Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Genesis 30:3

Lest you say - that which he said [when I will have a son] was not intended to mean literally a son; and when he said "a son" he meant "when I will be built up from her", similar to [the verse] "and that through her I too may have children" (Genesis 30:3), and if a daughter, a tumtum, or a hermaphrodite are born let him also be a nazirite. [Rather,] it comes to teach us that he does not [become a nazirite if a daughter, etc., are born].

I have seen a comment by the outstanding scholar Rabbi Yehudah Rosenis in his volume Parshat D'rachim in which he comes to the defence of Reuben claiming that the status of Bilhah was that of a woman who had been seduced by his father Jacob, something he derives from her description as "his father's concubine." This means that Bilhah had never been betrothed to Jacob; l cannot agree with this. I am convinced that Jacob acquired Bilhah by betrothing her to him in the traditional manner as l have explained at the appropriate place (Genesis 30,3). As to the term "concubine" used by the Torah in 35,22, perhaps that was what Reuben thought. He was in error, however, and that may have accounted for his conduct. Alternatively, the Torah hinted at the reason that Reuben disturbed his father's bed. He argued that not only had Jacob down-graded his mother Leah during Rachel's lifetime, the fact that he slept primarily in Bilhah's tent now that Rachel was dead was an even greater insult to his mother. Her place had now been usurped by a mere concubine. The facts of the matter are that Bilhah had always been a proper wife of Jacob; this is why the Torah describes Reuben's action as equivalent to having slept with one of Jacob's wives.

In Kesubos (112a) this is expounded differently, etc. [Regarding the verse, חברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני וכו'] In the first explanation [here] each word is understood literally: שנים means “years,” נבנתה means “a physical building,” and לפני means “before (earlier in time).” But according to the explanation in Kesubos: The word שנים means שונים (times), and נבנתה is related to the term, “And I will be built also from her (Bereishis 30:3),” an expression referring to producing offspring. And לפני means, “preceding (superior)”.

ויבאו מרתה AND THEY CAME TO MARAH — The word מרתה is the same as למרה: a ה at the end of a word (as a suffix) replaces a ל at its beginning (as a prefix). The ת takes the place of the ה which is rooted in (an integral part of) the word מרה; when it is joined with another letter, viz., when it is attached to the ה which is added to the word in place of the ל, the ה of the primary form (the ordinary form of the noun from which longer forms are made by the addition of suffixes) is changed into a ת. Thus, also, every ה which is a root-letter (a letter in the primary form of the noun) is changed into a ת when it is joined to another letter. E. g., we have (Isaiah 27:4) “Fury (חמה) is not in Me”, but (Esther 1:12) “And his fury (חמתו) burned within him”; you see that the ה of the ground-form is changed into a ת because it is to be joined to the ו which has been added. Similar are: (Leviticus 25:44) “Manservant and handmaid (אמה)”, but (Genesis 30:3) “Behold, my handmaid (אמתי) Bilhah”; (Genesis 2:7) “a creature of life (חיה)”, but (Job 33:20) “His life (חיתו) maketh him to abhor bread”; (Judges 4:5) “Between Ramah (רמה) [and Beth-el]”, but (I Samuel 7:17) “And his return was to Ramah (הרמתה)” the latter example being exactly parallel to that in this verse (מרתה - מרה‎).