[Avodah] Love of the Imahos [was: Your brother's a Mumar; here's the solution!]

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Yitzhak Grossman _celejar at gmail.com_ (mailto:celejar at gmail.com) 

>>But note  that none of the Imahos are described as loving their  husbands.<<

>>>>>
Hello?   Leah?!


 
The poignancy of that whole situation has often struck me.  Leah and  Rochel 
each had what the other most desperately longed for.  And both were  left with 
thwarted longings that were never quite fulfilled.  
 
All her life Leah longed for her husband's love -- every one of her sons  was 
named with reference to this longing!  And when Rochel died -- Yakov  /still/ 
didn't make Leah's tent his primary abode, but instead put his bed in  
Bilhah's tent.  Leah's pain over this situation must have been  palpable -- it 
induced her son Reuven to interfere on his mother's behalf  and try to get his 
father, finally, to make Leah his primary wife -- but  Reuven's plans backfired.
 
(I have a theory as to why Yakov moved in with Bilhah -- Bilhah  was Rochel's 
shifcha so she must have been the one who was raising Rochel's  orphaned 
children.  Those children, the last living link to the  beloved Rochel, must have 
been living in Bilhah's tent.  My  guess.)
 
As for Rochel, she longed for children but did not live to raise  them.  She 
never even had a chance to hold Binyamin, and probably never  even saw him.  
 
When you think about the whole "dudaim" story it's all there -- the whole  
heartbreak, the pain on both sides.  
 
Rochel:  "Your little boy brought you flowers?  Please, I have  no little 
boy, could I please just have those flowers?"
 
Leah:  "What do I care about the flowers?  My husband doesn't  love me, he 
loves you, but please, could I just have this one night with  him?"
 
Yes, I know that Yakov did love Leah too, but relatively, she felt  unloved.  
Rochel was always his true zivug and his true wife, which he  mentioned even 
on his deathbed, so many years after Rochel's death.





--Toby Katz
=============

President Reagan talked with the Soviets while pushing ahead  with the 
deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe. He spoke softly —  after 
getting himself a bigger stick.  --Mark Steyn




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