Rachel and Leah

ב"ה

How Sisters Became Wives and Mothers

There are three Patriarchs and four Matriarchs in the Bible. That's because Yaakov (Jacob) had two wives. These two wives were sisters and their husband was their (first) cousin. When Yaakov upset his hunter brother Eisav (Esau) and had to flee for his life, his mother Rivka (Rebeka) sent him to her brother Lavan (Laban). As Yaakov got closer to his uncle's home, he saw a shepherdess trying to get a huge rock off the top of a well. There were men nearby, but instead of helping her, they were taunting her. Yaakov saw her and fell in love immediately and the strength of his love gave him the physical power to lift the heavy stone on his own.

Rachel and Lea

When Yaakov upset his hunter brother Eisav (Esau) and had to flee for his life, his mother Rivka (Rebeka) sent him to her brother Lavan (Laban). As Yaakov got closer to his uncle's home, he saw a shepherdess trying to get a huge rock off the top of a well. There were men nearby, but instead of helping her, they were taunting her. Yaakov saw her and fell in love immediately and the strength of his love gave him the physical power to lift the heavy stone on his own. After helping her, he discovered that the shepherdess was his cousin Rahael (Rachel). Yaakov went home with Rahael to his uncle Lavan's home where he told Lavan he wanted to marry Rahael. Lavan, crafty character that he was, decided that in order to marry his daughter, Yaakov would have to work for 7 years. Yaakov agreed and they were married. Or so Yaakov thought until the morning after the wedding when he discovered that he had married Rahael's sister Lea. Lea, the commentators tell us, thought she would have to marry Eisav, an evil man who she thought would treat her badly, so she cried. This made her eyes look red and reduced her natural beauty. When Yaakov realized he'd been tricked, he went to Lavan who acted as though he hadn't known which sister Yaakov had wanted to marry. But, he told Yaakov, he would give him Rahael if he would work another 7 years. Yaakov agreed to that also. After the 14 years and his marriage to Rahael, Yaakov worked several more years (6 or 7 depending on the source) to accumulate enough wealth to support his large family (Lea was mother to 6 sons and a daughter -- Reuven (Ruben), Shimon (Simon), Levi, Yehuda (Judah), Yissachar, Zevulun (Zebulon) and Dina, Rahael was mother to Yosef (Joseph) and Binyamin (Benjamin) and their maids were mothers to 4 sons total -- Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher). Yaakov and his family headed back toward Israel, but they were stopped by Lavan's workers and accused of stealing Lavan's idols. Yaakov professed his innocence but Rahael was hiding the idol, hoping her father would turn away from his idol worship so she took the idol. It was a good thing, though, that Lea was there and was a good mother because Rahael died as the family was about to enter Israel (she was buried on the road and her spirit cried for her children when the nation of Israel was exiled from the land of Israel by the Babylonians after the destruction of the first Temple). Lea took over and was mother to all 13 children. She was a helpmate to Yaakov. Lea is buried next to Yaakov in the cave of Mahpela in Hevron (Hebron).

Miriam the Prophet

ב"ה

During the 40 years that the Children of Israel were in the desert (and even before), Miriam acted as a leader of the Women. When G-d saved the Children of Israel from destruction at the hands of the Egyptians, Miriam led the women in songs of praise thanking G-d.

Miriam the Prophetess

A Leader for Her People

Miriam started off life working for the women of Israel as a midwife. She helped get her parents back together by reminding her father that Pharaoh had decreed on the boys and he was "decreeing" on the girls too (her father, Amram, had separated from her mother, Yocheved, because Pharaoh had decreed that all boys born to the Children of Israel would be put to death by being thrown into the Nile River). Miriam was watching her brother Moshe (Moses) when their mother put him in a basket in the Nile River. Miriam noticed that the daughter of Pharaoh (called Batya or Bitya by commentaries) when she found Moshe and Miriam jumped up and told Batya that she knew a good wet nurse and Batya agreed to use Yocheved as a wet nurse for Moshe. Miriam's role in the community grew as she did. When her brother Moshe was leader of the people, she was a spiritual "Mother" to her people. When the Children of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt, the Egyptians followed them to the Yam Suf (generally translated as the Red Sea) and the Sea opened up for the Children of Israel to pass through but then came down on the Egyptians. After the men sang in thanks to G-d for their redemption and for saving them from death at the hands of the Egyptians, Miriam took the women and they sang and danced, praising and thanking G-d. During the time that the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years, they had a well and that was on Miriam's merit. When Miriam died, the well disappeared. Miriam was a shining light to the people and an example to the women of a strong woman, one who was a leader in a time when female leaders were few. She stands to us, 3000+ years later, as a image of what being a woman means.

