Комментарий о цитате к Берешит 29:15

ויאהב...אעבדך, in response to the question: “what shall be your wages?,” he answered Lavan that his wages would be in addition to food lodging and clothes that Lavan would give him his daughter Rachel as a wife. Even though Yaakov had spelled out which daughter, namely Rachel, he added the word הקטנה, “the younger one,” so that Lavan could not deceive him by giving him a different girl called Rachel. Some people question that seeing that the righteous marry with a view to producing children, why would Rachel’s exterior appearance have been of interest to Yaakov at all? After all they did not want their wives to be women who would excite their libidos, and it is clear from the fact that Yaakov was willing to delay marriage by seven years was due to his choosing a beautiful bride. He appears to have been angry at Lavan for having given him Leah instead, seeing that Leah was not as attractive as her sister. We have to answer this by saying that in choosing a beautiful woman as their brides, the righteous people had good intentions. They wanted their libidos to be aroused by them in order to produce many children together. Furthermore, they also wanted their children to be handsome like their mothers. Looking at beautiful people helps a person to remain in a joyous frame of mind, something which is a requirement for man for we know that people who are not in a joyful frame of mind cannot serve G’d in the best possible fashion. Even prophets cannot function as such unless they are in a state of joy, and on occasion they require stimulants such as music in order to put them in a more joyful frame of mind (Kohelet 5,19,--compare also Kings II 3,14-15)

?הכי קרא שמו יעקב, the line is a rhetorical question. Esau says: “although Yaakov had been named thus because at birth he had held on to my heel so that I became the firstborn and entitled to a double inheritance and he was without such distinction, is he now going to turn the tables on me and get the share of the firstborn, i.e. both blessings?” The word הכי as a question also occurs in connection with Lavan and Yaakov when the latter works for his uncle. When the question of wages came up, Lavan exclaimed הכי אחי אתה ועבדתני חינם, “would there be any justice in your working for me without wages merely because you are my brother (and one does not have to pay one’s family)?” (29,15) Lavan implied: “on the contrary, you should be paid more generously because you are my family.” We have learned in Baba Batra 139 that when someone dies leaving behind many children (sons) and the estate is substantial, the sons share the inheritance whereas the daughters receive a stipend from the estate pending their getting married. When the estate the father left behind is meager, the daughters get the stipend whereas the sons will have to fend for themselves even if it involves begging. Admon says וכי בשביל שאני זכר ויפה כח בנכסים מרובים הורע כוחי בנכסים מועטין? “Am I supposed to suffer because I am male, able-bodied and my parents were wealthy?” [his argument was accepted by Rabban Gamliel, as was every other argument quoted in the name of Admon in the Talmud. Ed.]

As in “Is it because you are my relative?” From what was said after “You shall work for me without pay,” it is clear [that it was an incredulous question,] and Lavan was not actually requesting this. For Lavan said right after: “Tell me, what should your wages be?”