Rachel and Leah - A 6-Act Story

Pieter Symonsz Potter was a Dutch painter (1597-1652). This is his 1638 painting of "Jacob Urging Rachel and Leah to Flee from Laban" (https://artvee.com/artist/pieter-symonsz-potter/)

Rachel and Leah "on one foot":

Rachel and Leah were sisters in the Biblical Book of Genesis. They happened to be married to the same man, Jacob, which colored their relationship moving forward.

Act 1

Scene 1

Context: This is from the Biblical Book of Genesis. This is after Jacob tricked his father by pretending to be his own sibling, and then left in order to find a wife (and escape his brother's wrath). Note that Laban is actually the son of Betu'el the son of Nahor, but Nahor was the clan leader as the grandfather of the family.

1. What might Rachel have been thinking as she spotted an unknown man at the well?

2. What might Jacob have been thinking when he heard that he had reached his destination?

​​​​​​​Scene 2

Context: The next part of the story. This connects her with Rebecca, who also had a life-altering encounter at a well (as well as Hagar — Gen. 16:7-14 and 21:9-21 — and Tzipporah — Ex. 2:15-22). In the case of both Rachel and Rebecca, a man meets a woman at a well, is welcomed by her family, and negotiates the terms of marriage (though Rebecca gets a say).

1. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling when the unknown man rolled the stone off the well single-handedly?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling when the unknown man (who had not yet introduced himself) kissed her?

3. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling when she heard that her sister met a guy at the well?

Act 2

Scene 1

Context: The next part of the story.

1. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling knowing that Jacob loved her and not her older sister?

2. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling knowing that Jacob loved her younger sister and not her?

3. How might Rachel have felt about Jacob?

Scene 2

Context: The next part of the story.

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling, knowing that Jacob thought he was marrying Rachel and not Leah?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling, knowing that Jacob thought he was marrying Rachel and not Leah?

3. What might Jacob have been thinking / feeling, given that he was under the impression that he was marrying Rachel?

​​​​​​​Scene 3

Context: The next part of the story. This is the origin of the “Sheva Brachot” week of celebration after a wedding. It is called that because at dinner each night during the week you can say the “Sheva Brachot” from the wedding during Birkat HaMazon after you eat, so long as there is somebody new who wasn’t at the wedding.

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling, knowing that Jacob was upset he was tricked into marrying Leah?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling, knowing that Jacob was upset he was tricked into marrying Leah?

3. What might Jacob have been thinking / feeling after being tricked into marrying Leah?

Act 3

Scene 1

Context: The next part of the story. Note that by her fourth child, Judah, Leah is choosing to be grateful for what she has (a child), rather than focus on what she lacks (her husband’s love). Note also that the word “Jew” comes from “Judah”, meaning that to be a Jew is to be a thanks-giver.

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling as she was having kids and Rachel wasn't?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling as Leah was having kids and she wasn't?

3. What might Jacob have been thinking / feeling as Leah was having kids and Rachel wasn't?

Scene 2

Context: The next part of the story.

1. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling when her maid had children that were accredited to her?

2. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling when she wasn't having kids now, and neither was her sister, but her sister's maid was?

3. What might Jacob have been thinking / feeling about told to have children with Rachel's maid?

Scene 3

Context: The next part of the story.

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling when her maid had children that were accredited to her?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling when she wasn't having kids now, and neither was her sister, but her sister's maid was?

3. What might Jacob have been thinking / feeling about told to have children with Leah's maid?

Scene 4

Context: The next part of the story. Mandrakes were considered an aphrodisiac and a fertility aid. Note that Leah is here taking an active role in the story.

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling when Reuben found the mandrakes? When she made the arrangement with her sister?

2. What might Rachel have been thinking / feeling when Reuben found the mandrakes? When she made the arrangement with her sister?

3. How might Jacob have felt about Leah hiring his company?

4. What might it have been like for Dinah to have 10 older brothers (and eventually 2 younger ones)?

Scene 5

Context: The next part of the story.