Rivka, Mother of Twins

ב"ה

Rivka (Rebecca) was raised by a man who was a liar and a cheater but she was kind enough to bring water for Eliezer and his donkey. Eliezer, Avraham's (Abraham's) servant, was sent to find a bride for son Yitzhak (Isaac). When Eliezer got close, he asked G-d for a sign -- he said that he would know he had found the right life-partner for Yitzhak when he found a young woman who would offer him water and also offer water to his camel.

Rivka, Mother of Twins

Each Twin Represented a Nation

When Avraham (Abraham) decided it was time for his son Yitzhak (Isaac) to marry, Avraham sent his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for Yitzhak. Avraham sent Eliezer to his family in Ur. Rivka (Rebecca) offered to give water to Eliezer and his camel. Eliezer decided this was the right woman for his master's son. Rivka and Yitzhak married and Rivka prayed for children. She became pregnant with twins. The twins fought with each other in the womb. When they were born, the first son came out, he was hairy and everyone called him Esav (Esau), which meant hairy. When the second son came out, he was holding the heel of the older son. His father,Yitzhak, called him Yaakov (Jacob) which came from the Hebrew word for heel. As they got older, Esav was a hunter and a killer and Yaakov was a learner. Yaakov wanted to get his father's blessing. But Yitzhak was fooled by Esav. Esav brought his father, who had gone blind, meat from animals he had hunted and treated him well. But Rivka saw that Yaakov was the good son and told him how to fool his father. Because Yitzhak had grown up in the house of Avraham and Sara, he only knew honesty. But Rivka was the daughter of Betuel, who was dishonest in business and so she knew how to counteract Esav's deceptions. Rivka saw to it that Yitzhak's blessing went to the appropriate son, Yaakov.

Yocheved, Moses's Mother

Yocheved -- Midwife and Mother

ב"ה

Yocheved was the Mother of Miriam, Aharon (Aaron) and Moshe (Moses) making her the Mother of Priests and Kings.

Yocheved, Mother of Moshe

Yocheved protected her son and helped raise him in Pharaoh's palace

Yocheved was the daughter of Yaakov (Jacob)'s son Levi. She was married to Levi's grandson Amram.

The couple had two children, Miriam and Aharon (Aaron) when Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, decreed that all Jewish males born would be thrown into the Nile River. Yocheved and her husband separated because they didn't want to lose a child to Pharaoh's decree. But Miriam reminded her father that Pharaoh only decreed on the boys, by separating from Yocheved, he was decreeing on the girls also.

Despite Pharaoh's decree, Yocheved and Miriam, who were midwives known as Shifra and Pua, saved the Jewish boys. So when Yocheved found out she was pregnant and then gave birth to a boy, she knew that she had to do something to protect him.

She took the baby and put him in a basket made of river reeds and put tar on it to make it waterproof. Then she put him in the basket and put the basket in the river. Yocheved and Miriam then kept an eye on him.

One morning, while they watched, Pharaoh's daughter (whom the commentaries call Batya) was washing in the river when she saw the baby in the basket. She reached out her hand to take him and decided to adopt him, naming him "Moshe" (Moses) because "min hamayim mishitihu" (she drew him from the water). Miriam saw this happen and ran over to Batya and suggested her mother Yocheved as a wet nurse for the baby. In this way, Yocheved and Miriamsaved Moshe's life, they ensured that he was raised properly.

The commentaries say that Yocheved was born as Yaakov and his family entered the gate of Egypt in Yoseph(Joseph)'s time. (It says in the Tora that 70 souls came down to Egypt but it only lists 69 and the commentaries say thatYocheved is the 70th.) This would make her motherhood even more amazing than Sara's motherhood at the age of 90. This would mean that Yocheved was 124 when Miriam was born, 127 when Aharon was born and 130 when Moshe was born! (The math goes as follows: The Children of Israel were in Egypt, from the time the 70 souls came down to Egypt, 210 years. Moshe was 80 years old when the Children of Israel left Egypt, therefore Yocheved, who was born as they came into the gates, was 210-80 or 130 when Moshe was born.)

