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Parashat Vayetze 5756 (b)

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Rachel's strange "thanks" for Yosef's birth

QUOTE: And [Rachel] conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, "Hashem has ended my disgrace!"
(Bereishit 30:22)
QUOTE: A Midrash explains this statement: As long as a woman has no son, she has no one to blame for her misdeeds. Once she has a son, though, she can blame him. "Who broke this dish?" -- "Your son!" "Who ate these figs?" -- "Your son!"
(Rashi ad loc., s.v. "Cherpati")
As we have discussed previously, it is very surprising that after all of her years of waiting for a son, Rachel finds nothing greater to thank Hashem for than the fact that she now has someone to blame for her misdeeds. Was this her only reason for wanting a child? Was it so important to her to be able to blame her mistakes on somebody else?

In our previous essay ("Hashem has ended my disgrace") we discussed a convincing explanation of the Midrash, taking it at its face value ("Peshat"). Here we would like to propose an allegorical approach to the same Midrash ("Remez") -- perhaps Rachel's exclamation was not simply an offer of thanks for the birth of Yosef, but rather a premonition of Yosef's future destiny.

II

The breach in the kingdom of Israel

When the Bnai Yisrael [= the Jewish nation] first established their kingdom in Eretz Yisrael under King David, one king ruled over the entire Jewish people. However, during the course of time, a contender for the throne named Yerav'am ben Nevat wooed a large part of Israel away from the Davidic dynasty. From his capitol in Shechem he ruled over ten of the tribes, whereas King David's grandson, Rechav'am, maintained his sovereignty only over the tribes of Yehuda and Binyamin. This split in the kingdom resulted in a rift among the Jewish people which weakened the nation physically and spiritually. Eventually, this situation brought about the exile of the Jewish people from their land (I Kings, Ch. 12,13).

We know that when a tree bears bad fruit, invariably the seed that grew the tree was at fault. Similarly, when a fault is evident in our nation's development, it can often be traced to events that took place during our nation's inception. What event can we find in the early history of our nation that could have caused such a rift among the Jewish People?

In fact, when we examine the events that shaped the lives of our forefather Yakov's children, we can point to two distinct causes of disunity among the tribes of Israel.

The first suggestion of disunity in the embryonic Jewish nation was the fact that, although the tribes shared a single father, they were born to four different mothers. Thus, they were actually four distinct families! Such a complicated family is a breeding house for jealousy and discontent. Indeed, Rashi tells us (Bereishit 37:2) that the children of Bilha and Zilpa did not get along with the children of Leah.

The second suggestion of disunity is even more outstanding. We are told (Bereishit 37:4 and 11) that Yosef did not get along with his brothers. Their envy of him grew until it reached the point that they eventually sold him to be taken to Egypt as a slave. This discord can be viewed as the source of disunity between the descendants of Yosef and the other tribes of Israel throughout history. Yerav'am, the rebel leader of the Ten Tribes who broke apart the Davidic kingdom, was in fact a great-grandson of Yosef. The city around which he founded his kingdom was Shechem, the place where Yosef was sold, after he had aroused the envy of his brothers (Rashi 37:14).

III

Who is to blame; An answer to our original question.

With this background information we may propose an interpretation of the Midrash quoted above.

Before Yosef was born, Rachel saw herself as the possible cause of a lack of unity in Israel. It was she, after all, who had persuaded Yakov to bear children from more than one wife. Yakov's first four sons were all born from Leah -- but then Rachel urged Yaakov to take her maidservant Bilha as a third wife. This way, said Rachel, although she herself was barren, she could at least have a share in the building of the Jewish nation by proxy. This prompted Leah to urge Yaakov to take *her* maidservant, Zilpa, as a fourth wife. Each of the maidservants bore Yaakov two children (see Bereishit 30:3-14).

Had Rachel not given her maidservant to Yaakov, we can assume that since Rachel herself was barren, all of the children would have been born from Leah. All would have been born from a single mother and unity would have reigned. Thus, Rachel could have deemed herself the source of disunity in Israel.

But once Rachel was blessed with her son Yosef, she could no longer be blamed for being the source of disunity. After all, Rachel could not be blamed for bearing children to Yaakov in addition to Leah's children. She was the wife whom Yaakov had wanted to marry in the first place, and she remained his principle wife. If Leah had children by Yaakov, Rachel could not be blamed for also having children by Yaakov. On the other hand, her son Yosef would be liable to provoke the envy of his brothers due to his favored status among Yakov's sons. It was he who was destined to be the root of hatred and enmity between the different camps of Israel. His descendant Yerav'am would be the one to break apart the kingdom of Israel.

This, then, is what Rachel meant by her statement at the time of Yosef's birth, "Hashem has ended my disgrace." As Rashi tells us: Before she had a child people would have asked, "Who broke this vessel?" -- in other words, who caused the kingdom of Israel, which was a single integral vessel, to break apart? "Who ate these figs?" -- who caused the Jewish kingdom to be "eaten" by its enemies? ("Te'enim" --figs -- has the same numerical value as the word for "the kingdom" -- "Hamalchut" according to the Gematria system. Also, in Yirmiyahu 24:1 the people of the kingdom of David are compared to figs in baskets.)

Before Yosef was born, it would be concluded that Rachel was to blame; the only possible source of disunity was her having given Bilha to Yaakov. But now that Rachel had a son, she saw that *he* would be blamed. The disunity which grew out of the relationship between Yosef and his brothers was far more profound than that caused by Rachel giving her maidservant to Yaakov. Should people ask who was the cause of the "break" in the kingdom of David ("Who broke this dish?"), the answer would now be, "Yosef, by trying to show sovereignty over his brothers, and by relating to them his dreams of how he would one day rule over them!" Who was it that caused the Jewish kingdom to be "eaten" by its enemies ("Who ate these figs?")? Yosef! Rachel had been vindicated.


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