1. How might Rachel have felt about having a child?

2. How might Leah have felt about Rachel having a child?

3. How might Jacob have felt about Rachel having a child?

Act 4

Scene 1

Context: This comes after an interlude where Jacob asked to be paid in spotted and speckled sheep and goats, and Laban agreed but then removed all of those animals so Jacob couldn’t have any. Jacob managed to use selective breeding to get some anyway. Note that Rachel and Leah describe their father as having “sold” them in exchange for 14 years of unpaid labor from Jacob. Everywhere else in the Bible, when people are “sold” it’s in the context of slavery (like Joseph in Genesis 37:27-28), not marriage.

1. How might Rachel and Leah felt about the fact that Jacob consulted them before making this decision?

2. What does it say about the relationship between Rachel and Leah that they gave the same answer together?

3. How might Rachel and Leah have felt about leaving the home they grew up on?

Scene 2

Context: The next part of the story.

1. Why might Rachel have taken her father’s idols?

2. How might Rachel and Leah have felt upon seeing Laban?

3. Do you think Laban was telling the truth about a festive send-off?

Scene 3

Context: The next part of the story.

1. How might Rachel have felt about the possibility of being discovered as the thief?

2. How might Laban have felt at not finding his idols?

3. Was it fair for Rachel to make that excuse?

Scene 4

Context: The next part of the story.

1. How might Rachel and Leah have felt about their father making a non-aggression pact and leaving?

2. How might Jacob have felt about his father-in-law making a non-aggression pact and leaving?

3. How might Laban have felt about making a non-aggression pact and leaving?

Act 5

Context: This comes after Jacob has sent gifts to his estranged brother Esau, and then wrestled with an angel (or Esau, or his conscience) all night after sending his wives and children across a brook for safety.

1. How might Leah have felt about being put in a more exposed position than Rachel?

2. How might Rachel have felt about being put in the safest position?

3. How might Jacob have felt about his wives and children in general?

Act 6

Context: This comes after Jacob has parted ways with his brother and then Leah’s daughter Dinah was raped (and avenged by Leah’s songs Simon and Levi).

1. What might Leah have been thinking / feeling when Rachel was dying and/or dead?

2. How might Benjamin have felt about inadvertently causing the death of his own mother?

3. How might Joseph have felt about Benjamin?

Epilogue

Context: This is from the end of the Book of Genesis. Jacob is dying, and he wants his children to bury him next to Leah.

1. Why might Jacob have wanted to be buried next to Leah and not next to Rachel?

2. How might Leah have felt about this burial arrangement (if she could have had an opinion)

3. What might Jacob and Leah’s relationship have been like after Rachel died?

Epilogue: The Sequel

Context: This is from the Book of Jubilees, written in the 200s BCE, during the Second Temple period. It is part of the Apocrypha section of the books written after the Bible closed. It is clear that the author of Jubilees was uncomfortable with how things developed in the original version.

A Video Version

This is a 2009 video from G-dcast telling the story of the "baby wars" between Rachel and Leah. It is a bit of a cinematic midrash.

A Poetic Midrash

Yehudah Amichai wrote a poem "It is Morning Now and Behold, You Are Leah; Last Night You Were Rachel". You can hear Yehudah Amichai reading the poem in Hebrew and English here: https://voca.arizona.edu/track/id/64797 (start at 2:55).

Jacob Meeting Rachel, According to The Beatles

Context: "All You Need is Love" was written by The Beatles in 1967 and performed as Britain's entry in a global TV show, "Our World".

With appreciation to: Listen to Her Voice, by Miki Raver; Sarah Laughed, by Dr. Vanessa Ochs; Reading the Women of the Bible, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky; and The Women’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Carol Newsom and Sharon Ringe.

Appendix A: Rachel and Leah as Readers’ Theatre

Act 1

Scene 1

Narrator 1: Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the Easterners. There before his eyes was a well in the open. Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for the flocks were watered from that well.

Narrator 2: The stone on the mouth of the well was large. When all the flocks were gathered there, the stone would be rolled from the mouth of the well and the sheep watered; then the stone would be put back in its place on the mouth of the well.

Jacob: My friends, where are you from?

Shepherds: We are from Haran.

Jacob: Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?

Shepherds: Yes, we do.

Jacob: Is he well?

