In the remaining days before Tisha B’Av, it seemed appropriate to visit the grave of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. The Midrash says that when the Temple was destroyed and the Jews lead into captivity, Rachel wept bitterly. Indeed her grief was so intense that made a special promise to her that eventually repair would be made and the Jews would return home.
The association between Rachel and geula is intriguing. It is Rachel’s supreme act of kindness to her sister that according to the Midrash is most beloved to God. In that incident, Rachel, on her wedding night, gave a secret code to her sister Leah that would allow Leah to become married to Jacob. In the days prior to their wedding, Jacob and Rachel worried that the devious Laban would try to trick Jacob to marry another bride and withhold the hand of Rachel so as to extract more from Jacob. They thought that in the darkness of the marital chamber, Jacob would not know with whom he was consummating the marriage. Thus the couple agreed on a secret code that would allow them to verify their identities.
Unbeknownst to Jacob, however, another loyalty was at work. Rachel and Leah were twins. Both knew prophetically that each was destined to marry a son of Issac. It seemed logical that the younger of the two, Rachel would go to Issac’s youngest son, Jacob, and that Leah would marry Esau, the oldest. This would have been fine had it not been that Esau was the epitome of human evil. Leah understandably spent her days grieving for a life that she would never merit see.
Rachel saw this. She wept with her sister. And when an opportunity to save Leah from Esau, Rachel jumped at it. She would slip Leah into the marital tent and trick Jacob into marrying Leah.
Such actions are astounding. Was Rachel sure that Jacob, finding Leah in the marital bed, going to then turn around and marry her? She was in fact risking her future. What about Jacob’s feelings? The Torah makes it clear that Jacob loved Rachel very much. Finding that he had been duped must have been a heart breaking moment.
Yet from Yiddishkeit’s relationship to Rachel’s actions, it is clear that she did the right thing. She willingly gave up her future so that her sister would have one. That she would be married to Esau and forever be despised by Jacob was something that Rachel could handle.
Such willingness to give up one’s own private agenda in order to rescue Leah is a value that carries a spiritual power that it can force God’s hand. Hundreds of years later, the Jews self destructed in the most gruesome of ways. As a result they were swept out the land and people hood for a most uncertain future. Would they rise again? Their actions didn’t leave much room for hope. The Midrash describes the drama as each of the great characters of Jewish history made their case only for Heaven to dismiss them.
And then came Rachel. Evidently, that wedding night kindness to Leah cast quite a shadow. Even Heaven was stumped. God himself was coerced, as it were, by the enormity of Rachel to overlook the implications of the Jews’ corruption.
And it is the power of Rachel’s willingness to give up love and future that gives us the hope that sustains us to this day. As I prayed there today I reflected on what I must do to be a part of that hope. Greater willingness to make the other's agenda my agenda is the direction to my salvation and to the salvation of all of us.
