarz do Rodzaju 29:31

AND THE ETERNAL SAW THAT LEAH WAS HATED. Now Leah had deceived her sister and also Jacob. For even if we were to say that she showed respect for her father, who took her and brought her in to him and she was not rebellious against him, she should have by word or sign indicated that she was Leah. All the more is this so since she feigned herself all night to be another, which was the reason why Jacob did not recognize her until he saw her in the morning. It was for this reason that Jacob hated her. But G-d, knowing that she did so in order to be married to the righteous one, had compassion upon her. And so the Rabbis said in Bereshith Rabbah:⁹⁵71:2. “When Jacob saw the deeds by which Leah had deceived her sister, he decided to divorce her. But when the Holy One, blessed be He, remembered her by giving her children, Jacob said, ‘Shall I divorce the mother of these children?’” This is the meaning of the expression, And the Eternal saw: He had compassion upon her so that Jacob should not leave her. But there are some scholars⁹⁶R’dak in his Commentary on the Torah. who say that in the case of two wives, one of whom is loved exceedingly, the second one, who is the less beloved, is called “hated” relative to the first, just as Scripture said, And he loved Rachel more than Leah,⁹⁷Verse 30 here. but not that he hated her. Leah however was ashamed of the matter and so G-d saw her affliction.

ורחל עקרה, she was punished for having said to Yaakov: “get me children!” (30,1)

כי שנואה לאה, because after his first meeting with her Yaakov recognised that Leah bore the symptoms of a woman who is unable to have children.

וירא ה׳ כי שנואה לאה, G'd saw that Leah was hated, etc. The Torah tells us here that only G'd was aware of the fact that Leah was hated; she herself only felt that she was not beloved as we shall explain by examining her own words presently. Bereshit Rabbah 71,2 sees in the word שנואה merely an allusion that Leah had been slated to become the wife of Esau who was hated (compare Maleachi 1,3 where G'd expressed His hatred for Esau). Accordingly, Leah is here called by the name of the husband originally intended for her. If Leah had not produced children the people would have seen this as proof that she was not meant to be Jacob's wife; this is why G'd opened her womb and granted her children. The Torah goes on to say that Rachel was barren to indicate that it was hoped that by making Leah fruitful Jacob's hatred towards Leah would abate when she could give him children whereas Rachel apparently could not.

וירא ה' כי שנואה לאה, Yaakov did not hate her; in fact he loved her. However, seeing that he loved Rachel better it appeared as if he hated Leah. We find a similar situation in Deuteronomy 21,15 where the Torah speaks about a husband “hating” one of his two wives. The meaning there is also relative to the wife he prefers. G’d, Who knew the true state of affairs, i.e. what Leah’s perception of her husband’s feelings toward were,

וירא ה' כי שנואה לאה, “The Lord took note of the fact that Leah was hated, etc.” According to Bereshit Rabbah, 70,2 the reason Yaakov hated Leah was that she had betrayed her sister. Seeing that G’d knew that her intentions were pure, that she wanted to be married to a righteous person such as Yaakov, He had compassion with her. Some commentators believe that we must not understand the word שנואה at face value; the Torah merely describes Yaakov’s relations with Leah by comparing them to his relations with Rachel. When looked at from that angle, Leah appeared as if she were hated. We would have to say that G’d saw that Leah was “hated,” [not just by Yaakov, but when compared to her sister who was popular, Ed] so that G’d compensated her by granting her motherhood in spite of natural biological obstacles to this.

כי שנואה לאה, “that Leah was hated.” This certainly does not mean that Yaakov hated Leah. [If he did, he would have had to divorce her. Ed.] The word שנואה is strictly relative and tells us that by comparison to Yaakov’s feelings for Rachel, Leah appeared as if she were hated.

Nicht: כי לאה שנואה, dass Lea gehasst, sondern: כי שנואה לאה dass die Gehasste von beiden, d. h. die Mindergeliebte Lea war. So האחת אחובה והאחת שנואה Es ist tief bedeutsam, dass der eigentliche Kern des — (5. B. M. 31, 15) jüdischen Volkes nicht diejenige zur Mutter hat, die Jakob — so weit der heilige Text erzählt — zunächst nur nach dem sinnlichen Eindruck ihrer größeren äußeren Schönheit gewählt hatte, und dass Gott gerade die sich zurückgesetzt Fühlende die Hauptstammmutter seines Volkes werden ließ. Zeigen uns ja die Namen, welche diese Mindergeliebte ihren Söhnen gab, wie sie gerade in dem Gefühle der Zurücksetzung um so heißer von dem Gefühle der Gattenliebe durchdrungen ward, sich zur vollsten beglückenden und beglückten Würdigung des Mutterberufs für die Bestimmung des Weibes und die Beglückung der Ehe emporschwang, und sich für beide an das Vertrauen auf die alles sehende und hörende Gegenwart Gottes in der Ehe anklammerte. Die Liebe ihres Mannes war ihr Ziel, und mit jedem Kinde, das sie ihm geboren, hoffte sie einen Baustein mehr zum Grundbau dieser Liebe zu besitzen, und erfuhr die Verwirklichung dieser Hoffnung. Was der Braut und Gattin versagt war, der Mutter seiner Kinder gelang es ganz. Und so wurden die Stämme des jüdischen Volkes unter dem Sonnenstrahl der wärmsten und reinsten Gatten- und Mutterliebe und des hingehendsten Hinaufblickes zu Gott empfangen und geboren, gepflegt und erzogen, und in ihren Namen dem jüdischen Volke alle die heiteren und ernsten Güter und Geister verewigt, die das Glück der jüdischen Ehen und Häuser bedingen — wie wir dies bereits im Jeschurun, zehnter Jahrgang S. 339 f. niedergelegt. Und gerade Lea, der Betrübten, war es beschieden, die heitersten Seiten der Ehe und des Hauses zu erfahren und zu verewigen, während Rahel, der Glücklichen, die ernsten beschieden waren.

ויפתח את רחמה, Yaakov had thought that the reason Leah had been willing to deceive him was because of her awareness of her barrenness. She remained in such a state until G’d took pity on her and opened her womb.

ויפתח את רחמה, seeing that the Torah describes her womb as needing to be “opened,” it is clear that she had been barren before.

ורחל עקרה, but Rachel remained barren, as she had been. We already explained on 25,20 why the matriarchs were basically all barren until G’d intervened visibly.