Shepherds: Yes, he is; and there is his daughter Rachel, coming with the flock.

Jacob: It is still broad daylight, too early to round up the animals; water the flock and take them to pasture.

Shepherds: We cannot, until all the flocks are rounded up; then the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well and we water the sheep.

Scene 2

Narrator 1: While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s flock—for she was its shepherd. And when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the flock of his uncle Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his uncle Laban.

Narrator 2: Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and broke into tears. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father. On hearing the news of his sister’s son Jacob, Laban ran to greet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and took him into his house. He told Laban all that had happened,

Laban: You are truly my bone and flesh.

Act 2

Scene 1

Narrator 1: After he had stayed with him a month’s time…

Laban: Just because you are a kinsman, should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?

Narrator 2: Laban had two daughters; the name of the older one was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes; Rachel was shapely and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel.

Jacob: I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.

Laban: Better that I give her to you than that I should give her to an outsider. Stay with me.

Narrator 1: Jacob served seven years for Rachel.

Narrator 2: They seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

Scene 2

Jacob: Laban, give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her.

Narrator 1: Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a feast. When evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob.

Narrator 2: Jacob cohabited with Leah. Laban had given his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.

Scene 3

Narrator 1: When morning came, there was Leah!

Jacob: What is this you have done to me? I was in your service for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?

Laban: It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the older. (27) Wait until the bridal week of this one is over and we will give you that one too, provided you serve me another seven years.

Narrator 2: Jacob did so; he waited out the bridal week of the one, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as wife.

Narrator 1: Laban had given his maidservant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.

Narrator 2: And Jacob cohabited with Rachel also; indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served Laban another seven years.

Act 3

Scene 1

Narrator 1: Seeing that Leah was unloved, G-d opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son, and named him Reuben.

Leah: It means: ‘G-d has seen my affliction’; it also means: ‘Now my husband will love me.’

Narrator 2: She conceived again and bore a son.

Leah: This is because G-d heard that I was unloved and has given me this one also.

Narrator 1: So she named him Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son.

Leah: This time my husband will become attached to me, for I have borne him three sons.

Narrator 2: Therefore he was named Levi. She conceived again and bore a son.

Leah: This time I will thank G-d.

Narrator 1: Therefore she named him Judah.

Narrator 2: Then she stopped bearing.

Scene 2

Narrator 1: When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister.

Rachel: Give me children, or I shall die.

Jacob (incensed): Can I take the place of God, who has denied you fruit of the womb?

Rachel: Here is my maid Bilhah. Consort with her, that she may bear on my knees and that through her I too may have children.

Narrator 2: So she gave him her maid Bilhah as concubine, and Jacob cohabited with her. Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

Rachel: God has vindicated me; indeed, God has heeded my plea and given me a son.

Narrator 1: Therefore she named him Dan. Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Rachel: A fateful contest I waged with my sister; yes, and I have prevailed.

Narrator 2: So she named him Naphtali.

Scene 3

Narrator 1: When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as concubine. Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

Leah: What luck!

Narrator 2: So she named him Gad.

Narrator 1: Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

Leah: What fortune!

Narrator 2: She meant: “Women will deem me fortunate.” So she named him Asher.

Scene 4

Narrator 1: Once, at the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben came upon some mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah.

Rachel: Leah, please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.

Leah: Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you would also take my son’s mandrakes?

Rachel: I promise, he shall lie with you tonight, in return for your son’s mandrakes.

Narrator 2: Jacob came home from the field in the evening and Leah went out to meet him.

Leah: You are to sleep with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.

Narrator 1: Jacob lay with her that night. God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Leah: God has given me my reward for having given my maid to my husband.

Narrator 2: So she named him Issachar. Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

Leah: God has given me a choice gift; this time my husband will exalt me, for I have borne him six sons.

Narrator 1: So she named him Zebulun.

Narrator 2: Last, Leah bore Jacob a daughter, and named her Dinah.

Scene 5

Narrator 1: Now God remembered Rachel; God heeded her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son.

Rachel: God has taken away my disgrace.

Narrator 2: So she named him Joseph, which is to say, “May G-d add another son for me.”

