[Avodah] Vayeitze "Watch Whom You Marry"

[Richard Wolberg]

In this Torah portion Jacob is deceived into marrying Leah instead of his
intended, Rachel. We all know the story. Interestingly, in Kabbalistic
literature every bride is said to have a component of Leah and Rachel.
Rachel represents the beautiful, lively, charming and appealing part of our
spouse - whereas Leah represents the not so attractive part. She is
characterized as weak-eyed and not very desirable. Initially we marry Rachel
and perhaps after a while we see the Leah component. This does not mean the
marriage is over. It merely means we must employ maturity in dealing with
it. As the female spouse has those two components, the male spouse also may
have the two components to Yosef Hatzadik and any one of his brothers. We
all contain opposing forces which is part of the dissonance of life.

Incidentally, the gematria for Rachel is 238 - the same as vay'hi or "Let
there be light." It's almost ironic that the reason Jacob was deceived with
Leah was because there was no light. On the other hand, the gematria for
Leah is 36 which is double chai (somewhat paradoxical in this case) and also
the same gematria for Eicha. Jacob certainly didn't chant Eicha, but he
probably asked "HOW?" could this have happened. Nevertheless, he accepted
his lot and dealt with it. 

 

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