Pensamento Judaico sobre Êxodo 19:13

(1) Jacob served the full seven years meticulously, as if he had contracted for a period of a few days' service, a contract which is easy to fulfill meticulously. Because Jacob felt that seven years’ service for a girl like Rachel was a real bargain, he was able to serve out the whole period, fulfilling every little detail of the contract. (2) Jacob had requested a home of his own prior to his getting married, so that he would be able to come home to his wife instead of to a bachelor's quarters. After the wedding, having fulfilled the act of consummation, he presumably separated from his bride in accordance with the laws of ritual purity. When he observed Rachel next morning in her father's house, acting like an unmarried girl, and he found Leah and Zilpah in his own house, he realized that he had been tricked. He had been misled, partly because the younger servant maid, i.e. Rachel's, had been assigned by Laban to Leah instead of to Rachel. Laban's answer clarified that he had never agreed that Rachel should be married first, all he had agreed to had been to give Rachel to Jacob rather than to a stranger. It had never occurred to Laban that the younger Rachel should get married before her older sister. Now, if Jacob were agreeable, after a week's wait, he could also marry Rachel-- on credit as it were-- in return for another seven years of service to be performed henceforth. All this had been ordained by G-d, so that Jacob would in fact marry these four women and the promise to expand in four directions would be fulfilled. The barrenness of the matriarchs had been pre-ordained in order to demonstrate G-d’s love for their eventual children, none of whom would ever have seen the light of day except for G-d’s personal intervention, enabling their respective mothers to conceive and give birth to them. Jacob committed two errors that contributed to the delay in Rachel becoming pregnant. When Sarah and Rebecca had found themselves barren, they had either offered their servants to their husbands in the hope of vicarious motherhood, or they had prayed, in the case of Rebecca. Rachel, having reacted to her misfortune by becoming angry, compounded her own problem. When G-d saw that Leah was hated by her husband, He steppd in to enhance Leah in Jacob's eyes by having her bear him sons. Thus Rachel's pregnancy had to be delayed, pending Leah gaining the consideration from her husband that was her due. Rachel's jealousy of her sister was a further impediment, since instead of being jealous, she should have prayed for children. We do not observe Hannah being jealous of Peninah; rather we observe her praying to G-d for a male child (Samuel I 1,9). After Jacob had made it plain to Rachel that instead of her angry outburst directed at him, she should have addressed herself to the source of her misfortune, i.e.to G-d, Rachel began to copy Sarah who had given Hagar to Abraham. (3) Rachel acknowledged the heavenly judgment. As soon as she realized that acting like Sarah produced results, she also admitted that she had been judged fairly. (4) When Leah, who had attributed all her fortunes and misfortunes to G-d, realized that despite her robust health she appeared to have become sterile, she saw in this some kind of punishment by G-d, and proceeded to give her maidservant Zilpah to her husband. The name "Gad," as "Bagad" (betrayed), indicates she had become aware she had committed a betrayal of her sister when she had gone along with Laban's trick of palming her off on Jacob instead of Rachel. The name Asher reflects that she was happy that Zilpah had born children from Jacob, that she was not jealous of that fact. When, she resumed bearing children herself after a while, she viewed this as proof that her atonement had been completed and expressed this by naming the child Issachar. The Torah describes Rachel's physiological problems by describing her as having a narrow womb. Medical science teaches that women with narrow wombs experience difficulties in giving birth. Rachel was aware of her problems; when Joseph was born she experienced no special discomfort due to G-d having expanded her womb on that occasion. No such special intervention by G-d occurred when she gave birth to Benjamin. (5) Once Joseph had been born, Rachel felt justified concerning her previous marital relations with her husband up to that time. As long as she had considered herself as unable to give birth to a live child and herself survive the birth, she had entertained doubts about the morality of having sexual relations with her husband, since the sole justification for that was the attempt to have children. Her "shame" had been removed therefore. Referring to future marital relations with her husband, she exclaimed "may G-d give me another son" (Maimonides, More Nevuchim, Section three Chapter 49). (6) Bereshit Rabbah 63 quotes an ancient tradition according to which the descendants of Esau will be defeated only by the offspring of Rachel. Now that Rachel had offspring, Jacob felt that the ground had been prepared for the eventual defeat of Esau. He therefore felt encouraged to go home and face Esau. Laban was interested in giving Jacob a fixed amount of wages. In this manner, should Jacob be found in possession of total wealth exceeding his wages less his expenses, his honesty could justifiably become suspect. (7) Jacob emphasized from the beginning that it had been his intention to take his wife and children back to Canaan with him. He had foreseen that six years later Laban might accuse him of stealing his daughters and grandchildren. Jacob said to Laban in effect, "You are aware that during the years I have served you, you have become far wealthier than you could have anticipated. This was due to the help of my G-d, who has enriched you for my sake. The time has now come to make myself a little richer." Laban wants Jacob to stay, in order to prove to himself if his new riches were due to the G-d of Jacob, or if this was part of his own mazzal. Jacob responds that such a request is phony, since Laban knew full well what his newfound wealth was due to. Secondly, Jacob, knowing that blessings do not descend on numbered items, rejects the idea of fixed wages. He also does not want Laban to be in a position to suspect him of amassing wealth in a fraudulent manner, as outlined. (8) The statement that Laban is to remove all speckled sheep etc. from the flock at this point, is to give him a chance to point to his own unassailable honesty. If he started out without even a single sheep of the skin-pattern discussed, Laban would never be able to claim that Jacob's new wealth was due to a nucleus Laban had provided. Jacob especially did not want an assist from Laban, since the latter did not even acknowledge that his own wealth was due to assistance from Jacob's G-d. (9) Jacob never used the peeled sticks to fire the sheep's imagination except to start a new flock. Since G-d’s blessings are applicable only to items which already exist (as we know from the impoverished widow whose minute supply of oil was dramatically increased by Elisha, Kings II Chapter 4), there had not been any reason for Jacob to apply that strategy either for Laban's flocks or for his own flock, once such a flock existed. Jacob himself explains to his wives that his success was in exactly the reverse ratio to Laban's attempts to cheat him (compare the Jewish population increase in Egypt resulting from the Egyptians' efforts to curtail Jewish population growth, Exodus 1,12). Although Jacob had used the rods due to his own initiative, he gave credit to G-d for His assistance without which all his efforts would have come to nought. The dream in which he saw the sheep (Genesis 31,11-13) confirmed his feeling that he had enjoyed heavenly assistance. Rachel had stolen her father's terafim already well prior to Jacob's departure as can be seen from the sequence in the story. This she did in order to prevent Laban from having an inkling of Jacob's intention to depart. (10) Jacob taught his family to ride. All these preparations qualified for the description geneyvat da-at, deception. G-d’s stricture to Laban not to speak to Jacob even "good" refers to the kind of "good" Laban would employ, i.e. something that sounded good but was designed to harm Jacob. (11) In other words, Laban was warned not to harm Jacob either directly or indirectly. Laban, in typical fashion, attempts to tell Jacob that he had acted foolishly by giving Laban an excuse to harm him. He quotes G-d’s message to him, meaning that he had only been forbidden to talk, not to act against Jacob. (12) Therefore, he stresses his ability to harm Jacob. Jacob answered that all the subterfuge employed had only one purpose, namely to prevent Laban from stealing back his daughters. Concerning the terafim, since Jacob had been unaware that Rachel had taken them, he agreed that whoever had taken them ought to die. Had Jacob been aware of the true motive for this theft, he would not have condemned the thief to die for this deed.