Parashat Vayetzeh talks about the birth of the Shevatim, all 12 tribes, born through Rachel, Leah, Bilha and Zilpa.
The Torah describes how Rachel was an עקרה-- she didn’t have children. Leah had children. It describes how they go through great lengths to bring the Shevatim to the world, Leshem Shamayim.
There’s an interesting story about this, with a beautiful Alshech. I have to think Mr. Michael Safdie for sharing this Alshech with me.
The Alshech tells us the story of the Dudaim/jasmine.
Reuven saw that his mother Leah stopped having children, so he went out to the field and collected Dudaim which were thought to be a fertility drug, and brought them to his mother.
Rachel saw that Leah had the Dudaim and asked Leah for them. She said, “Give me a chance to have children.”
So, Leah gave them to her, but then Leah had children, which is odd. If anything, Rachel should have had children, as she had just gone through a fertility treatment. So why was Leah the one having the children? And furthermore, it was only after Leah had another two children or so that Rachel had a child. What is going on?
The Alshech says, in beautiful wording, that the Torah teaches us a great lesson in Emunah. In his words:
טוב לגבר לברוח מהשען על דברים טבעיים
It’s good for a man to run away from leaning on natural means
כי אם על ה’ לבדו
Rely and lean on G-d alone
כי מושיע אין בלתו יתברך לעד
Because there is no other savior but Him.
If you rely on Hashem, His healing comes fast. But when you rely on your own efforts, with natural means, you’ll be saved, but only when you realize that you made a mistake in your approach. He says our proof of this is Yosef HaSadik. Because he put too much emphasis on the wine steward, he had to wait two years to be released. The Alshech says that in those two years, Yosef realized his mistake. He realized that counting on the wine steward was a waste of time.
Once Yosef realized that he no longer could rely on the him, that is when
G-d saved him. The Alshech says that this is what went on here, with Rachel and Leah.
Reuven found the Dudaim, and gave them to his mother to help her have children. Rachel, in her great desire to have children, wanted the Dudaim as well.
So, what did Leah say? She wondered why she should rely on these natural fertility drugs. The Alshich points out a great chiddush: If you read carefully, it says that Rachel said give me “from the Dudaim of your son.” She didn’t ask for all of them, she just wanted Leah to share some of them with her. But when Leah answered, she referred to “all of the Dudaim”
And she told Yaakov, “I hired you with the Dudaim.” So, she gave all of them away. Why?
The Alshech answers that she did it to show that she relied totally on Hashem. Since she was relying totally on Hashem, she gave away all the Dudaim. And because she completely relied on Hashem, she had two sons and a daughter. It was because she gave away the Dudaim, and relied only on Hashem that the Yeshua/salvation came.
On the other hand, (we are talking about the Imahot so it’s hard to say this) Rachel put a little bit of reliance on the Dudaim, (we can’t blame her- she was trying to have children), and therefore Hashem made it that she had to wait, so that she wouldn’t think that it was the Dudaim that brought about her pregnancy. Once she realized that it was only Hashem, and she gave up her reliance on the Dudaim, that is when she had a child.
This is a tremendous, tremendous chiddush. We hear stories like this sometimes. I heard a few very recently and Rabbi Ashear had a story about this last week. There was a couple that was trying to have children. After they heard from the doctor that there was no hope, and after they gave up on their abilities, they sat and cried and relied on Hashem. Then, without any drugs or any fertility procedures they had a child! What happened? We hear these stories quite often. The doctor says that there is no hope, and then boom! They have a child. The Alshech says that Hashem did this couple a favor. He told him that there was no hope. He took away their reliance on anything except Hashem. And so, they had the ability to rely only on Hashem. As the Alshech says, if someone relies on Hashem alone, ארוכתו מהרה
His salvation is fast!
That’s what happens with these stories. The salvation is not ten months away, it’s the very next month.
That’s the power of relying totally on Hashem and not on natural means.
What a lesson we are learning from our Imahot! Our Imahot are teaching us the techniques of how to get what we want!
Of course, we have to go through the motions, but what are we relying on? Are we relying on our motions? Leah was on such a level that she threw them away totally. That is a high level.
But Bezrat Hashem we should reach some level of Bitachon where we realize that things come from Hashem only, and that is what brings the Yeshua.
Eveyone who is waiting for Yeshuot should have that realization fast. And once we have that realization, then B’ezrat Hashem the Yeshua comes.
Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.