Ilustration Credit: Rebecca Kerzner
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
How far would you go to prevent someone from being embarrassed?
וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר וְהִנֵּה הִוא לֵאָה
When morning came, it was Leah!
Sometimes a bride wears a veil when she gets married, and it might be hard to see her face. Lavan tried to use that to trick Yaakov into marrying Leah, and it worked! This pasuk describes Yaakov’s surprise when he wakes up the morning after his wedding and discovers that it was Leah, and not Rahel, that he married.
The Talmud suggests that this happened even after Rahel warned Yaakov that Lavan was a trickster.
אֲמַר לַהּ: וּמַאי רַמָּיוּתָא?
אֲמַרָה לֵיהּ: אִית לִי אֲחָתָא דְּקַשִּׁישָׁא מִינַּאי וְלָא מַנְסֵיב לִי מִקַּמַּהּ.
מְסַר לַהּ סִימָנִים.
כִּי מְטָא לֵילְיָא, אֲמַרָה: הַשְׁתָּא מִיכַּסְפָא אֲחָתַאי. מְסַרְתִּינְהוּ נִיהֲלַהּ.
Yaakov said to Rahel: What kind of trick might Lavan do?
She said: I have an older sister, and my father might not marry me off before she gets married. So Yaakov gave code words to Rahel, so he would know that it was really her.
When the wedding night arrived, Rahel said to herself: Now my sister will be embarrassed (if Yaakov asks for the code and she doesn’t know it), so Rahel gave the code words to Leah.
- If Rahel and Yaakov had a good solution to make sure Yaakov would know if Rahel was behind the veil or not, why would Rahel give away the code and let Leah marry Yaakov?
- If you were Leah, how would you have felt if Yaakov asked you for the secret code, thinking you were Rahel, and you didn’t know it?
- What is the Talmud trying to teach us about the importance of making sure other people are not embarrassed? Why is this such an important value?
- Have you seen other people be embarrassed before? What can you do to help prevent that from happening?
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