Thursday, January 27, 2011

And God Remembered Rachel

And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: Genesis 30:22-23

God's remembering always refers to a specific act that a person performed. In this case what act of Rachel did Hashem remember?

Rashi writes that He remembered that she gave over the signs to Leah. We must realize what an incredibly selfless act this was. By giving over the signs Rachel was forfeiting her chance to marry Jacob and thereby claim her place in eternity as the matriarch of B'nai Yisroel {the Children of Israel}.

She had no way of knowing that Yaakov was going to marry her afterwards. Nevertheless, she was willing to sacrifice all of that on the altar of her sister's honor. She empathized with Leah and stayed silent the night of the wedding.

What were the long-term repercussions of this sacrifice?

Rachel was sterile-unable to have any children. "Hashem remembered Rachel… and opened her womb!" He remembered her empathy for Leah and created fertility where no possibility for childbirth had existed before! It was her willingness to forfeit becoming a matriarch that enabled her to become a matriarch.

(http://www.neveh.org/ciner/parsha62/vayetzey.html)

4 comments:

  1. The world may say, "No good deed goes unpunished," but that's not how the Lord works with us. His love and mercy are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23)

    Know that the Lord sees and remembers the sacrifices we make for others. What a tender story this is!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an interesting perspective! I love this scripture and read it MANY many times before I had my son. I felt like I could understand Rachel's desire and her suffering.

    Thank you for all these great insights, I am enjoying your blog immensely. Your son, John, sent me the link remembering how much I enjoyed "Beloved Bridegroom" which you sent to me on my mission. Thank you for so much additional reading material on here!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The last few words of the post reminded me of Mark 8:35 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it."

    Rachel lost something, yet gained it.

    Yet again Christ's teaching show the way.

    ReplyDelete