Yaakov has left his parents' home to escape from his brother's murderous anger and is traveling to his mother's family to find a wife. It says, "He encountered the place and spent the night there…". The definite article indicates that a specific place is being referred to. It's said that this "place" was the mountain where Avraham had nearly sacrificed Yitzchak, Mount Moriah. It would later become the site of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The sun is setting, so Yaakov halts his journey and makes camp for the night.
He gathers stones and places them around his head (perhaps to afford him some shelter from animals or the elements) and goes to sleep. He has the famous dream of Jacob's Ladder-a ladder is reaching from the earth up to the heavens, and "angels of God were ascending and descending on it." Yaakov is about to exit the land of Israel and the angels that guard him within the land are giving up their places to the angels who will guard him outside the land. Then God Himself appears to Yaakov and promises him three things: That the land he is lying on will belong to his descendants, that his descendants will be as the dust of the earth, and that God will be with Yaakov wherever he will go and will someday return him to the land of Israel.
Yaakov wakes up, freaks out a little at his ignorance of the holiness of the place, and sets up "the stone that he placed around his head" as an altar to God. Notice what's wrong? Prior to sleeping, Yaakov had gathered multiple stones to place around his head, but now there is apparently only one. My favorite explanation is that the stones argued as Yaakov slept over which one deserved to be the one Yaakov rested his head on. To stop the fighting, and to allow them all to have this honor, God turned them into one stone. It's also said that there were 12 stones, symbolizing the 12 tribes. Individual and separate before, after God's blessings to Yaakov, they are all one stone, to show that the 12 tribes are really one, one nation, one people, united.
Yaakov reaches the land of his mother's family. He comes to a well and chats with the shepherds there. The well is covered with a heavy stone-it takes all the shepherds working together to remove the stone so that they can water their flocks. The shepherds are waiting for the rest to arrive so they can remove the stone. Yaakov inquires after his mother's brother, Laban, and is told to ask Laban's daughter himself, who is walking up with her father's flock.
This is Rachel, the younger and lovelier daughter of Laban. Yaakov sets eyes on her, and promptly removes the stone over the well by himself, in the first recorded display of utter machismo. Luckily for him, Rachel is impressed, and allows him to embrace her. He tells her who he is (her cousin) and she runs and tells her father. Yaakov is brought to the house as a guest. He agrees to work for his uncle for seven years in order to marry Rachel. Under his hand, the flocks flourish.
But Yaakov is dealing with Laban, who is as sly and unwholesome as they come. And after seven years of hard labor, Yaakov finds himself married to Leah, the older daughter, rather than Rachel. Since the bride comes to the wedding veiled, he did not detect the deception until it was too late. He is furious with Laban at the betrayal (who makes some excuse about the older daughter needing to be married off first) and demands Rachel as a wife as well, for which he agrees to work another seven years.
And so begins one of the most complex yet unaddressed tragedies of the Torah. Rachel and Leah are sisters, turned into rival wives. These are holy women, the foremothers of the Jewish people, the women by whose names we still bless our girls today. They had divine knowledge of the future of Israel and their role in it. And yet they are also human, so very human, with women's hearts and emotions. Leah must live with the knowledge that her husband did not want her, and Rachel must bear the fact that though she is her husband's beloved soulmate, her sister is seen as the first wife. By all accounts, Yaakov is good to both of them, but this is hardly consolation for either woman's heartbreak. The Torah is not a story book; it does not spend time on the emotions and thoughts of its characters. It has a history to tell, and it gets on with it. And yet, in the matter-of-fact text that follows, we can feel each woman's agony loud and clear.
