Yaakov Avinu marries two sisters. How is that permissible? Well, let's ask ourselves another question: Why is it forbidden to marry two sisters? The Torah says—but it's a very strange issur (forbidden)—that you're only not allowed to marry two sisters when they're both alive. But if a person is married to Rachel and then, God forbid, Rachel dies, it's okay to marry Leah, which you don't find with any other forbidden relationship. If two sisters are forbidden, it should always be forbidden. Why is it okay to marry the other sister after one dies? This is the question of a great rabbi, the Sefer HaChinuch. Sefer HaChinuch says something incredible. He says, “You know why? The Torah is very pleasant, and the Torah knows that there’s no closer relationship—or there shouldn’t be a closer relationship—than between two sisters. That’s a very close relationship. If you have daughters and they get along with each other, and they’re always going together, shopping together, and visiting their mother together, and, ayin hara (evil eye), in the family we see the daughters always doing things together. It’s a nice thing. And what would happen if two sisters were married to the same husband? It would cause friction between them. It would cause a lot of tension, jealousy, and envy. Now they have to share the same husband. It would break that natural bond that sisters have and should have. So the Torah says, ‘Do not put them together.’ It’s toxic. But according to that, once one of them dies, then it’s no problem for the other sister to marry the same man. And Sefer HaChinuch says, ‘On the contrary, it’s actually better because she’ll raise her sister’s children. Who’s better to raise the children than the aunt?’ And therefore, that’s the logic behind why it’s forbidden. When they’re alive, it’ll be too acrimonious. However, when one of them passes, then it should be okay.”
So Yaakov Avinu wants to get married. Who does he want to marry? He wants to marry Rachel. He didn’t intend to marry two sisters. He wanted to marry Rachel, so he has to work for seven years. Just to point out, Yaakov is a working boy. So when you’re thinking about Shidduchim (matchmaking), you know, “I won’t take a working boy.” Yaakov Avinu worked for seven years, so you shouldn’t think it’s so bad to go to work. I know he also learned for 77 years, but he also went to work.
What happens? On the wedding night, of course, he’s expecting Rachel. He’s going to marry Rachel, and Lavan pulls the famous switcheroo. He says, “No, we don’t do that in our country over here. We don’t give the younger girl before the older girl.” He puts Leah under the chuppah (wedding canopy). She’s wearing, I guess, a very, very heavy veil, and Yaakov doesn’t realize it. It says that in the morning, when he woke up and the sun came out, he looked up. In the morning, she was Leah, which means he didn’t know she was Leah at night. So he says to Leah, “But when I asked you under the chuppah, ‘Are you Rachel?’ you said yes. Why did you lie to me?” She says, “I learned from you. When your father asked you, ‘Are you Esav?’ you said yes. So therefore, only you could fool around.” So she got him. That was the first fight they had, the first machloket (fight) in Sheva Berachot.
What happens? She says, “But I don’t understand. Rachel and I had signs. We knew this was going to happen, or we suspected that Lavan was going to pull a chicanery like this, so we made signals.” “How did you know the signals?” She says, “Well, Rachel gave me the signals.” Yaakov Avinu says, “What kind of lady is Rachel? She gave up her husband to her sister.” This lady has such a level of oneness with her sister that she’s willing to give him up. So Yaakov Avinu saw that the law of two sisters does not apply in this case, because Rachel is so in love with her sister and has so much non-competitiveness that she’s even willing to give him up. So Yaakov Avinu says, “If the whole reason why you can’t marry two sisters is because of the acrimony, it doesn’t apply in this case. It doesn’t apply.” Rachel gave Yaakov to her sister. So therefore, he allowed himself.
Now watch what happens. At a certain point in the marriage, all of a sudden, what enters the marriage? Something that the rabbis or the Torah was concerned about: jealousy. At a certain point in the marriage, the pasuk (verse) says that Rachel became jealous. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a problem, because if she becomes jealous, that’s the whole reason why you can’t marry two sisters. So therefore, what does she tell Yaakov? “You better settle the score and get me children. Because if you don’t get me children, guess what’s going to have to happen? I’m going to have to die, because you’re not going to be allowed to be married to two sisters. Because once there’s jealousy, now it’s forbidden. That’s the whole reason why the Torah forbade it. So therefore, make it fair. But if you don’t, I cannot live now with a rival wife that I’m jealous of. The Torah does not allow that. And therefore, since I’m the second wife, so therefore, I’m not going to marry you.”