אֵֽשֶׁת־חַ֭יִל עֲטֶ֣רֶת בַּעְלָ֑הּ וּכְרָקָ֖ב בְּעַצְמוֹתָ֣יו מְבִישָֽׁה׃
Koroną męża swojego jest kobieta dzielna; ale jako zgnilizna w kościach jego - gnuśna.
Rabbeinu Bahya
Having heard all this you will now understand the meaning of the scholar who claimed in a public lecture that a single Jewish woman in Egypt gave birth to 600,000 children (compare Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1,7). The word לידה, giving birth in an expanded sense, means to bring potential to fruition. The birth of Moses was equivalent to the coming into existence of 600,000 Israelites. The reason the scholar is described as making this mind-boggling pronouncement during a public lecture was because the audience had begun to doze off and the scholar wanted to rouse them from their sleep by making such an earth-shaking statement. The multitude was aroused by this statement though learned people knew that it was not to be taken at face value but summed up a certain concept. The scholar had sufficiently provoked his audience so that they asked who that woman was. He then told them that he referred to Yocheved who gave birth to Moses who was equivalent to 600,000 Israelites. The reason the scholar had used the term אשה, “a woman,” is the same as the reason which prompted Solomon in Proverbs 12,4 to say אשת חיל עטרת בעלה, וכרקב בעצמותיו מבישה, “a virtuous wife is the crown of her husband, but a wife who embarrasses him is like rot in his bones.” Solomon pointed out later in Proverbs 31,10 that finding such a virtuous woman was something very exceptional.
Rabbeinu Bahya
ויגש יעקב ויגל את האבן מעל פי הבאר, “Yaakov approached and rolled the rock from the top of the well.” Yaakov clearly displayed superior physical strength seeing that at least three shepherds had been unable to move that rock with their combined efforts. When you consider in addition that Yaakov must have been tired both from the long journey and from Torah study, which traditionally weakens a person physically, (compare Isaiah 28,29 where the word תושיה is applied to Torah seeing its study weakens the body of a person, Sanhedrin 26) his feat was even more remarkable. Yaakov had spent the last 14 years studying in the academy of Ever (even though this detail has not been recorded in the written Torah).
We find that when Yitzchak his father commanded Yaakov: “arise and go to Padan Aram and take for yourself from there a wife” (28,2), that he understood that the meaning of the word אשה also included another element, something Yitzchak had not spelled out to him. The hidden meaning of the word אשה was that it referred to Torah. King Solomon in Proverbs 31,10 already alluded to this meaning of the word אשה, when he headlined his last paragraph with the words אשת חיל מי ימצא, “who can find a woman of valour?” He described such a “woman” as עטרת בעלה “the crown of her husband” in Proverbs 12,4.
Our sages, when commenting on Deut. 33,4 where Moses described the Torah as מורשה קהלת יעקב, “as an inalienable possession handed down from generation to generation,” that the word ought not merely be read as מורשה, but as מאורשה, something a Jew is betrothed to. In other words, Torah is to us what a wife is to a husband. Keeping this thought in mind, Yaakov decided to fulfill the implied command of his father first and instead of proceeding directly to Lavan he stayed at the Yeshivah for 14 years. The number of years he must have stayed there can be arrived at by comparing the age at which he met Pharaoh (130), [he lived in Egypt for 17 years and died at 147 years of age.] When you deduct 22 years during which he had not seen Joseph who had been 17 years of age at the time of his abduction, this made Yaakov 91 years old at the time Joseph had been born. Joseph was born after Yaakov had stayed at Lavan’s for 14 years. This means he was 77 years of age when he came to Charan. Yitzchak dispensed the blessing when he was 123 years of age, i.e. when Yaakov was 63 years old (compare Rashi who said that when one approaches within 5 years of the age at which either parent died it is time to make arrangements concerning one’s own death. The Talmud Megillah 17 arrives at the same conclusion). All of this supports the view that the only way to account for an obvious discrepancy in dates supplied by the Torah is to conclude that Yaakov studied Torah for 14 years before arriving at Lavan’s house.
We find that when Yitzchak his father commanded Yaakov: “arise and go to Padan Aram and take for yourself from there a wife” (28,2), that he understood that the meaning of the word אשה also included another element, something Yitzchak had not spelled out to him. The hidden meaning of the word אשה was that it referred to Torah. King Solomon in Proverbs 31,10 already alluded to this meaning of the word אשה, when he headlined his last paragraph with the words אשת חיל מי ימצא, “who can find a woman of valour?” He described such a “woman” as עטרת בעלה “the crown of her husband” in Proverbs 12,4.
Our sages, when commenting on Deut. 33,4 where Moses described the Torah as מורשה קהלת יעקב, “as an inalienable possession handed down from generation to generation,” that the word ought not merely be read as מורשה, but as מאורשה, something a Jew is betrothed to. In other words, Torah is to us what a wife is to a husband. Keeping this thought in mind, Yaakov decided to fulfill the implied command of his father first and instead of proceeding directly to Lavan he stayed at the Yeshivah for 14 years. The number of years he must have stayed there can be arrived at by comparing the age at which he met Pharaoh (130), [he lived in Egypt for 17 years and died at 147 years of age.] When you deduct 22 years during which he had not seen Joseph who had been 17 years of age at the time of his abduction, this made Yaakov 91 years old at the time Joseph had been born. Joseph was born after Yaakov had stayed at Lavan’s for 14 years. This means he was 77 years of age when he came to Charan. Yitzchak dispensed the blessing when he was 123 years of age, i.e. when Yaakov was 63 years old (compare Rashi who said that when one approaches within 5 years of the age at which either parent died it is time to make arrangements concerning one’s own death. The Talmud Megillah 17 arrives at the same conclusion). All of this supports the view that the only way to account for an obvious discrepancy in dates supplied by the Torah is to conclude that Yaakov studied Torah for 14 years before arriving at Lavan’s house.
Rav Hirsch
שוק .ואל אישך תשוקתך, Markt, שוק, Schenkel, שוקק eine starke Massen-bewegung von Heuschrecken und Rossen, also Grundbedingung: sich stark nach einer Seite hin bewegen; daher תשוקה: die Richtung des Gemütes und der übrigen Bestrebungen nach einem Ziele, das Streben, die Sehnsucht. Es liegt in der Natur des Weibes, daß es seine Lebenserfüllung nur in der Verbindung mit dem Manne fühlt — und doch wird der Mann ihr wieder neue Entsagung auferlegen: !והוא ימשל בך Schon durch die veränderte Stellung der Erde zum Menschen, die fortan nur immer der harten Arbeit des Mannes das Brot gewährt, ward das Weib in größere Abhängigkeit vom Manne, dem eigentlichen Ernährer, gebracht, und die ursprüngliche Gleichheit gefährdet. So gestaltet es sich in großem Ganzen, wo nicht die תורה die Erlösung und den Frieden in alles dieses bringt, Mann und Weib wieder in gleichen, Gott dienenden Priesterberuf einsetzt, und da wieder das Weib zur "Krone des Mannes" und zur "unschätzbaren Perle" seines Daseins macht (Prov. 12, 4; 31, 10).