Who can lead?

for Parshat VaYeitzeh

 

i

Lavan promises his daughter,

Rachel,

to Jacob

for a wife.

On their wedding night

Lavan switches Rachel

with Lavan’s older daughter,

Leah.

Jacob does not know

until morning.

*

(But Jacob does marry Rachel, too, in the end.)

 

ii

So Leah becomes

the accidental wife.

And Leah names her first three sons

saying these things:

- With this first son, now my husband will love me.

- God has heard that I am hated, so He has given me a second son.

- My husband will join me now  for I have birthed him three sons.

*

This is naming

of Lavan’s world—

where another decides

who you are;

where another decides

who is a bride,

the chosen daughter,

a wife,

beloved,

unloved.

 

iii

With her fourth son

Leah says:

this time

I will Praise HaShem.

She names him Judah,

Yehudah,

Praise God.

*

In Judah

Leah ends

Lavan’s worldview:

she becomes simply one woman,

praising God.

 

iv

And Judah will sire

the line of David,

father of kings.

*

—perhaps to show

that the leader we seek

will not rule us:

but he will bring us to know ourselves

enough to come to God.

 

 

Based partly on Rav Amnon Bazak’s writing on the Books of Samuel 

 
_____
Shabbat shalom,
Abe

 

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, and for NeshamaEmunah bat Batya
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