[Avodah] Gid ha'nasheh

[Alexander Seinfeld]

It seems to me there are two plausible answers, and both may be correct.

1. Yes, he should not have married Rachel. This is in fact what Leah tells
her, ³You stole my husband.² He was tricked, but he accepted Leah, did not
annul the marriage, so too bad for Rachel. She¹s the one who gave away the
password.

2. He wasn¹t yet Yisroel. He was still a ben Noach. When he becomes
Yisroel, he is now required to keep the Taryag Mitzvos. It is right after
this name change that she dies. I¹m not sure why she doesn¹t die
immediately (in Beit-El) rather en route to Efrat. But this delay may have
sown doubt into his mind about his status - maybe he is still a ben Noach.
His sons consider themselves Bnai Yisroel, which is why they are eating
meat that for a ben-Noach would be eiver-min-ha-chai, and which is part of
the lashon hara that Yoseph brings back to Yaakov. But his judgment that
they are Bnai Noach is not merely academic, it is personal, because it has
implications in Rachel¹s death.

>
>If he was punished, it must be that he was punished for some choice
>that he made. What choice was that? What did he do wrong? If he could
>do it all over again, what ought he do differently? Specifically:
>After having married Leah, should he have not married Rachel?
>Alternatively, (according to those who say that he was not fooled but
>knew that Leah had the simanim,) should he have not married Leah? Or
>should he have protested and annuled the marriage to Leah?
>
>If he was punished, what did he do wrong?