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<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Incidentally,
the gematria for Rachel is 238 — the same as <i>vay’hi or</i>
”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. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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