The Lost Matriarch: Finding Leah in the Bible and Midrash

1. Waiting for Leah

13 1 waiting for leah Where Was Leah When Jacob First Sees Rachel? As we view Leah’s life unfolding in the Bible, we will observe various expressions of the powerful theme of how she struggles with being unloved. We might naturally expect that the most important aspect of her story about the consequences of love or the lack of love would relate to romantic love. After all, our contemporary culture is steeped in it, driving much of what we experience today in literature, film, theater, opera, popular music, television drama, advertising, and social traditions. Scholars don’t agree on when romantic love became such a major cultural expectation in Western society. Depending on definitions, some argue that the concept had its genesis in twelfth- or thirteenth-century notions of chivalry (perhaps due to influences from Arab cultures). Others believe that the modern Western cultural concept of romantic love was not fully developed in life or literature until the nineteenth century.1 Under either understanding, we shouldn’t be surprised if discussion about Western-style romantic love were largely absent from the ancient biblical story of Leah. But the real surprise is that the very opposite turns out to be true. Even the limited description of the Matriarch Leah that seems grudgingly expressed in the Bible leaves no doubt that the major issue in her life is what we think of as romantic love—or, rather, the lack of romantic love in her marital relationship with Jacob. 14 Waiting for Leah At the outset, nothing could speak louder about Leah, her future romantic relationship with Jacob, and the resulting rivalry with her sister, Rachel (who will also become Jacob’s wife), than the Bible’s delay in introducing Leah. The contrasts are evident: We first read at length about Jacob’s early life beginning from even before the time he emerges from the womb. When Jacob arrives at Haran to seek a wife, the Bible immediately details his emotional meeting with Rachel at the well, a meeting that we are about to examine. Paradoxically, although the other party in this familiar scene of Jacob at the well is Rachel, the scene nevertheless will serve as our first exercise as literary detectives attempting to uncover the hidden story of Leah. Leah is not only absent from this meeting, she is not even referred to in Jacob’s dialogue with the local shepherds or his statements to Rachel. However, the Rabbis know, as we readers know, what will be the eventual outcome of the sisters’ marriages to Jacob. Although Rachel will be Jacob’s beloved, Leah will nevertheless be the first wife. Jacob may have preferred to spend his nights in Rachel’s tent, but it will turn out that Leah will be the one lying next to Jacob for eternity, buried with him in Machpelah. In light of these measures of Leah’s ultimate triumph over her sister, the commentators feel impelled to account for Leah’s absence from the Bible’s opening story of Jacob’s sojourn in Haran. Indeed, the Rabbis use Leah’s initial absence from the biblical narrative to help us understand what awaits Jacob in Haran. [And Jacob said to the shepherds of Haran:] “Water the flock and take them to pasture.” But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are rounded up; then the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well and we water the sheep.” While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s flock; for she was a shepherdess. (Gen. 29:7–9) So we start Leah’s story with a close reading of the Bible’s introduction of Leah’s sister, Rachel (several passages before the first Waiting for Leah 15 express mention of Leah). If we stopped with a straightforward reading of the biblical text according to its plain meaning (a method of interpretation called peshat, discussed below), we would read the text as a simple descriptive introduction of Rachel coming to the well. But the midrashic process goes beyond the surface, peering into even the most incidental words to search for significance. The first question that midrash asks about this seemingly simple description of Rachel’s appearance at the well actually serves as our first encounter with Leah. The Rabbis ask: How is it that Rachel is serving as the sole shepherdess for her father’s flock? From the fact that...