The Ten Plagues -- The List

These are the ten plagues that G-d send on Egypt so that Pharaoh would "Let My People Go"!

1. Dahm -- דם -- Blood: The Nile River turned to blood for the Egyptians (but turned back to water for the Children of Israel)
2. Tzefardea -- צפרדי -- Frog: The singular is used here. It all started with one frog, but every time someone would hit the frog (in an effort to get rid of it), one frog became two, so they multiplied and multiplied
3. Kinim -- כינים -- Lice: The Egyptians were plagued with lice all over their bodies
4. Arove -- ערוב -- Wild Animals: Wild Animals were loose in the streets of Egypt
5. Dever -- דבר -- Cattle Disease: All the domesticated farm animals of the Egyptians started dying from this disease
6. Sh'hin -- שכין -- Boils: The Egyptians' bodies were covered with boils
7. Barad -- ברד -- Hail: To prove that this was miraculous hail, the large hailstones had fire coming out of the middle
8. Arbeh -- ארבה -- Locust: A plague of Locust spread over the crops of the Egyptians
9. Hoshekh -- חושך -- Darkness: This darkness, which worsened every three days, started as just visual darkness but, by the ninth day, was so thick that the Egyptians couldn't even move. But the Children of Israel were in light, just as any other day.
10. Makat B'Khorot -- מקת בכורות -- The Plague of the First Born: The first born sons of Egyptian families died in this plague. Even Pharaoh's first born died. This plague freaked Pharaoh out so much, not just because he lost a son, but also because Pharaoh himself was a first born. It was during this plague that Pharaoh told the people to leave.

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Ruth's Devotion

ב"ה

When Ruth's husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law all died suddenly, Ruth stayed with her mother-in-law Naomi even as her sister-in-law Orpa returned home.

"In the time the Judges were judging...", according to the biblical book of Ruth, a rich man named Elimelekh took his family to Moav (Moab) because there was a famine in Israel. His sons, Mahlon and Khilyon, married a couple of local women, Ruth and Orpa.

Ruth as a symbol of loyalty, devotion and love

By Staying with her Mother-in-Law, Ruth also Accepted the Tora

"In the time the Judges were judging...", according to the biblical book of Ruth, a rich man named Elimelekh took his family to Moav (Moab) because there was a famine in Israel. His sons, Mahlon and Khilyon, married a couple of local women, Ruth and Orpa.

Soon after, Elimelekh died. Then his sons died. The three women were left alone. Naomi, Elimelekh's wife, then decided to return home to Israel. Her daughters-in-law said they would go with her. Naomi told them both to go home to their families. Orpa kissed her good-bye and went home to her family. But Ruth vowed to remain with her saying "Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people will be my people, your G-d will be my G-d."

So Ruth and Naomi went back to Israel and lived together. Though Elimelekh had been rich, their wealth had been lost and Naomi and Ruth were very poor. So they had to go to the fields and pick the food that was left by the owners as charity.

When they went to one field, the owner, Boaz, saw Ruth. He noticed that she never took anything except from what he was required to leave by Jewish law. This attracted him because he saw that she was a moral person. He asked her to marry him and she did. Together, they had a son named Oved. Oved had a son named Yishai (Jesse) and Yishai's son was David. David was the second king of Israel, the king whose descendants were a dynasty.

Because Ruth accepted the Tora on herself, we read the book of Ruth on the holiday that the Children of Israel accepted the Tora -- Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks, which comes 7 weeks after Passover in the Jewish month of Sivan. Shavuot is one of the 3 Pilgrimage holidays during which the people would come to Jerusalem. These three holidays are Passover, Shavuot and (Sukkot).

It should be noted that Ruth was the granddaughter of Eglon, the king of Moav in the time of the Judge Ehud the son of Geira. Ehud was sent (by G-d) to kill Eglon (who was oppressing the Children of Israel). When Ehud came to the king (he was left-handed, so he was able to hide his sword on the right), he said he had a message from G-d. The king stood when he heard that Ehud had a message from G-d and Ehud killed him. But because he stood at the mention of G-d's name, he merited to be the ancestor of such a great woman as Ruth.

Devora, "Woman of the Flames"

B"H

Anyone who ever learned the book of Shoftim (Judges) knows the pattern:

"And the Children of Israel did evil in the eyes of G-d and they worshiped the Ba'al [a form of tree worship] And they left G-d, the G-d of their forefathers, who took them out of Egypt and they went after other gods, gods of the surrounding nations, and they bowed down to them and G-d was angry with them."

