מוסר אויף בראשית 29:18

turning aside from wisdom and the service of the Lord, because of what appears to be the remoteness of the delight and pleasurableness of these things. Verily, in their opinion, these are remote. Yet these are not remote, but near at hand. They are remote only in their mind. Therefore man must devote this quality of love to God, exalted may He be, as it is written (Deut. xi. I), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"; and to his soul, as it is written (I Sam. xx. 17), "For he loved him as he loved his own soul"; to his relatives, as it is written (Gen. xxix. 18), "And Jacob loved Rachel"; to his offspring, as it is written (id., xxxvii. 3), "Israel loved Joseph"; to his country, as it is written (Num. x. 30), "But I will depart to my own land and to my kindred"; to his companion, as spake David to Jonathan (II Sam. i. 26), "Very pleasant hast thou been unto me" ; to his wife (Prov. v. 19), "Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe"; to wisdom, as it is written (Prov. xxix. 3), "The man that loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father."

All the elements of time described above, played a part in the labours which the Torah describes Jacob as performing for Laban, and in the wedding feast described in our פרשה. The "days" we spoke of are the seven days of the wedding feast. Rashi already explained that when Laban asked Jacob: מלא שבוע זאת, "complete the week of this one" (Leah), he referred to the seven-day wedding feast. He bases himself on the half vowel Sheva instead of the full vowel kametz that we would have expected under the letter ש (Genesis 29,27). This is why the Jerusalem Talmud Moed Katan states that this instance is the origin of the custom to entertain the groom and bride for seven days starting with the wedding. You also find the time unit "month" mentioned here, when Jacob stayed with Laban for a month (29,14) before starting to be recompensed for any services performed. The time unit "year" is mentioned in the agreement that Jacob was to serve seven years for Rachel. This unit of seven years is the forerunner of the unit שמטה as a time unit or cycle of seven years (29,18). Just as the release from monies owed takes effect only at the end of the שמטה year, so Rachel was not promised to Jacob till the end of the seven years' service.

Let us now examine the relationship of the triangle Jacob-Rachel-Leah as it is explained in the Zohar (Sullam edition Vayetzei pages 58-60). Kabbalists see in Leah the mystique of the אימא עילאה, "Mother Superior," rooted in the emanation בינה, whereas Rachel is perceived as אימא תתאה, "mother of the lower regions," anchored in the emanation מלכות. The mystical dimension of זווג in the "higher" emanations is the fusion of חכמה and בינה, whereas the parallel fusion of the "lower" emanations is that between תפארת and מלכות. Jacob is perceived as representative of תפארת, as pointed out when describing him as the merger of the respective attributes of דין, justice and חסד, kindness. He loved Rachel. Leah's belonging to a world of נסתר, the hidden domain, accounts for her being שנואה, hated. Whenever something is by definition not accessible to our logic, it is called שנוא, the reverse of אהבה. The mystique of love is that it is something that is in the open, something joyful.