The Torah states explicitly that "God sees that Leah is unloved" and therefore grants her children, while Rachel remains barren (which hardly seems fair to Rachel). With each son's birth, Leah declares hopefully that surely her husband will love her now, but the reiteration of this hope at every birth shows that this is not the case. Leah's optimism is heart breaking: "…now my husband will love me," "Because Hashem heard I was unloved, He gave me this child also" "This time my husband will become attached to me…"
With the birth of her fourth son, she seems to give up hoping that children will increase her husband's affection; her declaration at this birth is pure gratitude to God that she was granted another child. Leah knew her husband was destined to have 12 sons and figured that three was her fair share (her and her sister's handmaids had also been given as wives to Yaakov). With the birth of the fourth son, she knew that she had more than a fair share, and so she gives thanks. Leah's patient, undemanding gratitude is as inspiring as it is devastating.
Rachel is becoming panicked that she is unable to have children. She tells Yaakov to marry her maid Bilhah, hoping Bilhah can have children, and they can be raised in Rachel's name (this strange, seeming injustice is also not addressed). Sure enough, Bilhah has two boys, both of whom Rachel celebrates as if they were her own. Leah follows suit, giving her handmaiden Zilpah to Yaakov, and two more sons are born.
Leah's eldest son, Reuven, finds some dudaim in the fields and brings them to his mother. Just what the dudaim were is not explained, but they may have been plants that were believed to induce fertility. Rachel begs Leah for some of the dudaim. Leah is irritated-it's bad enough that Rachel "took her husband" but now she even wants to take some plants Leah's son brought her? Rachel is undeterred, and offers that Yaakov can spend the night with Leah in return for the dudaim. Leah agrees and goes out to meet Yaakov as he is returning from the fields, announcing scornfully that she has "hired him" with dudaim.
Leah has two more sons, bringing her total up to six. Then she becomes pregnant for a seventh time. Knowing that if this one is also a boy, there will only be one son left for Rachel-less than even the maidservants-Leah prays that the baby be a girl. Dinah is born.
Finally, God listens to Rachel's prayers and she has her first son, Yosef (Joseph).
Yaakov is now an established man, with four wives, eleven sons and a daughter. He wants to go home. But Laban knows that his current wealth is entirely due to Yaakov's work and is unwilling to let him go. They argue for a while, but Yaakov prevails. They make an agreement that for the years of work, Yaakov will receive as wages any "speckled or spotted" sheep or goat that are born in the flock. Laban agrees, knowing that unusually marked offspring are rare and that Yaakov will not get much from this agreement. That birthing season there is a bumper crop of spotted animals. Yaakov becomes a very wealthy man.
Laban's sons are resentful of Yaakov and Laban himself is treating him coldly. God tells Yaakov it's time to return home, and Yaakov couldn't agree more. But first he calls Rachel and Leah to him, and explains the situation. He asks their permission to move the family. Unimpressed with their father and his ways, they are more than willing. While Laban is away for a few days, Yaakov packs up his entire household and his flocks and his family and off they go.
Laban finds out three days later and starts off in pursuit, and his intentions aren't kind. But God appears to him in a dream and warns him against harming Yaakov in any way. Laban and his followers overtake Yaakov. Laban takes on the role of injured patriarch, asking why Yaakov had fled in secret, taking Laban's daughters and not even permitting him to say goodbye. And to make matters worse, Yaakov had stolen Laban's household gods!
Unbeknownst to Yaakov, Rachel has taken her father's idols in the hopes that he will stop worshipping them. She has hidden them in a pack that she is now sitting on. Yaakov is angry at Laban's accusations, and declares that whoever took the idols will not live. He gives Laban permission to search his belongings. Laban does, though when he reaches Rachel's things she apologizes for not rising, as "the way of women" is upon her. Predictably, Laban steers clear of her. But the curse of a holy man cannot be undone, and indeed Rachel will die young.
Yaakov has been patient and accommodating for over two decades and now he's had enough. He lets loose on Laban, first scolding him for searching through all Yaakov's things, and then running through all the hardship and deception he endured in Laban's house. Laban backs down and the two make a covenant that neither will pass this spot with the intention of harming the other. The next morning, Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren and returns home. Yaakov and company continue on their journey.
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