The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand began the vort by quoting the famous Medrash in Eicha in which the patriarchs individually prayed that Hashem would end the galus. This began with Avraham praying and saying that in the z'chus of his sacrificing Yitzchak, Hashem should end the galus and Hashem said, no. Yitzchak then prayed and said that the galus should end in the z'chus that he did not challenge his father over the akeidah and Hashem said, no. Ya'akov too prayed and asked for the end of galus in the z'chus of his actions in the house of Lavan and Hashem said, no. Even Moshe prayed and asked that the galus end in the z'chus that he led the Jews in the desert for 40 years and Hashem said, no. Until Rochel prayed and said that the galus should end in the z'chus that she gave her sister the signs and helped her trick Ya'akov so that Leah would not be embarrassed, and for this Hashem agreed that there would be an end.
Although I had heard this Medrash from R' Frand before, he added a little more to his discussion of Rochel's plea. He mentioned that Rochel said to Hashem - I loved my husband and we made signs so that my father would not be able to trick Ya'akov. But I had rachmanos on my sister and gave her the signs so that she would not be embarrassed. And I am flesh and blood and I had rachmanos on my sister. You are not flesh and blood, but You are jealous of the idol which was brought into the first Beis Hamikdash? Hashem responded - I will have rachmanos and there will be an end to the galus.
R' Frand quoted R' Elya Baruch Finkel who asked - if Akeidas Yitzchak was not enough to convince Hashem to end the galus, why do we pray on Rosh Hashanah that the Akediah should be remembered with mercy? Instead we should pray that Rochel's giving the signs to her sister should be remembered!
R' Frand gave an introduction to his answer by first noting that Rochel was answered because she was m'vater. And a person does not get credit for being m'vater if they are wrong, they get rewarded for remaining quiet when they are right. This was why Rochel was answered, because she brought a tzarah - a rival - into her house and was m'vater on her husband. R' Frand observed that a tzarah is a difficult situation to deal with and it was for this reason that R' Gershon banned multiple wives for Ashekenzic jewry.
Furthermore, by allowing Leah to marry first, Rochel put herself in the vulnerable position of being the first wife's sister. According to post Sinai law, a man is not allowed to marry sisters and must divorce the second. The meforshim are bothered by how Ya'akov who kept the entire Torah could have married sisters, and the Ramban answers that he kept the entire Torah inside the land of Israel...which is why Rochel died as they were approaching the land of Israel. By giving the signs to her sister, she hastened her own death and even caused herself to be buried separate from her beloved.
R' Frand also observed that in the story of the duda'im flowers, when Leah says to her in Bereishis 30:15 - that "you have taken my husband", Rochel again is quiet when she could have said - how do you have the nerve to say "my husband." The Ba'alei Musar learn that Leah did not even know that she was being taught the signs which were the code words uttered in their marital chamber of nidah, challah and hadlakas ha'ner. These were taught to her surreptitiously by Rochel, who kept the true purpose from Leah as to not embarrass her.
R' Frand stated that this is the reason that we don't mention Rochel and we do mention the akeidah. The akeidah itself was a greater zechus for klal yisrael, but the act of being m'vater was parallel to the situation that Hashem was k'vaychol dealing with. Rochel said to Hashem - this idol cannot be a greater tzarah to You then me allowing my sister to marry by husband and Hashem responded yes, you were merachem and so will I.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment