Dvar Torah for Parshat VaYetze

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Shiluchin 3

"Leah's eyes were rakot (literally, soft; beautiful)." Rashi comments: She thought that she would end up Esav's bride. She wept because people kept saying, "Rivkah has two sons and Lavan [Leah's father] has two daughters. The older one should marry the older one [Leah to Esav] and the younger the younger [Yaakov to Rachel]."

Genesis 29:17

Now, the ancients were no fools. It wasn't a mere child's game that they were playing when they talked of these possible matches. The two sets of offspring stemmed from the same stock and certainly shared characteristics that made them compatible. Even more. Rebbe Nachman taught us that when it is suggested that a certain man and woman marry, even by others, even not to their knowledge, it has an effect on both him and her (Tzaddik #595). Certainly when so many people talk about a particular match over a period of time!

Our Matriarch Leah was curious: Who was this Esav that everyone said was for her? She did some investigating and when found out she was distraught. Was this to be her lot, to be the partner of someone whose life was murder, adultery, and worship of self? Who covered himself with a veneer of respectability, so that he appeared to be virtuous and civic minded? Was she supposed to live a lie?

She cried to God. And she cried. She cried till her eyes were "soft" from tears. She cried until God heard her prayers and changed her intended. Our holy matriarch Leah not only did not marry Esav, but she, and not Rachel, was the first to marry the Patriarch Yaakov. She bore half of the Twelve Tribes, the progenitors of the Jewish people. She is the grandmother of King David, author of the Psalms. She is the grandmother of the Moshiach (Messiah) whose coming we await. All this as a result of her tears, the tears that made her eyes beautiful.

What's this got to do with you and me? You - your soul - are Leah. And people are talking about a match for you. They try to sell you a lifestyle of adultery, dishonesty, of self-worship. Do you want to live that lie? Or any lie? It is in the realm of possibility. Can you avoid it?

Yes. You - your soul - are Leah. You can pray, beg, beseech, and perhaps even cry to God that you be saved from such a "marriage." You can plead to be worthy of having a partner like Yaakov. And the more you do, the more you'll be divorced from Esav and married to Yaakov.

Agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!