![]() The last one to appear, and the only woman in the midrash, is Rachel, who rebukes God for unleashing destruction and exile against her children because of unwarranted jealousy over idol worship. Unlike Ishmael and Esau, who go on to father their own separate tribes, both Rachel and Leah and their respective handmaidens birth the tribes that make up one nation, the children of Yisrael, all united under the umbrella of Jacob. ![]() Rachel and Leah are unique among all of the stories in that they remain together in the same household married to the same man until Rachel dies tragically in childbirth. But in that story, Sarai as chief wife and mother of Isaac, is ultimately able to prevail by sending Hagar and her son away. Hagar and Sarai, in one of the previous stories, already reflect a complex interplay between two women grappling for primacy in the household of Abraham. Leah and Rachel are not the first female pair to find themselves in conflict. The book of Genesis is filled with the inherent tension built into sibling relationships, from Cain and Abel to Yitzhak and Ishmael and most importantly, Esau and Jacob, twins emerging from the same womb already locked in struggle from birth onward. ![]() NOTE! Consider delaying until first div on page If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.pubads()) (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) ![]() The twinned relationship of Leah and Rachel - The Jerusalem Post ![]()
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