{"id":5092,"date":"2021-11-13T06:14:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T12:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=5092"},"modified":"2021-11-13T06:25:51","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T12:25:51","slug":"leahs-weak-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/leahs-weak-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Leah’s Weak Eyes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Both Rachel and Leah are considered beautiful women in Jewish tradition, but a verse in this week\u2019s Torah seems to suggest that Rachel was the \u201cbeauty queen\u201d of the family: \u201cLeah\u2019s eyes were weak, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful\u201d (Gen. 29:17). Why are Leah\u2019s eyes described as \u201cweak\u201d? Is this a euphemism for saying she was unsightly? After all, Rachel is described in this verse as yifat mareh – \u201cbeautiful of sight\u201d (i.e., attractive). Does this text therefore contrast the two women by implying that Leah was physically unattractive? Or does having \u201cweak eyes\u201d mean that she was perhaps nearsighted? How are we to understand Leah\u2019s weak eyes?<\/p>\n

The word translated as \u201cweak\u201d is the Hebrew word rakkot (\u05e8\u05b7\u05db\u05bc\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea), the plural form of the word rak (\u05e8\u05b7\u05da\u05b0), meaning soft or tender. Rashi comments that Leah\u2019s eyes were made \u201cweak\u201d (tender) from crying \u201cuntil her eyelashes fell out.\u201d But why was she so sad? According to midrash, Leah\u2019s eyes were reddened and puffy because she was constantly lamenting the prospect of marrying Esau. The adage of the town was: \u201cTwo sons to Rivkah; two daughters to Lavan; the older to the older, the younger to the younger.\u201d Another, and perhaps more likely reason for Leah\u2019s tears, however, was that her father Laban was an evil man…<\/p>\n

Leah\u2019s eyes were tender and tear-stained, then, but this is not intended to say she was physically unattractive. On the contrary, saying that she had \u201cweak eyes\u201d is a term of praise for her, since (according to the midrash) her greatest fear was to be forced to undergo an arranged marriage with Esau, and therefore she wept and wept to be the mother of the righteous…. God saw her tears — and blessed her to become the most fruitful of the four matriarchs of Israel. Ironically, it was the less teary-eyed Rachel, who later died in childbirth, that was prophesied to weep for her children (Jer. 31:15).<\/p>\n

Regarding this subject the Talmud states that the word rak (tender) connotes royalty (Bava Basra 4a). Indeed, two lines of Jewish royalty were destined to descend from Leah: the royal family of Judah (from whom would come King David and King Messiah himself) and the spiritual line of Levi, from whom would descend Moses, Aaron, and the Kohanim (the priestly class of Israel). Like their tenderhearted mother, both of these houses of Israel would shed tears of concern for the well-being of Israel.<\/p>\n

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Hebrew Lesson:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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