In this week’s Parasha, Vayese,
Yaakov Avinu is
seemingly swindled time and time again by Lavan. The major swindle came after he worked for seven years to get Rachel, and he's given Leah. And yet, when he gets up in the morning and sees Leah, it
says, “He said to Lavan...” It doesn't say he got angry, he just said
it, like he was talking about some stranger (Later on, when the pasuk tells us that Yaakov did
get angry at Rachel, when she said, “Give
me children,” there was a reason).
In this case, he was
swindled and he didn't get angry. Why didn't he get angry? Because Yaakov Avinu
believed, with Emunah Shelemah, that
it wasn’t Lavan doing this, it was God doing
this, so somehow it had to be good.
Now, we have the advantage that we are able to look back at these stories and see how it was good. That's our advantage. We can see what
ended up happening because of the switch.
We know that the switch caused Rachel to protect her sister's honor.
And even after Yaakov gave the simanim/signs and a code to Rachel, to make sure that she wouldn't be switched, she gave those signs to Leah. She literally was Motzer
Nefesh. She gave up her opportunity
to be a mother of Klal Yisrael.
She didn't know that Yaakov would work another seven years for her. She
went all the way out to protect her sister from embarrassment, and that ended up giving her the merit to have
children. As it says, VaYizkor Elohim
Et Rachel/ God remembered Rachel. Rashi asks, What did God remember? That she gave the Simanim over, and that's what caused her to have children.
Otherwise she never would've had children; She wouldn't have had Yosef and
Binyamin, whom we needed as part of Klal Yisrael. Furthermore, we know
that ultimately, God tells Rachel, “Don't
cry. There's a reward for you.” The Midrash says that after all the different greats
prayed for the Jewish people, they weren't answered. Only Rachel, who said, “God, it's not human to do what I did- to
be able to give up my spot to my sister, not be
jealous, and take a co-wife in. I
did that. And You're God. You're Divine,
and You're getting upset about the
idols, which are also like a co-wife being brought in. If I'm able to overcome
that, then You are able to overcome that.”
And Rachel’s prayers
were the only ones that were answered.
All of this was set up by Hashem in order to bring about the ultimate Geula.
This is a fundamental in our belief- to always see how even in what is seemingly is no good, Hashem has a plan. The Kedushat Levi points out
that Leah’s children were named with Hashem Reuven-
Because God saw my pain and now my
husband will like me. Shimon- Ki Sanua Anochi
Levi…even through the most difficult of times, of hated
pain, she mentions Hashem. Hashem saw,
Hashem will hear … She realized that everything that was happening was coming from Hashem and ultimately, in the end,
God will make us happy. Like the days that we suffered.
