Rachel and Leah

Once upon a time, there was a guy named Jacob. His father was Isaac and his mother Rebekah. Jacob had a twin brother older than him named Esau. One day before Isaac's death, he decided to bless his children according to birth right. Jacob knew that is brother was supposed to receive the blessing. He went and stole his brother's birthright and therefore he was blessed as the first born. After Esau found that out, he decided to kill his brother. Rebekah for the fear of losing her son sent Jacob to her brother Laban.

Rachel was a shepherd and Laban's second daughter. After Jacob arrived in Paddan-Aram, the region where Laban lived, he met Rachel when she took the sheep to get some water and he fell in love with her.

Jacob astonished by Rachel's beauty and kindness said, " Oh God! what a beautiful soul do i have in front of me, I wish i could take you as my wife. You know, I never believed in love at first sight but you proved me wrong. How can a man resist to your beauty? "

Rachel replied, " Thank you, I appreciate the compliment and you are such a handsome man too, but right now i am a little busy i have to give some water to the sheep and go back before dark."

Jacob said, " I won't take too much of your time, but I was wondering where can I find Laban? I heard that he is well known in this region. Do you know him by any chance? "

Rachel replied, " What a coincidence, Laban is my father. If you want you can help me giving water to the sheeps and once we done i will take you to him."

Jacob happy and in love said, " It will be my pleasure to help you with the sheeps. And i promise you, i will make you my wife and i will honor you."

After Rachel finished taking care of the sheeps, she took Jacob to her father and introduced him as Rebekah's son.

Leah, Rachel's sister, asked Rachel," Where did you find this handsome man?"

Rachel replied, "He actually found me when i was took the sheep to drink water."

Leah answered, " He might be mine, who knows!"

Rachel replied, "Don't start with your jealousy. He actually likes me."

Jacob and Laban were talking in the outside and he asked Laban, "I would like to have your daughter Rachel as my wife," and Laban said, "I will give you Rachel in one condition: you work for me for seven years." Jacob agreed to Laban's condition.

After the seven years, they celebrated the wedding feast, but that night it was dark, and Laban gave Leah instead of Rachel. The next morning Jacob realized it was not Rachel and it was Leah instead.

Jacob went and asked Laban, "Why did you not give me Rachel? I woke up by Leah's side."

Laban said, "It's not in the custom to marry the youngest before the first born. If you still want Rachel, you must work for me another seven years."

Another seven years passed and Jacob finally married his second wife Rachel. Rachel and Leah lived in the same house and Jacob loved them both but loved Rachel more. Rachel saw that Leah was giving Jacob children and she started to be jealous of her because she couldn't conceive. She tried very hard to have children, but she wasn't able. So, she decided to give her maid Bilhal to Jacob to have a child for her and Bilhal gave Jacob two children. Now that Rachel had two children through her maid, she was happy and felt like she was winning from her sister.

During the wheat harvest, one of the children of Leah, Reuben, found mandrakes and took it to his mother. But Rachel didn't have a grown child that could bring mandrakes for her. Rachel asked her sister Leah, but Leah replied to her jealous and angry, " Was it not enough stealing my husband now you want my mandrakes too?" That was a straight no from her sister. After Rachel begged Leah for the mandrakes, Leah proposed, " If you let me sleep with Jacob tonight I will give you some of the mandrakes."

Rachel agreed and Jacob slept with Leah that night and became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. After giving him that son, Leah felt like that it was her way to gain Jacob's respect, and thought that Jacob was going to love her more.

Rachel had been praying a lot to God and kept asking on her prayer for God to help conceive her own child. One day God answered her prayer and Rachel got pregnant from Jacob and gave him another son that they named Joseph and she felt accomplished.

Rachel and Leah had to learn to live together for the rest of their life until Rachel tried to give to Jacob another son where she lost her life. Leah and Jacob lived together after Rachel's death and in total Jacob had had twelve boys and one girl.

Author's Notes

This story is based on the story of Rachel and Leah story in the bible. I really liked their story because it's very powerful. They were two beautiful women whose culture didn’t allow the youngest sister to marry before the older sister marry first. Unfortunately, Rachel and Leah ended up marrying the same husband, Jacob. Living in the same house and Jacob having a favorite one created rivalry between the two sisters. Additionally, Rachel was not able to conceive and that created Jealousy for Rachel. She was Jealous of her sister Leah because she could give her husband what she couldn’t, a child. That rivalry pushed Rachel and Leah to give their maid as a woman to their husband to conceive for them, because Rachel and Leah saw it as became a competition. We can see how jealousy can take over a sisterhood and push you to do stuff that can even hurt what's very precious for you. But at the end of the, love won, Rachel and Leah had to learn to live with their differences and live with their husband in the same house, lived happy and stayed faithful to their husband. I hope you enjoyed the reading.

Bibliography

Rachel Link1

Leah Link2

King James Bible (1611): Genesis 29 and Genesis 30 [LIBRIVOX AUDIO], and Genesis 35 [LIBRIVOX AUDIO].

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