Act 4

Scene 1

Narrator 1: Now Jacob heard the things that Laban’s sons were saying.

Laban’s Sons: Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from that which was our father’s he has built up all this wealth.

Narrator 2: Jacob also saw that Laban’s manner toward him was not as it had been in the past.

G-d: Jacob, return to your ancestors’ land—where you were born—and I will be with you.”

Narrator 1: Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field, where his flock was,

Jacob: I see that your father’s manner toward me is not as it has been in the past. But the God of my fathers has been with me. As you know, I have served your father with all my might; but your father has cheated me, changing my wages time and again. God, however, would not let him do me harm. If he said thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks would drop speckled young; and if he said thus, ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks would drop streaked young. God has taken away your father’s livestock and given it to me. “Once, at the mating time of the flocks, I had a dream in which I saw that the he-goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled. And in the dream a messenger of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ ‘Here,’ I answered. And the messenger said, ‘Note well that all the he-goats which are mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have noted all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now, arise and leave this land and return to your native land.’

Rachel and Leah: Have we still a share in the inheritance of our father’s house? Surely, he regards us as outsiders, now that he has sold us and has used up our purchase price. Truly, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, do just as God has told you.

Narrator 1: Thereupon Jacob put his children and wives on camels.

Narrator 2: He drove off all his livestock and all the wealth that he had amassed, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

Scene 2

Narrator 1: Meanwhile Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household idols. Jacob kept Laban the Aramean in the dark, not telling him that he was fleeing, and fled with all that he had. Soon he was across the Euphrates and heading toward the hill country of Gilead.

Narrator 2: On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. So he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days, catching up with him in the hill country of Gilead. But God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night.

G-d: Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.”

Narrator 1: Laban overtook Jacob.

Narrator 2: Jacob had pitched his tent on the Height, and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilead.

Laban: What did you mean by keeping me in the dark and carrying off my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead me and not tell me? I would have sent you off with festive music, with timbrel and lyre. You did not even let me kiss my progeny good-by! It was a foolish thing for you to do. I have it in my power to do you harm; but the God of your fathers said to me last night, ‘Beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.’

Scene 3

Laban: Very well, you had to leave because you were longing for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?

Jacob: I was afraid because I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive! In the presence of our kin, point out what I have of yours and take it.

Narrator 1: Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Narrator 2: So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find them. Leaving Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent.

Narrator 1: Rachel, meanwhile, had taken the idols and placed them in the camel cushion and sat on them; and Laban rummaged through the tent without finding them.

Rachel: Let not my lord take it amiss that I cannot rise before you, for I am in a womanly way.

Narrator 2: Thus Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

Scene 4

Narrator 1: Now Jacob became incensed and took up his grievance with Laban.

Jacob: What is my crime, what is my guilt that you should pursue me? You rummaged through all my things; what have you found of all your household objects? Set it here, before my kin and yours, and let them decide between us two. These twenty years I have spent in your service, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, nor did I feast on rams from your flock. That which was torn by beasts I never brought to you; I myself made good the loss; you exacted it of me, whether snatched by day or snatched by night. Often, scorching heat ravaged me by day and frost by night; and sleep fled from my eyes. Of the twenty years that I spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you changed my wages time and again. Had not the God of my father—the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac—been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But it was my plight and the toil of my hands that God took notice of—and gave judgment on last night.

Laban: The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine. Yet what can I do now about my daughters or the children they have borne? Come, then, let us make a pact, you and I, that there may be a witness between you and me.

Narrator 2: Thereupon Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

Jacob: Kinsmen, gather stones.

Narrator 1: So they took stones and made a mound; and they partook of a meal there by the mound. Laban named it Yegar-sahaduta, but Jacob named it Gal-ed.

Laban: This mound is a witness between you and me this day.

Narrator 2: That is why it was named Gal-ed; and it was also called Mizpah.

Laban: May G-d watch between you and me, when we are out of sight of each other. If you ill-treat my daughters or take other wives besides my daughters—though no one else be about, remember, it is God who will be witness between you and me. Here is this mound and here the pillar which I have set up between you and me: this mound shall be witness and this pillar shall be witness that I am not to cross to you past this mound, and that you are not to cross to me past this mound and this pillar, with hostile intent. May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor —our ancestral deities—judge between us.

