Dear Leah (A Letter from Your Sister, Rachel)

Parashat Vayetzei, Genesis 28:10–32:3

David Wein, Tikvat Israel Messianic Synagogue, Richmond, VA

Dear Leah,

It humbles me now to think of how I acted when we were young. I was desperate and childless, and children are the blessing of God and the hope of our inheritance. I pleaded with Jacob, our husband, for a child. We believed that mandrakes would make us fertile, and tried to use them as bargaining tools to spend the night with Jacob! You had many sons, among them Levi and Judah. I had only Joseph and later Benjamin. So much jealousy and blame-shifting, but we’re in good company. Our brother-in-law, Esau, knew all about that. I guess it’s fear—maybe there’s not enough blessing from God. Maybe there won’t be enough love from Jacob. 

It’s funny, but when we fled from our father in the middle of the night—which was obviously Jacob’s idea—I . . . I don’t know why, but I took some of my father’s teraphim, his household idols, and hid them beneath me while I was on my camel. I never told you that, but that’s why our father, Laban, came after us and ransacked your tent and mine. Maybe it’s because I didn’t want him to use the idols to find us, or maybe because I was concerned about the property inheritance that they represented, or maybe I relied on them to a certain degree—which is wrong, I know. But desperation and fear gave way once again to deception and blame-shifting. I was in a tough situation, and I didn’t handle it well, and I’m sorry. 

Little did I know how my actions would affect the lives of our children and our descendants. When I left this world, Benjamin my son entered it. And I’m so thankful for my elder son, Joseph, for his commitment to forgive. I’m kvelling, I know, but he was in a position of prominence, the prime minister of Egypt, and instead of revenge, he brought salvation from the famine. It was through my own son Joseph that I learned another path than the one I had chosen with you, Leah. 

There were glimpses of this Joseph sort of choice throughout the history of our descendants. Your son Moses was a Levite, a son of Levi. And this Moses, son of Levi, saved all the sons of Israel, kind of like my Joseph did for Levi. And when God told him he couldn’t enter into the promise of Abraham, our grandfather, to inherit the land, Moses was heartbroken. But your son, Moses, trained up my son Joshua, son of Ephraim, son of Joseph. Moses took the humble way, the Joseph way, because he knew the people would need a leader in the land after he came to rest with his fathers. 

But our sons frequently went the other way as well, making the same mistakes I made. It grieved me so when the sons of Benjamin . . . with a son of Levi in the town square, they . . . I can’t really even talk about it. But it led to the sons of Benjamin being destroyed by the hand of Hashem and by their brothers. Those were dark times, when everyone did whatever they wanted to, whatever seemed good in their own eyes, and there was no king.

I guess when Hashem is not our king, it leads to hatred of our brothers and sisters. Everyone’s just trying to rule over and control everyone else. On the other hand, morality and justice seem to go with humility and respect for the Kingship of God in our story, don’t they? 

And then, we finally had a king, the mighty and impetuous King Saul, son of Benjamin, son of mine, who went mad with fear, power, and jealousy—he really took a play out of my notebook, I guess. 

Your son was David, son of Judah, son of Leah. And they sang songs about him:

Saul, the son of Rachel, has slain his thousands,

But David, the son of Leah, the humble shepherd boy, has slain his tens of thousands. 

David showed his character when he played music on the harp to soothe my son, Saul, even when Saul was throwing spears at him. What madness. But as with my firstborn, Joseph, who turned things around, it was Saul’s firstborn, Jonathan, who did the same. Remember, it was Jonathan son of Saul, not David, who was next in line to be king. And Saul, son of Benjamin, son of mine—raged against his own son, Jonathan: 

You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse—to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure.

That’s true, in a way, isn’t it? As long as the son of Jesse, David, lives, the kingdom of Saul is not secure. It’s like only one kingdom can stand. Either the kingdom of Saul (made of fear, anger, and jealousy) or the kingdom of David (which, because of covenantal love, Jonathan puts ahead of his own rights to the throne). Jonathan, son of mine, gave up his inheritance and his power because of his love for David, son of yours.

I could speak more of our sons and daughters, but I just want to mention one more of your sons. 

This son of Judah, son of yours, Leah; there was no one like him, and there will never be another; he was the promised descendent of David, the Messiah and King. He followed the way of Joseph and Moses, in humility and putting his brothers before himself. 

My son, the Apostle Paul, son of Benjamin, son of Rachel, said this about your son: “For to me, to live is Messiah and to die is gain.”

In other words, everything that Paul has—his whole life—belongs to the Messiah, son of Judah. It’s not about Paul’s kingdom, but about the Son of David’s kingdom. Because the Son of Judah, the Son of Leah, put our needs before his own. He thought of our lives, and said that this was more important than his life. For us to have healing and joy and eternal life was more important to him than his own. I hope that our children will learn from his example. I have learned so much from him. Our children must humble themselves, and seek to bless and rescue their brothers. I think my son Paul said it best:

Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua,

Who, though existing in the form of God,

did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.

But He emptied Himself—

taking on the form of a slave,

becoming the likeness of men

and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled Himself—

becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

For this reason God highly exalted Him

and gave Him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow,

in heaven and on the earth and under the earth,

and every tongue profess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord—

to the glory of God the Father.

My hope is that our descendants would learn from my mistakes, and be more like my sons Joseph and Paul, and more like your sons Joshua, King David, and Yeshua. That they would choose the way of humility and, rather than hoarding blessings, seek to be a blessing. That the kingdom of Saul would pass away, and the kingdom of your son would be established always. In that way, I am now finally deferring to you, Leah.  

Your sister always,

Rachel