Shoftim (Judges) 2:11-12

"And the Children of Israel continued to do evil in the eyes of G-d and G-d strengthened Eglon the King of Moav [Moab] on Israel [for the reason that] they did evil in G-d's eyes."

Shoftim (Judges) 3:12

"And the Children of Israel cried out to G-d and G-d set up for them a redeemer Ehud the son of Geira and son of the tribe of Binyamin [Benjamin] left-handed [who put his sword on] his right side and the Children of Israel sent him to with a gift to Eglon the King of of Moav."

Shoftim (Judges) 3:15

"And Ehud sent out his left arm and he took the sword from his right hip and he thrust it into [Eglon]'s belly."

Shoftim (Judges) 3:21

In other words, the Children of Israel sin, G-d punishes them by sending a strengthened enemy, they cry to G-d, he sends a champion who routs the enemy and that's that... well, at least until the next time....

And that's the story all through the book of Shoftim.

One of stories that goes this way is the story of Devora [Deborah]. She is described:

"And Devora was a woman, a Prophetess, a woman of the flames, she judged Israel at that time"

Shoftim (Judges) 4:4

(The above translations are all my own interpretation of the Hebrew) Many people translate the "a woman of the flames" as "the wife of Lapidot". I prefer my translation. The Flames represent the Tora, so I believe this is a hint to all that Devora was learned in Tora law and could hold her own with any male judge.

Barak the son of Avinoam was the General of the Army and he wouldn't go to war without Devora by his side. Devora joined Barak and, with G-d's help, they defeated their enemies.

Devora then sang a song to G-d (in the same way as the generation that was released from slavery in Egypt sang a song to G-d at the Red Sea -- the woman also sang to G-d with dancing an tambourines). Because this song is similar to the song that the Children of Israel sang at the Red Sea, this portion is read as the Haftora the week the Red Sea song is read as the Tora portion (a Haftora is a portion of the Prophets that connects somehow to the Tora reading of the day).

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Tamar: The Mother of Kings

B"H

Yehuda (Judah) was the fourth son of Yaakov (Jacob). He married and had three sons. The oldest son, Er, married a woman named Tamar. But Er died without having any children. So Yehuda told his next son, Onan to marry her (this is called a Leverite Marriage -- a man marries his brother's childless widow to give her a child). According to the commentaries, Onan didn't want a child of his to be credited to his brother, so he "spilled his seed". Because of his selfishness, he died also.

Yehuda didn't want to lose another son, so he told Tamar that Sheila (Shay-luh), his third son, wasn't old enough to get married.

But this put Tamar in the position of not being permitted to get married to anyone and, therefore, she wouldn't have children. And she really wanted children.

So she dressed in clothes that the prostitutes wore and she stood where the prostitutes stand until Yehuda, her Father-in-law, who she believed owed her a child, came by. Because she normally dressed modestly, Yehuda didn't recognize her. He approached her and, thinking she was a prostitute, asked her what her "price" was and she said that all she wanted was his walking staff, his cloak and his signet ring.

After this, Tamar put on her modest widow's clothes and went back to her normal life. But soon after this, people started noticing that she was pregnant and they told Yehuda and asked him if he wanted them to bring her to them for punishment.

When Tamar heard that she would be put to death for adultery, she sent a messenger to Yehuda with his staff, cloak and ring and asked him if he, perchance, knew who those items belonged to.

Yehuda saw the items and right away realized that he was the father of Tamar's child. Yehuda told the people not to kill Tamar and that she was more righteous than he.

It turned out that Tamar had twins. She named them Peretz and Zerah.

In the book of Ruth (This original story was in B'reishit -- Genesis), it lists the descendants of Peretz -- Peretz had a son named Hetzron, who had a son named Ram, who had a son named Aminadav, who had a son named Nahshon (who was the Nasi -- Prince -- of the Tribe of Yehuda in the time when the Children of Israel wandered 40 years in the Desert).

Nahshon had a son named Shalma (or Shalmon), who had a son named Boaz, who married Ruth. They had a son named Oved, who had a son named Yishai (Jesse), who had a son named David. David was the second king of Israel and the founder of the Davidic Dynasty of kings of Israel and Judea and from whom the Moshiah (Messiah) will one day come.

Check out my squidoo lenses(articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
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Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
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