Narrator 1: And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. Jacob then offered up a sacrifice on the Height, and invited his kinsmen to partake of the meal.

Narrator 2: After the meal, they spent the night on the Height. Early in the morning, Laban kissed his progeny and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward.

Act 5

Narrator 1: Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, with a retinue of four hundred. He divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids, putting the maids and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

Narrator 2: He himself went on ahead and bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near his brother.

Act 6

Narrator 1: They set out from Bethel; but when they were still some distance short of Ephrat, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her:

Midwife: Have no fear, for it is another boy for you.

Narrator 2: But as she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. Thus Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Efrat—now Bethlehem. Over her grave Jacob set up a pillar; it is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day.

Epilogue

Narrator 1: Jacob gave instructions to his sons.

Jacob: I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site— there Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah— the field and the cave in it, bought from the Hittites.

Narrator 2: When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered to his kin.

Appendix B: Thoughts on Rachel and Leah from Miron Hirsch

5) The other possibility is that these duda’im were mandrakes. In which case we all wonder-- What the hell makes mandrakes so special that these tzarot-/co-wives are willing to trade their husband’s attentions over them?

Fertility. They were supposed to insure fertility. It is the only explanation that makes sense.

Not that they worked as fertility medicine, Rachel may have been wrong about them- but people who consumed parts of the plant knew they sure did something. Just consider the list of pharmacological agents this plant can produce. I’m sure you have a copy of the October 2005 edition of , Phytochemistry Volume 66, Issue 20, and you can read for yourself the fantastic

paper titled “Substances isolated from Mandragora species.” By Lumír O.Hanuš, Tomáš Řezanka, Jaroslav Spížek, Valery

M.Dembitsky. in this They isolated 80 chemically active or notable substances, including:

“ Alkaloids present in the fresh plant or the dried root included atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine (hyoscine), scopine, cuscohygrine, apoatropine, 3-alpha-tigloyl-oxytropane, 3-alpha,6-beta-di-tigloyl-oxytropane and belladonnines. Non-alkaloid constituents included sitosterol and beta-methyl-esculetin (scopoletin)."

The mandrake contains chemicals that are used in modern pharmacies to this day. What else is in them?

A host of other compounds: fatty esters, narcotic compounds and coumarins, which we also heard about from actual doctors. Coumarins are not only medicinally powerful, they are fragrance elements- part of one of the five tradiational groupings of fragrances for men- in this case, Fougère, which you have smelled in Paco Rabbane, Boss by Hugo Boss, and Drakkar Noir.

These are real compounds with real medical benefits and dangers. In addition to a smell that perfume and cologne experts compare to the strongest red apple, ancient peoples knew mandrakes had powerful medicinal properties. And before you say that their ability to derive any form of medicine from them is foolish speculation, I would point out that our ancestors and their host civilizations knew how to reduce a chemical reaction in order to make dyes like techeylet and argaman colorfast. They could make alloys and pigments none of us in this room could make. So let us not be so sure they could not unlock some of the pharmacopeia that lies within this plant’s fruits and roots.

Which means that at the least, there were any number of possible effects that would make everyone in the Levant who knew of mandrakes think they were effective with infertility. And at the time of wheat harvest- to find these plants in bloom or giving fruit (full of psychoactive seeds) was to find them early in the season. The first to use the fruit would be the first to bear fruit.

6) Either way, this exchange is brutal. Rachel, desperate, gives Laeh the one thing Laeh craves, Jacob’s attention, knowing it will probably lead to her further humiliation as her sister Laeh will surely bear more children after this. But Rachel will get those mandrakes and their fertility powers she craves so desperately. And Rachel has already begged Jacob to give her children, sent in her handmaiden as a proxy to give her children, and now she is sending Jacob to sleep with her sister for the chance to have children.

Leah, in contrast has to stoop to negotiate for a drop – just a drop of the affection she craves, which Rachel dispenses with such ease. Rachel does not even need to name Jacob-- very well, he will lay with you tonight. Both women have sources of power over the other and both are miserable for it.